---
title: Air Fronts (Aerial Destruction of Schweinfurt, A Sock in the Axis Belly, American Planes Can Take It)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/air-fronts-schweinfurt-ploesti-1943/
description: 'Photo-sheet headed AIR FRONTS: a B-17 over burning Schweinfurt, the Ploesti oil raid, paratroops near Lae, a crewman looking through a flak hole and a P-51'
section: Collection
---

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[![Air Fronts, 1943 US poster: Photo-sheet headed AIR FRONTS: a B-17 over burning Schweinfurt, the Ploesti oil raid, paratroops](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/air-fronts-schweinfurt-ploesti-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/air-fronts-schweinfurt-ploesti-1943.jpg)

# Air Fronts (Aerial Destruction of Schweinfurt, A Sock in the Axis Belly, American Planes Can Take It)

Photo-sheet headed AIR FRONTS: a B-17 over burning Schweinfurt, the Ploesti oil raid, paratroops near Lae, a crewman looking through a flak hole and a P-51 from above. Captions tie each photo to the reader's output ('thanks to your workmanship', 'America must replace these planes') and use slang for the enemy ('Nips', 'Jap'), name-calling alongside selective success reports (card-stacking).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
AIR FRONTS
AERIAL DESTRUCTION OF SCHWEINFURT. Deadly-determined in the face of bitter opposition, U. S. planes bombed Schweinfurt, the principal source of Axis ball-and-roller-bearings. Without bearings, German production of planes, tanks, guns, trucks, subs . . . will stall. So the U.S. grimly accepted a loss of 60 Flying Fortresses in this raid. America must replace these planes.
A SOCK IN THE AXIS BELLY. American planes raid Ploesti, Rumania (source of Axis oil), coming in fast and low, accepting fire from the ground in order to make every bomb count. Some of the planes in the picture never got back. But the others, though riddled with flak and bullet-holes, returned safely to their bases--thanks to your workmanship.
PUTTING HORNETS IN THE NIPS' BACK HAIR. Troop Carrier planes, flying low behind a smoke screen, drop parachutists of Airborne Infantry behind the Japanese lines along the Markham River during the operation which resulted in the capture of Lae. This surprise job of spotting troops quickly in strategic position was made possible by the excellent flying qualities of American transport planes.
AMERICAN PLANES CAN "TAKE IT". A Jap cannon shell came right into this Liberator, shearing and twisting tubes, cracking ribs . . . But the fuselage and control cables held, and the ship came safely back to base.
MUSTANG DRAWS FOUR-OF-A-KIND. This P-51 fighter has been armed with four rapid-fire cannon. With a "hand" like this--exceptionally heavy for a fighter--her pilot can call the bet of anything that flies, break up hostile mechanized columns and wreak havoc among enemy supply lines.
U. S. ARMY OFFICIAL POSTER
I.S.D. No. 111
[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943--O-558468]
```

[← Air Fronts: Our Planes Can Take It ... and Dish It Out!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/air-fronts-our-planes-can-take-it-1943/) [Air Fronts (Zero Hour, You Can't Keep a Good Plane Down, End of Nazi, Brand New Scrap, Parachute Bombs) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/air-fronts-sicily-wewak-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.