---
title: British Factories Keep the War Theatres Supplied
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/british-factories-war-theatres-supplied-uk-1939/
description: A photograph of Matilda tanks on a quayside, one lifted by crane toward a merchant ship, with the caption that four-fifths of British-made weapons are sent
section: Collection
---

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3. British Factories Keep the War Theatres Supplied

[![British Factories Keep the War Theatres Supplied, 1939 UK poster: A photograph of Matilda tanks on a quayside, one lifted](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/british-factories-war-theatres-supplied-uk-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/british-factories-war-theatres-supplied-uk-1939.jpg)

# British Factories Keep the War Theatres Supplied

A photograph of Matilda tanks on a quayside, one lifted by crane toward a merchant ship, with the caption that four-fifths of British-made weapons are sent overseas. The tell for card stacking is a single production figure given without totals or losses; the tell for glittering generalities is the 'For Freedom' emblem standing in for a testable claim.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
BRITISH FACTORIES
KEEP THE WAR THEATRES SUPPLIED

BRITISH FACTORIES work at high speed both day and night to make tanks for Russia, the Middle East, India and the Far East. These are "Matilda" tanks and they are being loaded aboard a merchant ship which will then join a convoy travelling to one of these places. Four-fifths of all the vast supplies of weapons made in British factories are immediately sent overseas.

[emblem:] FOR FREEDOM
[sheet mark:] E.E.5.
```

[← British Aircraft Carriers Guard the Seas](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/british-aircraft-carriers-guard-seas-uk-1939/) [British Journalists Don't Waste Words →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/british-journalists-dont-waste-words-uk-1939/)

## 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.