---
title: 'Keep''em flying back: usable drums are like ammunition'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-em-flying-back-usable-drums-1943/
description: 'Industrial-conservation poster: three stacked drums in red, yellow and blue point toward the viewer, with a plane''s wing and propeller behind.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Keep'em flying back: usable drums are like ammunition

[![Keep'em flying back: usable drums are like ammunition, 1943 US poster: Industrial-conservation poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-em-flying-back-usable-drums-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-em-flying-back-usable-drums-1943.jpg)

# Keep'em flying back: usable drums are like ammunition

Industrial-conservation poster: three stacked drums in red, yellow and blue point toward the viewer, with a plane's wing and propeller behind. The headline equates reusing steel drums with supplying ammunition. The technique is transfer: a household-scale chore borrows the weight of ammunition for the air war.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

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

```
KEEP'EM FLYING
BACK
usable DRUMS are like AMMUNITION
don't drop-keep clean
don't strip threads
empty and return fast
HELP THE SERVICES, THE INDUSTRY, YOURSELF
[signature: KOERNER]
[imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-512994]
[C3-4-P]
```

[← Keep 'em coming! Your ideas are on the attack](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-em-coming-your-ideas-are-on-the-attack-1943/) [Keep 'em flying! (General Arnold on the Havoc) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-em-flying-gen-arnold-havoc-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)