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
“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
- 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, War and the military
- 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-1420 (NAID 515084).
Text on the object
“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
