Our High Explosives are Beating the U-Boats
A painting shows four oilskinned sailors on a warship deck watching a large column of water rise where a depth charge has exploded, one pointing and one using binoculars. The headline claims success against U-boats, but the picture shows only an explosion and no sunk submarine, and gives no figures; it presents the favourable result and omits losses.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Supply (HM Stationery Office; printed by James Haworth & Brother, Ltd.); artist P. A. Staynes
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- 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 Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
Ministry of Supply and HM Stationery Office, artist P. A. Staynes, printed by James Haworth & Brother, Ltd., c. 1939-1945. US National Archives (NAID 44266863, 44-PF-324).
Text on the object
OUR HIGH EXPLOSIVES are beating the U-Boats P.A. STAYNES MINISTRY OF SUPPLY - No. 100 PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY JAMES HAWORTH & BROTHER, LTD., LONDON. 51-3887
