Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Britain's New Airborne Army Goes into Action in Europe - Back Them Up!, 1939 UK poster: A painting shows red-bereted

Britain's New Airborne Army Goes into Action in Europe - Back Them Up!

A painting shows red-bereted paratroopers leaping from a transport aircraft, one firing a Sten-type gun, as gliders and German infantry with fixed bayonets appear below. The heroic action is attached to the slogan 'Back Them Up!' so that the troops' courage is borrowed for the demand made on the civilian viewer (transfer).

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Transfer
Date
1939
Period
Second World War
Made by
British government (home-front production and morale campaign, 'Back Them Up!' series; issuer inferred); artist Leslie Oliphant; printed for HMSO by Thos. Forman & Sons Ltd., Nottingham
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
War and the military, Home front
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 poster; National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), WWII Foreign Posters, NAID 44266246.

Text on the object

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

Britain's new Airborne Army goes into action in Europe.

BACK THEM UP!

[signature:] Oliphant
G.P. 3/15/6
PRINTED IN ENGLAND BY THOS. FORMAN & SONS LTD., NOTTINGHAM. 51-4265

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