---
title: Le 'Centre Nerveux' de la Guerre [The 'Nerve Centre' of the War] (Canadian poster in French)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-le-centre-nerveux-de-la-guerre-french-1939/
description: A naval rating in headphones holds a gun-firing mechanism beside a gun breech, with an inset photograph of a ship's radio equipment and a vacuum tube
section: Collection
---

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3. Le 'Centre Nerveux' de la Guerre [The 'Nerve Centre' of the War]

[![Le 'Centre Nerveux' de la Guerre \[The 'Nerve Centre' of the War\], 1939 Canada poster: A naval rating in headphones holds](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-le-centre-nerveux-de-la-guerre-french-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-le-centre-nerveux-de-la-guerre-french-1939.jpg)

# Le 'Centre Nerveux' de la Guerre [The 'Nerve Centre' of the War] (Canadian poster in French)

A naval rating in headphones holds a gun-firing mechanism beside a gun breech, with an inset photograph of a ship's radio equipment and a vacuum tube in a roundel. The French slogan, 'Brave men must not die through our fault', places the risk of sailors' deaths on the output of the workers who make the instruments (fear-appeal).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
"Sur Terre . . sur Mer et dans les Airs . . le mouvement de chaque homme et de chaque pièce d'équipement est dirigé d'une façon intelligente grâce aux instruments que vous aidez à produire."

LE 'CENTRE NERVEUX' de la GUERRE

IL NE FAUT PAS QUE DES BRAVES MEURENT PAR NOTRE FAUTE

Ce message est publié par le Ministère des Munitions et Approvisionnements du Canada
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
"On land, at sea and in the air, the movement of every man and every piece of equipment is directed intelligently thanks to the instruments that you help to produce."

THE 'NERVE CENTRE' OF THE WAR

BRAVE MEN MUST NOT DIE THROUGH OUR FAULT

This message is issued by the Department of Munitions and Supply of Canada
```

[← Labour and management: this is our strength](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-labour-and-management-this-is-our-strength-faimmel-1939/) [The Lives of These Men Depend on Your Work →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-lives-of-these-men-depend-on-your-work-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)