---
title: A Gunner of the Fleet Air Arm
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gunner-of-the-fleet-air-arm-uk-1939/
description: A close portrait photograph of a young air gunner in flying kit with a machine gun over his shoulder, over text giving Fleet Air Arm raid and sinking
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. A Gunner of the Fleet Air Arm

[![A Gunner of the Fleet Air Arm, 1939 UK poster: A close portrait photograph of a young air gunner in flying kit with a machine](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gunner-of-the-fleet-air-arm-uk-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/gunner-of-the-fleet-air-arm-uk-1939.jpg)

# A Gunner of the Fleet Air Arm

A close portrait photograph of a young air gunner in flying kit with a machine gun over his shoulder, over text giving Fleet Air Arm raid and sinking totals. The tell for card stacking is the cumulative totals given with no losses or denominator; the portrait presents one named-type individual as the face of the service.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/)

## Text on the object

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

```
A GUNNER OF
THE FLEET AIR ARM

YOUNG FLYERS, like this air gunner, have rendered fine service in the Fleet Air Arm. In three years they have made over 260 raids on shore objectives, over 120 attacks on warships and convoys at sea and over 200 on warships and ships in harbour. The Fleet Air Arm have also been successful in sinking, or seriously damaging, 45 warships and 335,000 tons of enemy shipping. Their activities have ranged from the North coast of Norway in the Arctic Circle to Madagascar.

[emblem:] FOR FREEDOM
[sheet mark:] E.D.5.
```

[← Guarding Vital Transportation Lines! Oldsmobile Service](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/guarding-vital-transportation-lines-oldsmobile-us-1942/) [He Gives Wings to the B-25's... He Works for Victory on Elgin Time! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/he-gives-wings-to-the-b-25s-elgin-watches-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.
