In the current (September 2019) issue of Aeroplane Monthly, here, artist Ian Bott and I have out latest ‘Briefing File’ feature on the defences against the V-1 bomb in 1944. While researching the history, it became evident that the comfort of hindsight has stripped away the fact that at the time, no-one really knew what…
Tag: Civil Defence
Frights in Finland
Today’s posters from Finland are rather eerie civil defence ones from World War Two. In Suomi, it reads: “Ilmasta uhkaa vaara! Kaikki kansalaiset väestönsuojelutyöhön!” or “Danger Threatens from the sky! Take Air Raid Precautions”. The figure is obviously intended to seem protective, sheltering a blue clad family from the bomber aircraft that looks somewhat like…
Peace in War
Today’s Poster illustrates wartime advertising reminding the audience of the war-work of a civil organisation, and hinting at the post-war world to return to. From an unknown artist, it’s an American Airlines Poster stating ‘It Takes 2 To Make A Fight For Victory’. The confusing battle scene on the left is contrasted with the orderly,…
Posters of Interesting Times
Today’s Posters are a set of Chinese aviation instructional posters, an to western eyes, a very different mix of style, content and approach to anything we’ve seen here before. This one below of ‘Active Air Defences’, with the Smithsonian’s source detail here. Is it meant as a ‘how to behave?’, or ‘how you are being…
Alabama Bomber
Today’s Poster is a classic ‘shadow of the bomber’, over a very specific audience, that of the citizens of Alabama, shown by the state’s unique geographic shape. Catalogued in the Library of Congress as a War Projects Administration War Services poster, created between 1941 and 1943, it’s given as by ‘Welch’, but with no other…
Night-Light-Mare
Two similar themed nightmarish civil defence warning posters issued by German authorities. The first has a skeleton riding a British Bristol Blenheim, while the lower one a very approximate American-starred four-engined bomber above a bomb-spitting skeleton. Turn those lights out! James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer.
Calling the Costs
A newspaper advert from September 1944, late in the war, as even then people realise Germany was probably going to be defeated, Italy had changed sides and Japan was very much on the defensive. The artwork isn’t particularly exceptional – pretty average in both senses as a newspaper piece in the era. The Avro Lancaster…
Denouncing to the Point
Today’s Poster. A reproduction, found in a charity shop, of a North Vietnamese anti-American propaganda poster. From Dr Peter Hobbins on Twitter: “Another airpower image for you, @JDKightly – a Vietnamese reproduction poster found in an op shop… Feel free to RT!” Very simplistic artwork, almost more like a design brief to western eyes, although…
Un-retarding Canada
Today’s Poster. As in the early post about the Spanish world having a different perspective, the same goes for the Francophone world. In French, ‘Avec ceci – des retards. Avec ceci la victore’ in English, reads ‘With this – delays. With this – victory’. While the necessity and immediacy of the need of Britain and…
Jet Noise & Morning Milk
Today’s Poster. Having been wandering about in the civil nineteen-tens music, let’s flip to after the Second World War, the military, and quite a different noise – the raw ripping sound of a jet fighter* roaring overhead, made real in a poster. A standard response to airbase NIMBYs** is another cliche, promoted by western air…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 