---
title: Sh-h-h! Silence means security!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shh-silence-means-security-1944/
description: Security poster with a colour photograph of a smiling pilot in a cockpit making a circled-fingers hand sign, beside a painted nose-art cartoon of a monkey
section: Collection
---

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3. Sh-h-h! Silence means security!

[![Sh-h-h! Silence means security!, 1944 US poster: Security poster with a colour photograph of a smiling pilot in a cockpit](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/shh-silence-means-security-1944.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/shh-silence-means-security-1944.jpg)

# Sh-h-h! Silence means security!

Security poster with a colour photograph of a smiling pilot in a cockpit making a circled-fingers hand sign, beside a painted nose-art cartoon of a monkey covering its mouth, with 'Sh-h-h!' lettered alongside and rows of victory markings on the fuselage. Slogan beneath: 'Silence means security!'. The technique is transfer: an airman's image lends the request for silence his standing.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Testimonial](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/testimonial/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Sh-h-h!
SILENCE MEANS SECURITY!
[imprint: W.D., A.G.O. "Monkey" Security Poster. Additional copies may be requisitioned as prescribed in AR 310-200, May 1, 1943, as changed by Changes 2, 15 September 1943.]
[imprint: U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944--O--583196]
```

[← ...Remember Me? I'm Still Fighting You! (Official Navy Poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/remember-me-still-fighting-you-navy-1944/) [So the Jap's a Snap? I Can't See It (U.S. Army Official Poster) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/so-the-japs-a-snap-army-1944/)

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- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [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)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)