The Army Blood Transfusion Service Needs Blood Donors, 1939 UK poster: A photographic soldier with rifle and bayonet

The Army Blood Transfusion Service Needs Blood Donors ('If he should fall, is your blood there to save him?')

A photographic soldier with rifle and bayonet is framed inside a bottle-shaped outline above a green hand, under the line 'If he should fall is your blood there to save him?'. The question implies the soldier's wounding and puts the reader's own donation between him and death, which is the fear-appeal tell.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Fear appeal

Date: 1939
Period: Second World War
Made by: His Majesty's Stationery Office for the Army Blood Transfusion Service; artist Abram Games; printer Field Sons & Co., Ltd., Bradford
Region: Western and Central Europe
Country: United Kingdom
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: State
Regime: Churchill Government
Leader: Winston Churchill
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Recruit
Themes: Health, War and the military
Event: World War II
Regime: Churchill wartime government
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: Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
UK government (HMSO / His Majesty's Stationery Office for the Army Blood Transfusion Service), 1939-1945. U.S. National Archives, WWII Foreign Posters, NAID 44267147, local identifier 44-PF-424.

Text on the object

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

IF HE SHOULD FALL   IS YOUR BLOOD THERE TO SAVE HIM?

THE ARMY BLOOD TRANSFUSION SERVICE NEEDS
BLOOD DONORS

[signature:] A. GAMES
[imprint:] PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY FIELD SONS & CO. LTD., BRADFORD. 51-3788