# Wikipedia publishes a ton of Second World War British propaganda posters.



## jollyjacktar (28 Jul 2012)

Came across the story via The Telegraph.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/uknews/9333793/British-World-War-Two-propaganda-artworks-released-on-Wikipedia.html?frame=2249325

Which led me to Wiki itself and this cache.  Fantastic.  http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_War_II_posters

British Posters.






Canadian posters too.





American...


----------



## Infanteer (29 Jul 2012)

Cool.  Good spot and thanks for the link.  I always thought the approach advertising was better in the 1940s.  Doctrine manuals, both Allied and German, also featured slick drawings of this type.  Now a days its all Venn Diagrams and the like - if I see one more variation of the temple and pillars I am going to lose it....

Time to retire Lenny Pepperbottom as an avatar.


----------



## Edward Campbell (29 Jul 2012)

What I remember, fondly, about the old _pams_ is that they *were* pamphlets: little booklets of only a few pages but filled with all the really useful information. The _pams_ fit, comfortably, in a hip pocket and they were "drop accountable" so you could rip out the pages of data you could never remember and, eventually, have a "shit house reader" that contained information that you rarely, but occasionally, needed but could never quite manage to memorize. I cannot recall the designation of the last CFP I saw, but it was HUGE and, in my opinion damned near totally useless for any purpose except study at a desk: what a colossal waste of money!

I agree with you on the "temple" thing - I recall using it on slides (vu-graph slides!) back in the '80s, it seemed original then, along with the scales thing and one or two other visual analogs.






But, just for you, Infanteer: 






   and


----------



## Infanteer (29 Jul 2012)

:boke:

You're right about pams though; IIRC, the first pams were produced to disseminate the lessons of the trenches in the First World War.  I can't remember where I found it, but there was an interesting history about the organization set-up by the British Army to produce the SS series of pams.

Now a days, it seems like a contests in DAD to "shove the most amount of crap in a publication" contest.  Writing a pamphlet on platoon TTPs?  Better rip an entire chapter from Land Ops about the Principles of War (instead of just referencing the original pub....).  It's a critique I've made about our approach to doctrine on more than a few occasions.


----------



## Journeyman (29 Jul 2012)

Infanteer said:
			
		

> It's a critique I've made about our approach to doctrine on more than a few occasions.


You may just as well poke the bear and say, "I _dare_ you to post me to Doctrine!"   ;D


----------



## Old Sweat (29 Jul 2012)

Infanteer said:
			
		

> :boke:
> 
> Now a days, it seems like a contests in DAD to "shove the most amount of crap in a publication" contest.  Writing a pamphlet on platoon TTPs?  Better rip an entire chapter from Land Ops about the Principles of War (instead of just referencing the original pub....).  It's a critique I've made about our approach to doctrine on more than a few occasions.



I call that the staff work by photocopier method.


----------



## Towards_the_gap (29 Jul 2012)

Infanteer said:
			
		

> :boke:
> 
> You're right about pams though; IIRC, the first pams were produced to disseminate the lessons of the trenches in the First World War.  I can't remember where I found it, but there was an interesting history about the organization set-up by the British Army to produce the SS series of pams.
> 
> Now a days, it seems like a contests in DAD to "shove the most amount of crap in a publication" contest.  Writing a pamphlet on platoon TTPs?  Better rip an entire chapter from Land Ops about the Principles of War (instead of just referencing the original pub....).  It's a critique I've made about our approach to doctrine on more than a few occasions.



But saying that, hasn't the 'idea' of the pam now behind TAM's? A nice little 4x6'' booklet with all your useful data and none of the naus? And the pam stays in your 'battlebox' back at the CP with the rest of the brain trust for planning purposes.


----------



## SeaKingTacco (29 Jul 2012)

I used to have a great "plastic brain"- a checklist book filled with all sorts of staff tables, that I did not feel like memorizing.

Came in dead handy when planning and writing orders on the fly.


----------



## dogger1936 (29 Jul 2012)

My Canadian Naval history knowledge is very lacking. Thanks for the poster IRT the Oakville very cool stuff.


----------



## Edward Campbell (29 Jul 2012)

SeaKingTacco said:
			
		

> I used to have a great "plastic brain"- a checklist book filled with all sorts of staff tables, that I did not feel like memorizing.
> 
> Came in dead handy when planning and writing orders on the fly.




That was my "shit house reader," a collection of pages, mostly data tables, torn from sundry little pams. The only thing that I think everyone had in their 'reader' was the Orders for a Demolition Guard Commander - even if you had memorized it, and most of us had, it was as close to mandatory as there was for a wholly unofficial thing.

Towards_the_gap: the TAM is post my time, I'm not sure what it looks like. Do you have a 4" X 6" pocket? Our pams were about the same size as our breast and/or hip pockets - maybe even by design. While the pams - or parts of them - were, indeed, vital CP tools most of my chums, including rifle pl comds and recce pl patrol det comds, carried bits of them - those "shit house reader," again - with them all the time.


