---
title: The Nerve Centre of War
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-the-nerve-centre-of-war-1939/
description: Two radio operators in headphones listen intently above a photograph of a ship's radio room and a drawing of a warship and submarine.
section: Collection
---

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3. The Nerve Centre of War

[![The Nerve Centre of War, 1939 Canada poster: Two radio operators in headphones listen intently above a photograph of a ship's](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-the-nerve-centre-of-war-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/canada-the-nerve-centre-of-war-1939.jpg)

# The Nerve Centre of War

Two radio operators in headphones listen intently above a photograph of a ship's radio room and a drawing of a warship and submarine. The slogan 'Brave men shall not die because we faltered' ties the factory worker's output to sailors' lives and places the risk of their deaths on the worker's performance (fear-appeal).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
"On the Land . . on the Sea and in the Air . . the movement of every man and every piece of equipment is thoughtfully directed through the instruments you help to produce."
THE NERVE CENTRE OF WAR
BRAVE MEN SHALL NOT DIE BECAUSE WE FALTERED
This message is issued by the Department of Munitions and Supply for Canada
```

[← The Men Are Ready... Only You Can Give Them Wings](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-the-men-are-ready-give-them-wings-1939/) [Think - His Life is in Your Hands! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/canada-think-his-life-is-in-your-hands-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)