--- title: '... Could happen to you. Be alert!' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/could-happen-to-you-be-alert-1944/ description: 'Security-alertness poster: a torn newspaper clipping headed ''3 U.S. Military Policemen Vanish; Problem of Occupying Reich Rises'' sits above a painted night' section: Collection --- 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. ... Could happen to you. Be alert! **Content note:** Shows a bullet-marked jeep with blood marks on the seat and two helmets on the road, beside a newspaper clipping about three missing military policemen. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was) [![... Could happen to you. Be alert!, 1944 US poster: Security-alertness poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/could-happen-to-you-be-alert-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/could-happen-to-you-be-alert-1944.jpg) # ... Could happen to you. Be alert! Security-alertness poster: a torn newspaper clipping headed '3 U.S. Military Policemen Vanish; Problem of Occupying Reich Rises' sits above a painted night scene of a bullet-marked jeep with its headlamps on, blood marks on its seat and two helmets on the road. The headline '... Could happen to you' and 'Be alert!' address the viewer directly: a fear-appeal built on a real press report. ## 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 ``` [clipping, partly torn at the edges] 3 U. S. Military Policemen Vanish; Problem of Occupying Reich Rises By HAROLD DENNY By Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES. UNITED STATES FIRST ARMY HEADQUARTERS, Sept. 21—The disappearance under ominous circumstances last night of three American military police just outside the American-held town of Roetgen has emphasized the difficulty of the security problems facing our troops in Germany and along its border. It also caused a vigorous combing of the population today for enemy agents and German soldiers in civilian clothes who are filtering through the lines on errands of espionage and sabotage. The three missing military police were patrolling in the vicinity of Roetgen last night. This morning their riddled jeep, their helmets and the spectacles of one were found in the road. No trace of men, however, was found. There are reasons to believe that large numbers of German soldiers are roaming the countryside in civilian clothes. When their West-wall was first threatened the German authorities permitted soldiers on the eastern and other fronts whose homes were in the west to transfer hither on the theory that they would fight better defending their own homes. Here they not only know the neighborhood but have access to civilian clothing. A number of soldiers on furlough to their homes in this area also have been picked up recently. The prohibition put upon Amer[...]ilitary personnel against [Page 4, Column 4] [other clipping fragments at the torn edges, illegible: Continued on Page 5, Column 4; Continued on Page 6, Column 3; French Committee ... Liberation at Algiers and resigned earlier this year because of family ...] ... COULD HAPPEN TO YOU BE ALERT ! [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944—O—617463 ``` [← Cost of living in two wars: Keep up the good work, keep down living costs](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cost-of-living-in-two-wars-1944/) [Cover coughs, cover sneezes. Never give a germ a break! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cover-coughs-cover-sneezes-war-department-1944/) ## 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)