---
title: Asking For It
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-asking-for-it-air-diagram-1943/
description: A monochrome painting shows pilots in Hurricane fighters in open sky, with bombers high in the cloud behind them.
section: Collection
---

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3. Asking For It

[![Asking For It, 1943 UK poster: A monochrome painting shows pilots in Hurricane fighters in open sky, with bombers high](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-asking-for-it-air-diagram-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-asking-for-it-air-diagram-1943.jpg)

# Asking For It

A monochrome painting shows pilots in Hurricane fighters in open sky, with bombers high in the cloud behind them. The text, 'Do not let yourself be surprised by the enemy', carries an implied threat in its title 'Asking For It', which is the fear-appeal tell, aimed at aircrew.

## 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

```
ASKING FOR IT

DO NOT LET YOURSELF BE SURPRISED BY
THE ENEMY. KEEP A GOOD LOOK-OUT
ALL ROUND AT ALL TIMES.

Drawing by Flight
AIR DIAGRAM 1305
FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
[signature:] H R MILLAR
Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and London. 51-6679.
```

[← Tu défends la Belgique... en luttant au front de l'Est (You defend Belgium... by fighting on the Eastern Front)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tu-defends-la-belgique-ss-wallonie-1943/) [Send Airgraphs - They Save Aircraft Space and are Quicker! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-send-airgraphs-aircraft-space-cooper-multimachine-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [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)