It Takes 6 1/2 Tons of Coal to Make a Field Gun
A stylised field gun on a blue disc beside the text that a field gun takes 6 1/2 tons of coal and that a small cut in household gas use could send thousands of tons to the gun foundries each day. The tell is the single selective figure, which links a household saving to munitions output without giving the wider fuel accounts.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Issuer not stated on the poster (printer mark Fosh & Cross Ltd.)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Foreign Posters, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Held by NARA, Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision (UK wartime poster, c. 1939-1945)
Issuer not stated on the poster (printer mark Fosh & Cross Ltd.), National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-247.
Text on the object
It takes 6½ tons of coal to make a field gun. If every house- hold used just a little less gas, thousands of tons of coal could go to the gun foun- dries every day. [imprint:] (F.1200). F. & C. LTD.
