Metal at the Fighting Front
Photo-montage poster from the U.S. Army with five captioned photographs of North Africa, Sicily and the Aleutians. Each caption gives a metal tonnage for the weapon or boat shown, for example 25,652 pounds of nonferrous metals per Higgins boat, and ties it to the supply of metals from mines and smelters. The technique is card-stacking: selected figures and scenes present metal as the limiting factor.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- U.S. Army
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- 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 Posters, retrieved October 4, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work)
U.S. Army. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1352 (NAID 515006).
Text on the object
METAL at the Fighting Front FOXHOLE EXCHANGE. A soldier calmly operates a switchboard near the beach during the recent fighting in North Africa—with helmet and rifle handy! Over nine million pounds of copper monthly go into wire that links our fighting fronts. SICILIAN INVASION STARTS! Assault troops board Higgins boats massed in a North African Port for the attack on Sicily. Hundreds of these boats were used in the operation, each requiring 25,652 pounds of nonferrous metals. We need more of them, too! THE YANKS LAND! Men and machines pour ashore on Sicily under fire (note shell splash behind landing barge). Without the barges, jeeps, trailers, tanks, guns and ammunition made with your metals such invasions could not be undertaken. ALEUTIAN AIR ALERT! As the warning comes, soldiers on Kodiak Island rush to their guns—50 calibre machine gun in background, 37 mm. anti-aircraft gun in front. It takes 562 lbs. of nonferrous metals to make two guns like these, and many pounds more for ammunition. FIGHTING FRENCH near Algiers learn from American gunners how to shoot our famous 50 calibre machine guns. Those three guns you see here spit 402 lbs. of copper, zinc and lead in one minute. It's the job of our mines and smelters to keep 'em shooting! U. S. ARMY OFFICIAL POSTER [imprint: U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943 O - 551474]
