Content note: Caption uses the period ethnic slur 'Jap' for Japanese forces, and shows a burning bomber and a sub's survivors, as printed. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Air Fronts
Army photo-sheet titled AIR FRONTS: five captioned aerial photographs (a B-24 over a German submarine and raft, a burning B-17, a C-46 on a muddy strip, glider tow over China hills, B-29 beside a B-17) under the U.S. Army air insignia. Captions use praise words such as 'gallant' and 'victorious'. The technique is card-stacking: only successful or heroic scenes are chosen.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Army (Official Poster, ISD No. 178)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Reassure
- Themes
- War and the military, Science and technology
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Army (Official Poster, ISD No. 178). National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-311 (NAID 513758).
Text on the object
AIR FRONTS BEGINNING AND END. A Liberator (just visible at top) is about to pounce on a doomed German sub. Battle over, Nazi survivors (see inset) await capture in a raft tossed to them by the victorious B-24. GLORY ROAD. Hit by flak over Nis, Yugoslavia, a gallant Fort makes her last bombing run, streaming flames in an awesome wake across the sky. Another plane in the B-17's formation took this grim picture. GLIDING HIGH above the China Hills, glider-borne British troops ride the tow-rope behind the planes of Colonel Philip Cochran's AAF Commandos. They slipped down east of Imphal for a crack at Jap invaders of India. C-46 TAKES A MUD BATH in stride. Everything that goes in and out of China must travel by air and the giant Curtiss transport, lifeline for China and our forces there, doesn't wait for runways to be completed. SUPERFORTRESS—the fabulous B-29 dwarfs the B-17 Fort shown here with it, has almost twice the engine power, half again the size, wings spanning 141 feet. U.S. ARMY OFFICIAL POSTER ISD NO. 178 [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944 O-595914 25350 / A-28037