----------



## PPCLI Guy (29 Jul 2012)

Journeyman said:
			
		

> You may just as well poke the bear and say, "I _dare_ you to post me to Doctrine!"   ;D



What?  Infanteer wants to go to DAD?   >


----------



## Journeyman (29 Jul 2012)

PPCLI Guy said:
			
		

> What?  Infanteer wants to go to DAD?   >


I believe he said something along the lines of "no one has the parts to send him to DAD."  :stirpot:


----------



## GAP (29 Jul 2012)

:rofl:





op:


----------



## vonGarvin (29 Jul 2012)

Here is some German propaganda.  The first is a recruiting poster for the Waffen-SS that appeared early in the war:






Note that the soldier is looking up and to the reader's left.


Now check this one out, from later in the war, when Germany was fighting in the USSR:






Note that the soldiers are looking to the reader's right.

If you look at a map of Europe, it's almost as if those soldiers are looking at, defending or attacking, if you will, the threat from that direction.  In the early war, the main threat was clearly England.  Later, it's the USSR.


Finally, the Germans recruited heavily from the occupied lands.  The message was clear: you are defending Europe from Bolshevism.  Again, this Danish soldier is facing where the USSR would be on a map:


----------



## Old Sweat (29 Jul 2012)

E.R. Campbell said:
			
		

> That was my "crap house reader," a collection of pages, mostly data tables, torn from sundry little pams. The only thing that I think everyone had in their 'reader' was the Orders for a Demolition Guard Commander - even if you had memorized it, and most of us had, it was as close to mandatory as there was for a wholly unofficial thing.



The army used to spend a lot of time on this form and its evil step-sister, Orders to the Firing Point Commander, and that included at Staff College. Helmets on! I got a first hand lesson of the importance of both in 1966 on the divisional exercise in Germany. 4 CIBG was defending and had to allow the covering force which was based on 1 PPCLI cross the Weser and then fire the demolition. Authority to fire the demolition had not been delegated below brigade. Anyway, we had a Danish battalion attached and they had absolutely no experience in this sort of thing, major rivers not being a feature of Denmark. So naturally they provided the demolition guard.

I was sent forward as a LO to provide another comms link. Good thing. The Danish CO - who was the demolition guard commander - had gone forward to set up with the firing point commander. Unfortunately the manpack radio he had with him could not talk to anybody, let alone brigade HQ. I set up on the home side of the brigde with Gerry C, who was the 1 PPCLI sigs offer and the contact point to report when the covering force had all crossed. Long story short. We were standing side by each in the dark and rain of a North German October night. Lots of APCs, scout cars and tanks crossed and finally a M113 stopped and the crew commander and Gerry exchanged a few words. He told me the covering force had crossed. I said "Are you sure?" Gerry confirmed it and I sent the code word signfying that the covering force had been withdrawn to brigade HQ. In return I got the code word to fire the demolition. I authenticated the transmission and recorded it on my copy of Orders to the Firing Point Commander. A few steps and I handed the form to the Danish CO, whom I had previously liaised with. He then went through the drill with the firing point, or is it party, commander and "bang" away went the bridge. (By the way, that was one happy Dane. In retrospect, being a single rat at the time, maybe I should have asked him if he could have fixed me up in Copenhagen.)

Military history is full of too many stories of demolitions that did not end as happily, which is why it doesn't hurt to have copies of the really important stuff in a little note book and why one should bone up on this stuff from time to time.


----------



## dapaterson (29 Jul 2012)

How well a demolition guard goes all depends on which side you're on.  This fellow did quite well, though I suspect the Germans might disagree.

(And for those who look at our current honours and awards delays, note it was 112 days from the act to his VC being gazetted...)


----------



## Journeyman (29 Jul 2012)

Old Sweat said:
			
		

> Helmets on!


I was talking with Gerry just the other day. Are you sure he wasn't holding the bridge by himself?   >




Edit: meant with tongue-in-cheek, for anyone who knows the gentleman's lack of shyness, and his willingness to share a war-story or two.....


----------



## dapaterson (29 Jul 2012)

Journeyman said:
			
		

> I was talking with Gerry just the other day. Are you sure he wasn't holding the bridge by himself?   >
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Are you talking about yourself, or about Gerry?

Because I don't know Gerry, but you, on the other hand...   >


----------



## vonGarvin (30 Jul 2012)

dapaterson said:
			
		

> How well a demolition guard goes all depends on which side you're on.  This fellow did quite well, though I suspect the Germans might disagree.
> 
> (And for those who look at our current honours and awards delays, note it was 112 days from the act to his VC being gazetted...)


Thanks for the link!


----------

