Content note: Wartime Canadian poster showing an enemy submarine with a swastika and sailors falling from a stricken vessel. This object is shown as it was published. Why
They're Smashing Them Up ... With MY Ship!
A painted scene shows a submarine with a swastika emblem on its conning tower rearing out of the sea under fire, crew falling from the deck, while an escort ship flying a white ensign stands at right. The speaker's 'MY ship' (the word 'MY' enlarged and in red) lets the shipyard worker claim the sinking as his own result.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Shipbuilding Branch, Department of Munitions and Supply, issued by the Wartime Information Board, Ottawa; artist Taber
- Region
- North America
- Country
- Canada
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Mackenzie King Government
- Leader
- William Lyon Mackenzie King
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Labor
- Event
- World War II
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (Canadian Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired; no URAA restoration)
Shipbuilding Branch, Department of Munitions and Supply / Wartime Information Board, Ottawa, Canada, 1942-1945; artist Taber. U.S. National Archives, Record Group 44.
Text on the object
They're Smashing them up ... WITH MY SHIP! ISSUED FOR THE SHIPBUILDING BRANCH, DEPARTMENT OF MUNITIONS AND SUPPLY, BY WARTIME INFORMATION BOARD, OTTAWA - PRINTED IN CANADA, ID-3E [signature in the artwork:] Taber
