---
title: Millions of troops are on the move... Is YOUR trip necessary?
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/is-your-trip-necessary-millions-of-troops-1943/
description: 'Office of Defense Transportation poster: a painted crowd of smiling servicemen in garrison caps fills the foreground.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Millions of troops are on the move... Is YOUR trip necessary?

[![Millions of troops are on the move... Is YOUR trip necessary?, 1943 US poster: Office of Defense Transportation poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/is-your-trip-necessary-millions-of-troops-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/is-your-trip-necessary-millions-of-troops-1943.jpg)

# Millions of troops are on the move... Is YOUR trip necessary?

Office of Defense Transportation poster: a painted crowd of smiling servicemen in garrison caps fills the foreground, with troop-train coaches behind them, under 'Millions of troops are on the move...' and 'Is YOUR trip necessary?'. The troop crowd sets military need against civilian travel, with 'YOUR' underlined. Its technique is faint here, and the closest is transfer of the troops' claim onto the reader's choice.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Millions of troops
are on the move...
Is YOUR trip necessary?
OFFICE OF DEFENSE TRANSPORTATION
[on a uniform collar:] US
[signature:] MONTGOMERY MELBOURNE
[imprint:] ☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943—O-[illegible]
```

[← Is your trip necessary? Needless travel interferes with the war effort](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/is-your-trip-necessary-1943/) [It all comes back to me now! I wish I had eaten more wisely →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/it-all-comes-back-to-me-now-1943/)

## 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)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [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)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [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.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)