Ik val aan... volgt mij (I attack... follow me)
A large portrait of a naval officer in a white cap rises above burning warships and a shell-splash, on a red-white-blue field. Under the headline 'Ik val aan... volgt mij' the text says the signal Rear Admiral Doorman used against the Japanese fleet in 1942 'applies to you too'. The tell: a dead commander's prestige and the national colours are lent to the viewer's enlistment.
- Date
- 1945
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Netherlands wartime recruiting poster (sponsor not printed; copy held by Stadsarchief Deventer)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- Netherlands
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Gerbrandy Government
- Leader
- Pieter Sjoerds Gerbrandy
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Themes
- War and the military, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- World War II
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (Stadsarchief Deventer, 10_TLK5 (klein)_3 : 1369 : 70148), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (anonymous 1945 Dutch work; Commons tag PD-anon-70-EU)
Unknown author; Stadsarchief Deventer, via Wikimedia Commons.
Text on the object
IK VAL AAN... VOLGT MIJ DIT SEIN waarmee schout-bij-nacht Doorman de Japansche vloot tegemoet ging in 1942 GELDT OOK VOOR U
I ATTACK... FOLLOW ME THIS SIGNAL with which Rear Admiral Doorman went to meet the Japanese fleet in 1942 APPLIES TO YOU TOO
The three lower text blocks sit side by side on the poster (left, centre, right); they are given here in that order. Translation is FRAME's own literal rendering, machine-assisted and not verified by a fluent reader.
