---
title: Philadelphia's Air Raid System
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/philadelphias-air-raid-system-1941/
description: 'Civil-defence diagram for Philadelphia: a bomb strikes a house, a warden reports to a control centre by telephone, and arrows send fire, police, medical.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Philadelphia's Air Raid System

[![Philadelphia's Air Raid System, 1941 US poster: Civil-defence diagram for Philadelphia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/philadelphias-air-raid-system-1941.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/philadelphias-air-raid-system-1941.jpg)

# Philadelphia's Air Raid System

Civil-defence diagram for Philadelphia: a bomb strikes a house, a warden reports to a control centre by telephone, and arrows send fire, police, medical, repair and other units back to the house. Circular insignia for each volunteer corps surround the sheet. It mainly informs; the fear-appeal is faint and rests on the bombed house.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
PHILADELPHIA'S AIR RAID SYSTEM
AIR RAID WARDENS
AUXILIARY FIREMAN
AUXILIARY POLICE
RESCUE SQUADS
MEDICAL CORPS
FIRE DEPARTMENT UNITS AND AUXILIARIES
POLICE UNITS AND AUXILIARIES
MEDICAL UNITS
HOSPITALS AMBULANCES DOCTORS NURSES
PUBLIC WORKS
DEMOLITION RESCUE CLEARANCE DECONTAMINATION
RED CROSS
EVACUATION FIRST AID
REPAIR
SEWERS WATER MAINS ELECTRICAL TELEPHONE GAS, ETC.
AIR RAID WARDEN MAKES REPORT TO CONTROL CENTER
MESSENGER CARRIES REPORT IF MECHANICAL COMMUNICATION BREAKS DOWN
COMMANDER AND STAFF
CONTROL CENTER
TELEPHONISTS RECEIVE WARDEN'S REPORT AND TRANSMIT TO COMMANDER
APPROVED AND RELEASED BY
[seal: PHILADELPHIA COUNCIL OF DEFENSE]
EMERGENCY FOOD & HOUSING CORPS
ROAD REPAIR CREW
MESSENGERS
BOMB SQUADS
DECONTAMINATION SQUAD
DEMOLITION AND CLEARANCE CREWS
NURSES' AIDES CORPS
```

[← Penicillin saves soldiers' lives!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/penicillin-saves-soldiers-lives-1941/) [Place Supplies →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/place-supplies-camouflage-1941/)

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- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
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