---
title: Our fighters deserve our best
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/our-fighters-deserve-our-best-ordnance-1942/
description: Painted soldier in helmet shouts and raises a bayoneted rifle overhead while carrying a wounded comrade across a burning battlefield.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Our fighters deserve our best

[![Our fighters deserve our best, 1942 US poster: Painted soldier in helmet shouts and raises a bayoneted rifle overhead while](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/our-fighters-deserve-our-best-ordnance-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/our-fighters-deserve-our-best-ordnance-1942.jpg)

# Our fighters deserve our best

Painted soldier in helmet shouts and raises a bayoneted rifle overhead while carrying a wounded comrade across a burning battlefield, with tanks in the haze behind. The headline asks for the best output from the reader, and the wounded man is the emotional tell: the soldier's sacrifice is set against the worker's effort at home.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
OUR FIGHTERS
DESERVE OUR BEST
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942-O-466518
[imprint:] ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT U S ARMY KEEP 'EM SHOOTING!
```

[← Ouch! The Japs Don't Like Mosquitoes](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ouch-the-japs-dont-like-mosquitoes-1942/) [Our good earth ... keep it ours. Buy war bonds. 'Make every market day bond day' →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/our-good-earth-keep-it-ours-buy-war-bonds-1942/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [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)
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [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)
- [Gold solidus of Constantine I, reverse RESTITVTORI LIBERTATIS](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-constantine-i-restitutori-libertatis-0313/) (Roman Empire · 0313 · Glittering generalities)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (Byzantine Empire · 0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [The Armada Portrait of Elizabeth I (Royal Museums Greenwich version), oil on panel](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/armada-portrait-elizabeth-i-greenwich-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Medal of Elizabeth I: portrait in a ruff, reverse an ark on stormy waves with SAEVAS TRANQVILLA PER VNDAS (18th-century aftercast of a 1588 model)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/elizabeth-i-ark-medal-aftercast-1588/) (England · 1588 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (Dutch Republic · 1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
