---
title: '"I''d given up hope . . ."'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/id-given-up-hope-army-nurse-corps-1944/
description: 'Army Nurse Corps recruiting poster: a photograph of a wounded soldier in a hospital bed, with the headline in quotation marks and his named account'
section: Collection
---

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3. "I'd given up hope . . ."

[!["I'd given up hope...", 1944 US poster: Army Nurse Corps recruiting poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/id-given-up-hope-army-nurse-corps-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/id-given-up-hope-army-nurse-corps-1944.jpg)

# "I'd given up hope . . ."

Army Nurse Corps recruiting poster: a photograph of a wounded soldier in a hospital bed, with the headline in quotation marks and his named account of being hit in Normandy. The footer reads 'More nurses are needed'. A named patient's own words supply the testimonial for enlisting nurses.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/)

## Text on the object

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

```
"I'D GIVEN UP HOPE . . ."
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS LORENZO CATLETT, infantryman from Louisburg, North Carolina
"It was artillery fire that got me. We were going into a hedgerow in Normandy to clean out some Germans, but they pulled out and their artillery boxed us in. I got it between the shoulders. The pressure on my spine paralyzed me from the ribs down. All the medics in my outfit had been killed or wounded. I lay there a long while before someone found me. By that time my wound had become infected. They gave me plasma and carried me first to an aid station and then to an evacuation hospital set up on the beach. I'd given up hope. All I wanted was to die. I wanted to get it over with. But those Army nurses gave me new hope. They told me I'd pull through, and I am pulling through. I still have to be operated on to get back the use of my legs. I've got a lot more pain ahead of me. But it's good to know the nurses won't let me down."
MORE NURSES ARE NEEDED
U.S. ARMY NURSE CORPS
[imprint:] P-133—RPB—9-6-44—20M
```

[← I Want You F.D.R. Stay and Finish the Job!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/i-want-you-fdr-stay-and-finish-the-job-1944/) [I'd have been a goner →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/id-have-been-a-goner-army-nurse-corps-1944/)

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- [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)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (Roman Empire · 0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Bronze sestertius of Trajan, reverse S P Q R OPTIMO PRINCIPI, S C, the emperor on horseback riding down an enemy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-trajan-optimo-principi-0103/) (Roman Empire · 0103 · Testimonial, Glittering generalities)
- [Seljuq gold dinar of Sanjar, dated 493 AH, with the Abbasid caliph named on one face](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/seljuq-gold-dinar-sanjar-caliph-name-1099/) (Great Seljuk Empire · 1099 · Testimonial)
- [Estoire d'Eracles page with Bernard of Clairvaux preaching the Second Crusade in the initial (Walters W.137, fol. 180v)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eracles-bernard-preaching-second-crusade-w137-1275/) (France · 1275 · Testimonial)
- [Opening page of the Estoire d'Eracles (William of Tyre in French), with the Crucifixion and Pope Urban II preaching the First Crusade in the initial (Walters W.137, fol. 1r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eracles-urban-ii-preaching-first-crusade-w137-1275/) (France · 1275 · Testimonial, Transfer)