Content note: Colonial-era painted depiction of West African villagers at work, in period style. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Crack for Victory: Your palm kernels when cracked help to feed the Empire's fighting men
Four painted panels run from a man climbing an oil palm, to women and a child sorting kernels, to a white-coated factory worker beside rolling slabs of fat, to three British soldiers eating from a ration tin. The captions, 'Your palm kernels when cracked' and 'Help to feed the Empire's fighting men', sit over the large red slogan 'Crack for Victory': the abstract word 'victory' stands in for the task of cracking kernels, and the soldiers' panel lends the village work the standing of the front line.
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- British government poster for West African palm-kernel producers (artist Nunney per IWM; imprint G.P.D./365/37/14)
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Glittering generalitiesTransfer
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Imperial War Museums (scan via Wikimedia Commons), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright expired, 50 years; PD-scan PD-UKGov per Wikimedia Commons)
Nunney (artist, per IWM); British government poster c. 1939-1945. Imperial War Museums, Art.IWM PST 15800; scan via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
YOUR PALM KERNELS WHEN CRACKED HELP TO FEED THE EMPIRE'S FIGHTING MEN CRACK FOR VICTORY G.P.D./365/37/14 [artist's signature at lower right of the soldiers' panel, partly legible]
Printing code 'G.P.D./365/37/14' is at the lower left of the sheet. The artist's signature at the lower right of the soldiers' panel is only partly legible in the committed image; IWM gives the artist as Nunney.
