Help save lives with war savings: Army Field Ambulance $1950
Treasury school war-bond poster: a painted Army field ambulance on a dirt airstrip, with wounded men on stretchers beside a transport plane, headed 'Help save lives with war savings'. Below are blank squares with hidden pencil-rub pictures of ambulance parts and prices. The tell is the price tag: a purchase of bonds is tied to one named item, $1950, and one part at a time.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1944
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Treasury Department, War Finance Division
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance, 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. Treasury Department, War Finance Division. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-959 (NAID 514465).
Text on the object
HELP SAVE LIVES WITH WAR SAVINGS Ambulance UNITED STATES ARMY Army Field Ambulance $1950 ** THIS MARKER IS PLACED HERE IN RECOGNITION OF ** THE PURCHASE OF WAR BONDS IN AN AMOUNT EQUAL TO THE PRICE OF EQUIPMENT OF THIS TYPE BY TYPE OF EQUIPMENT Put your school's name on an Army Ambulance Any school, college, or youth group can send its name overseas in an Army Field Ambulance by successfully completing a campaign to sell $1950 worth of (issue price) War Bonds or Stamps. Simply certify the successful completion of such a campaign to your State War Finance Office and your group's name will be put on two panels like the one illustrated. One will be sent to you and the other will be forwarded for placement in one of the new ambulances at the factory. How to use this poster In each of the squares below is hidden the picture of one part of a field ambulance. Suppose one class undertakes to save $175.50 to pay for the engine. As soon as this amount has been saved the class can make the part appear simply by rubbing a hard pencil back and forth over the whole surface of the box immediately over the lettering "Engine, $175.50." When money enough for all the parts has been raised all of the pictures will have appeared. Note that these prices are only approximations based on a total cost for the ambulance of $1950 and each price is rounded to include additional assembly cost and miscellaneous items which could not be pictured here. Frame, $175.50 Battery, $5.85 Radiator, $35.10 Clutch, $5.85 Springs, $54.60 Wheels including spare, $309.00 Instrument panel, $13.00 Transmission, $54.60 Front and rear axles, $312.00 Engine, $175.50 Body, $737.00 Transfer case, $33.10 Propeller shafts, $31.10 Carburetor, $7.80 [imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944 [number illegible] OFFICIAL U. S. TREASURY POSTER WFD-948
