Today a look at the art of official war artist Eric Ravilious. Having been researching his fascinating artist, I’ve found it very hard to know what to focus on, so here I’ve limited the post to one aspect of his war work, his watercolours of the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. First is…
Tag: Propaganda
Be Paid to gaze skywards!
A newspaper advert for the Royal New Zealand Air Force, using the aviation cliche of ‘gazing skywards’. James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer. Via Dave Homewood.
Bombers, Symbols, Stamps
Today we look at two aspects of the early wartime home front propaganda of total war from the USA. The poster features the trope of a threat from the air represented by a shadow over children. This one is unusual in that the shadow isn’t an aircraft, as explored by Dr Brett Holman with his…
Bordfunker I
Today’s poster will be a companion to tomorrow’s. This one is a very unusual recruitment example for the German World War Two Luftwaffe, being for radio operators (Bordfunker). Almost all military aircrew recruitment was for pilots, those not successful in that training being redirected into the other required roles (or recruited from ground crew). Here…
Hell Dogs Over England
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…
Don’t Eat a Bomb
Today’s Poster pair are foodstuffs as bombs. On the face of it, a strange juxtaposition, but these two takes feature opposite views, but both are about thrift. Avoiding waste, and recycling into munitions. The bayonet as a breadknife is a particular touch. Translated, reads ‘Expensive Bread – The Politics of War’, by the the Communist…
WAAF in Hebrew
Here’s a remarkable item, a 9 x 21 cm recruitment brochure for the British Woman’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) of the Second World War in Hebrew, aimed at a Jewish audience. Found on e-Bay, and passed onto me by Kiran Toor, the sales details give the background: “The Yishuv [Jewish community in the land of…
Boys for a Man’s Job
Today’s Poster is a classic theme, recruitment. It’s unusual mainly in conflating the juvenile (school age) Air Training Corps (now the Australian Air Force Cadets, AAFC) experience with training for an air force trade with the Royal Australian Air Force. (RAAF). Formed in 1941, as the war started to tell on Australia’s peacetime resources, “The…
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…
Metal Fist Thunderbolt
Today the cover of a pilot’s type instructional manual, here the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt. What makes it of interest is the decision to create a remarkable mailed fist background to the profile drawing of the machine. James Kightly, Vintage Aero Writer. Via Matt Savage, Mach One Photography.
A Year of Aviation Illustration & Art 