---
title: Accidents with Ammunition
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-accidents-with-ammunition-1939/
description: Sixteen small vignettes each name a cause of ammunition accidents, such as 'Tampering for souvenirs' and 'Swank'.
section: Collection
---

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3. Accidents with Ammunition

[![Accidents with Ammunition, 1939 UK poster: Sixteen small vignettes each name a cause of ammunition accidents, such](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-accidents-with-ammunition-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-accidents-with-ammunition-1939.jpg)

# Accidents with Ammunition

Sixteen small vignettes each name a cause of ammunition accidents, such as 'Tampering for souvenirs' and 'Swank', around a black starburst marked 'BANG!' with quoted excuses. The starburst and the excuse quotes carry the fear appeal: the poster's argument is that each habit ends in an explosion.

## 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

```
ACCIDENTS WITH AMMUNITION

ILLEGAL POSSESSION BY TROOPS
SLACK CUSTODY
NEGLECT TO CLEAR RANGES LEADING TO ILLEGAL POSSESSION BY CIVILIANS
TECHNICAL IGNORANCE
TAMPERING FOR CURIOSITY
TAMPERING FOR SOUVENIRS
BRAVADO
FAULTY DEMONSTRATION OR ORDERS
FIDDLING
WISE GUY
SWANK
CHANCE IT
ASK THE EXPERT
THEY DON'T ALWAYS FIZZ BEFORE THEY GO OFF
REMEMBER CANUTE
AMMUNITION IS TO KILL HUNS NOT YOUR PALS

"IT SEEMED ALL RIGHT TO ME."
"NOBODY TOLD ME."
"I WANTED ONE FOR THE MANTLEPIECE."
"I'VE OFTEN DONE IT BEFORE."
"I ALWAYS DO IT THAT WAY."
"IT WENT OFF IN MY HAND."
"I DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS LOADED."

BANG!
```

[← 3,000 Children Die From it Every Year](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-3000-children-die-from-it-every-year-1939/) [Action Stations: The A.T.S. Go to War - Salute Them with War Savings →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-action-stations-ats-war-savings-1939/)

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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.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [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)