Content note: Small inset shows caricatured Axis officers, one with a swastika cap badge. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Don't blind our pilots with smoke - prevent forest fires
Forest-fire prevention poster: the silhouette of a military aircraft banks across a red-black sky of smoke above a burning ridge, a farm and ploughed field in the foreground. The headline links a wildfire to blinded pilots (transfer of war stakes onto fire safety). A small inset card shows two caricatured Axis officers with the line 'Our carelessness, their secret weapon'.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, and State Forest Service
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, War and the military
- 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)
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-657 (NAID 514135).
Text on the object
DON'T BLIND OUR PILOTS WITH SMOKE OUR CARELESSNESS Their Secret Weapon PREVENT FOREST FIRES PREVENT FOREST FIRES U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, FOREST SERVICE STATE FOREST SERVICE [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943-O-515199
