Join the RAF Regiment and go into battle in a sharp dressed blue battledress and camouflage helmet… A great RAF recruiting poster found by Simon Harley on Twitter here. The artwork is by Frank Wootton, a doyen of British aviation art, and the aircraft is an RAF Transport Command Bristol Type 175 Britannia. James Kightly,…
Tag: Propaganda
Heil Bone Hand
Today’s Poster is a remarkable one, from a German magazine in the pre-World War Two era, when the horrors of the Spanish Civil War were new, and featuring the classic propaganda theme of the slaughtered innocents. Here, however, with the relatively new inclusion of combat aircraft. In some ways it’s a simple image, as well…
Asking For It
Today’s Poster is a German Great War example entitled ‘Was England will’, or ‘What England wants.’ It’s a powerful poster, showing swarms of British bombers – giant Handley Pages – attacking German factories. The poster is by Egon Tschirch (1889-1948) made in 1918 in Berlin for Selmar Bayer. The background’s even more interesting. The text…
Uniting Nations
Today’s Poster. We are all familiar today with the organisation the United Nations. What’s less well known is the name dates back to the stage of World War Two when the Axis powers had united many of the rest of the world against them. From Wiki: “On New Year’s Day 1942, the Allied “Big Four”…
Firebomb Fritz
A wartime British defensive propaganda character (mostly forgotten today) was ‘Firebomb Fritz’. Here in colour: …and here in black and white, both by Reginald Mount. (Original UK National Archives caption: “Fritz in Nazi bomber” by Reginald Mount, 1942 Catalogue ref: INF 3/1421. The cartoon depicts determined (but subservient) looking German air force men flying towards…
Look Mighty
Today’s Poster : ‘We Protect the Air Borders!’ James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer. From Soviet Visuals on Twitter here.
See Clearly
Today’s poster and photograph seems clear enough wartime recruitment propaganda, but there’s a bit more to them than meets the eye. Here a woman factory worker is fitting a mount to a clear acrylic dome structure. It’s a nose cone for an American bomber, in this case a Douglas built Boeing B-17F and her head…
Japanese Wing
Today’s Poster is a very strong graphic image from Japan. As yet untranslated [but see below], the text is a mystery to me, but the message of Japanese imperial dominance of the air is clear. An echo of the background, chosen for the match, in the Japanese ‘Hinomaru’ or rising sun wing marking. The central…
Be Afraid
Today a relatively modern example of the perennial propaganda leaflet encouraging enemy combatants to run away. From the US aimed at Iraq soldiers during the Gulf War of 1991. How effective such propaganda is cannot be shown, as they only really have a role and effect as part of a wider campaign, like much more…
In Colour! Bombers & Fighters
A pair of books that were passed onto me by my friend Carole Barker, from her father Bernard Thorpe‘s collection. These are based on pre-war information, and were an exciting visual feast, given the paucity of colour printing in the period. On the covers, a pre-war Hawker Hurricane and Vickers Armstrong Wellesley, the Wellesley’s artwork…
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 