--- title: '"Less Than Enough, and We Lose"' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-less-than-enough-and-we-lose-1939/ description: A painting of a four-engine Lancaster bomber over trees sits above a long text quoting an address by Ralph P. Bell. section: Collection --- 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. "Less Than Enough, and We Lose" [!["Less Than Enough, and We Lose", 1939 Canada poster: A painting of a four-engine Lancaster bomber over trees sits above](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-less-than-enough-and-we-lose-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-less-than-enough-and-we-lose-1939.jpg) # "Less Than Enough, and We Lose" A painting of a four-engine Lancaster bomber over trees sits above a long text quoting an address by Ralph P. Bell, Director-General of Aircraft Production, with his portrait. The tell is the text's picture of the alternative to victory ('we cease to live' and 'shuddering helplessness' under bombers), and the named official quoted as the authority for more aircraft output. ## Propaganda techniques used in this poster [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/) [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) ## Text on the object Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked ``` "LESS THAN ENOUGH, AND WE LOSE" From the painting by C. E. Turner in the Illustrated London News This great four-engine Lancaster bomber that has just flown the Atlantic is visual evidence that the winning of this war depends on air power. But for one thing - the fact that the Royal Air Force held control of the skies over Britain in that memorable siege by air from the summer of 1940 to the late spring of 1941 - instead of today heartily welcoming a single Lancaster we might all be crouched in shuddering helplessness as giant German bombers roared overhead and dumped their terrifying loads of destruction on our homes and factories. For three years, our enemies have been winning this war; and, ALWAYS - wherever their attacks have succeeded - it has been because of mastery of the air. There is only one way we can win this war, WE MUST WIN CONTROL OF THE SKIES. Not only must we defeat the Axis air power, we must literally wipe it out. Simultaneously, we must destroy the plants in which they build their engines, or their airframes, or both. If we accomplish this, we can so terrorize them from the air that it will all be over in a matter of weeks. THAT IS THE PATH TO VICTORY; the shortest, quickest, cheapest path, in terms of both life and money. On that we must concentrate. As we value our homes, our families, our way of living; we must allow NOTHING to obscure our vision on this point; NOTHING to deter our attention from this goal. Enough planes; enough pilots; and the bombs, guns, ammunition, and other equipment with which to fight them - quick enough - and we win. Less than enough, and we lose. This is as certain as that night follows day. Let Germany and Japan defeat us in the air and we cease to live - as you and I know Life. Some of us will die quickly; some slowly and painfully; but Life - or what we call "Life" - will be gone forever; for us, our children and our grandchildren. This, then, is our opportunity; for our lives - while there is yet time. Let us pour into the production of aircraft every effort of which we are capable. From an address by RALPH P. BELL, Director-General, Aircraft Production Branch, Department of Munitions & Supply, on the occasion of the visit of the Lancaster bomber, August 31, 1942, to the Malton Plant of National Steel Car Corporation, Limited, where Lancasters soon will be produced. Distributed in the interest of Canada's war effort by NATIONAL STEEL CAR CORPORATION, LIMITED in co-operation with Aeronautical Lodge 717, International Association of Machinists ``` [← Le 'Centre Nerveux' de la Guerre \[The 'Nerve Centre' of the War\] (Canadian poster in French)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-le-centre-nerveux-de-la-guerre-french-1939/) [Let's Go! Step it Up Boys! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-lets-go-step-it-up-boys-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)