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
... 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
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Issuer not named on the sheet (U.S. Government Printing Office imprint)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Themes
- War and the military, Security and surveillance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 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 Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
Issuer not named on the sheet. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-602 (NAID 514082).
Text on the object
[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
