---
title: These pilots will "gently" explain to Joe Dope what occurs in a plane
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/these-pilots-will-gently-explain-to-joe-dope-1943/
description: 'Ordnance cartoon for servicemen: two bandaged, torn-clothed pilots loom over a sweating, wide-eyed Joe Dope, with a verse about oil leaking away so the gun'
section: Collection
---

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3. These pilots will "gently" explain to Joe Dope what occurs in a plane

[![These pilots will "gently" explain to Joe Dope what occurs in a plane, 1943 US poster: Ordnance cartoon for servicemen](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/these-pilots-will-gently-explain-to-joe-dope-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/these-pilots-will-gently-explain-to-joe-dope-1943.jpg)

# These pilots will "gently" explain to Joe Dope what occurs in a plane

Ordnance cartoon for servicemen: two bandaged, torn-clothed pilots loom over a sweating, wide-eyed Joe Dope, with a verse about oil leaking away so the gun blows its backplate, and an inset diagram of oil being put in a 37 mm cannon with the recuperator at 5 degrees. The pilots' menace is a fear-appeal with 'poor little jay' as name-calling.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

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

## Text on the object

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

```
These pilots will "gently" explain
To Joe Dope what occurs in a plane
When a poor little jay
Lets the oil leak away
So the gun blows the backplate
in twain!
Important!
5°
Oil should be put in 37 MM. Cannon
with Recuperator at 5° angle
[signature: CWO Will Eisner, ORDNANCE]
[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1943-O-518000
[imprint:] ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT, U. S. ARMY
```

[← The toughest job is still ahead!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-toughest-job-is-still-ahead-1943/) [The Five Sullivan Brothers 'Missing in Action' off the Solomons: They Did Their Part →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/they-did-their-part-sullivan-brothers-1943/)

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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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