---
title: Guardian of Britain's Northern Trade Routes
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/guardian-of-britains-northern-trade-routes-uk-1939/
description: An aerial photograph of a British destroyer under way, with text on Northern convoy protection and arms sent to the Soviet Union.
section: Collection
---

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3. Guardian of Britain's Northern Trade Routes

[![Guardian of Britain's Northern Trade Routes, 1939 UK poster: An aerial photograph of a British destroyer under way, with text](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/guardian-of-britains-northern-trade-routes-uk-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/guardian-of-britains-northern-trade-routes-uk-1939.jpg)

# Guardian of Britain's Northern Trade Routes

An aerial photograph of a British destroyer under way, with text on Northern convoy protection and arms sent to the Soviet Union. The tell for card stacking is 'hundreds of British destroyers' stated without losses or convoy outcomes; the 'For Freedom' emblem is the glittering-generalities marker.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
GUARDIAN OF
BRITAIN'S NORTHERN TRADE ROUTES

THIS BRITISH DESTROYER is on regular patrol duties, guarding the vital Northern trade routes, which bring food and war supplies to the island fortress of Britain. By these important routes also, are sent the urgent arms and equipment to sustain Britain's Russian allies. This is just one of the hundreds of British destroyers constantly watching these routes for enemy surface raiders and U-boats, so that our merchant ships may sail the seas and discharge their important cargoes in safety.

[emblem:] FOR FREEDOM
[sheet mark:] E.D.6.
```

[← Guard Against VD: Venereal Disease](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/guard-against-venereal-disease-1939/) [Guarding Vital Transportation Lines! Oldsmobile Service →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/guarding-vital-transportation-lines-oldsmobile-us-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.