---
title: “Not behind the plow”... Your metals are in the Army ... Everywhere
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/not-behind-the-plow-your-metals-are-in-the-army-1943/
description: 'Army photo-sheet poster: five captioned photographs (an amphibious truck in Sicily, a soldier holding brass shells, a Lend-Lease locomotive, naval mines.'
section: Collection
---

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3. “Not behind the plow”... Your metals are in the Army ... Everywhere

**Content note:** Photo caption uses the wartime slurs 'Jap' and 'Nips' for Japanese soldiers, printed as issued; photographs show military equipment and a smiling soldier holding brass shells. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![“Not behind the plow”... Your metals are in the Army... Everywhere, 1943 US poster: Army photo-sheet poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/not-behind-the-plow-your-metals-are-in-the-army-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/not-behind-the-plow-your-metals-are-in-the-army-1943.jpg)

# “Not behind the plow”... Your metals are in the Army ... Everywhere

Army photo-sheet poster: five captioned photographs (an amphibious truck in Sicily, a soldier holding brass shells, a Lend-Lease locomotive, naval mines, huts in Iceland) show where nonferrous metals go. The captions give quantities and uses, selecting only evidence for scrap and metal collection; one caption uses the slur 'Jap'.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/) [Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

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

```
“NOT BEHIND THE PLOW”...
Your METALS are in the Army ... Everywhere
DUCK OUT OF WATER. The Army's “Duck” amphibious truck, here shown in Sicily, has done conspicuous service in putting troops and supplies ashore, not only in the Mediterranean but in the Southwest Pacific. Being both a truck and a boat, it needs a double portion of nonferrous metals.
“MAYBE ONE OF THESE GOT A JAP.” These brass shells, fired from an American bomber during a raid in the Aleutians, represent two seconds of actual combat. It takes plenty of metal to knock off Nips.
FAST FREIGHT COMING UP! America sends Lend-Lease locomotive to speed food, ammunition and other necessities for Russia's advancing, lengthening supply lines. 4,860 lbs. of nonferrous metals are needed to make an engine and tender.
UNDERWATER WATCHDOGS. Mines to guard against enemy subs achieve deadly effectiveness by use of sensitive fuze mechanisms made with considerable quantities of nonferrous metals.
ICELAND'S 85-MILE WINDS whip corrugated sheet-metal off an Army hut (background). Overseas troops live in these pre-fabricated, half-round huts of steel, galvanized with zinc.
U.S. ARMY OFFICIAL POSTER
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943 O-[illegible]
[sign on photo:] PORTO EMPEDOCLE S/M. 1.66
```

[← No guesswork. The right lubrication guide for your equipment](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/no-guesswork-the-right-lubrication-guide-1943/) [Now, as never before: Red Cross 1943 War Fund →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/now-as-never-before-red-cross-war-fund-1943/)

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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)
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- [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)