---
title: Protect Your Small Arms
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/protect-your-small-arms-1944/
description: A helmeted soldier in a torn sleeve grips a rifle, with care instructions and two cans of cleaner and oil below.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Protect Your Small Arms

[![Protect Your Small Arms, 1944 US poster: A helmeted soldier in a torn sleeve grips a rifle, with care instructions and two](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/protect-your-small-arms-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/protect-your-small-arms-1944.jpg)

# Protect Your Small Arms

A helmeted soldier in a torn sleeve grips a rifle, with care instructions and two cans of cleaner and oil below, ending in 'There's no excuse for weapon abuse'. The technique is faint: a light fear-appeal and an appeal to duty, with the strongest tell being the blunt closing line aimed at servicemen.

## 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

```
PROTECT YOUR
SMALL
ARMS

Use These -

Clean and Oil Regularly
These preparations do the job easier, better.  Ask your supply sergeant for them.  Always clean after firing and for three successive days thereafter.  Clean and oil wet or dirty weapons at once to prevent rust.

Handle and Ship Carefully
Never drop, bang, or throw weapons.  Don't tinker or try unauthorized repairs and adjustments.  BEFORE STORING OR SHIPPING, apply compound, rust-preventive, light.  Store in a dry place, and in shipment, rack weapons individually in the crate.  Never throw together.

They fit your cartridge belt

THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR WEAPON ABUSE

[on emblem:] U.S. ARMY SAVE CONSERVATION PROGRAM
[on can 1:] POISON
DO NOT USE AS FOOD CONTAINER
2 OZ
CLEANER-RIFLE BORE
USA 2-117 (RIXS-205)
SHAKE WELL BEFORE USING
P.O. No. [illegible]
THE QUAKER [illegible]
[on can 2:] POISON
DO NOT USE AS FOOD CONTAINER
PS
OIL, LUBRICATING
PRESERVATIVE, SPECIAL
USA 2-120 (AXS-777)
2 OZ.
[illegible]
[signature:] c.c. beall
[imprint:] U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944--O-506228
[imprint:] ARMY CONSERVATION PROJECT NO. 97-O-13
```

[← Protect your family from fires](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/protect-your-family-from-fires-1944/) [Protection in a Bottle →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/protection-in-a-bottle-1944/)

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- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
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- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [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.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)