Content note: Caricature of a grinning Japanese figure swinging a spiked flail. This object is shown as it was published. Why
'Don't thrash your vehicle!' (Australian vehicle-maintenance poster)
A grinning, bare-chested Japanese figure swings a spiked flail at an army truck whose headlamps are drawn as a pained face, above four 'Don't' rules for drivers. The poster pastes the enemy's image onto driver misuse, so overloading or hard braking reads as doing the enemy's work.
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Australian wartime vehicle-maintenance campaign (sponsor not named on the poster; maker unknown)
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Curtin Government
- Leader
- John Curtin
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Australian War Memorial, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (AWM: 'Copyright expired - public domain'; Public Domain Mark)
Maker unknown, Australia, c. 1939-45. Australian War Memorial, ARTV02445.
Text on the object
Don't OVERLOAD or OVERDRIVE Don't ACCELERATE or BRAKE FIERCELY Don't CHANGE DOWN AT SPEED Don't NEGLECT MAINTENANCE Don't THRASH YOUR VEHICLE !
The caption bar 'AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL' and the accession number at the foot are the museum's, not the poster's.
