---
title: In the Mediterranean, British Submarines Have Caused Great Havoc to Axis Shipping - Back Them Up!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-back-them-up-submarines-mediterranean-1940/
description: A painting shows a submarine officer with binoculars and gun crew watching a burning, sinking ship in the Mediterranean.
section: Collection
---

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3. In the Mediterranean, British Submarines Have Caused Great Havoc

[![In the Mediterranean, British Submarines Have Caused Great Havoc to Axis Shipping - Back Them Up!, 1940 UK poster: A painting](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-back-them-up-submarines-mediterranean-1940.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-back-them-up-submarines-mediterranean-1940.jpg)

# In the Mediterranean, British Submarines Have Caused Great Havoc to Axis Shipping - Back Them Up!

A painting shows a submarine officer with binoculars and gun crew watching a burning, sinking ship in the Mediterranean. The caption claims great havoc to Axis shipping and cites only successes (card-stacking); the heroic crew in the foreground carries the appeal to the viewer to 'back them up' (transfer).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
In the Mediterranean. British submarines have caused great havoc to Axis shipping.

BACK THEM UP !

[signature:] GILBERT RUMBOLD
G P 3/15/6.
PRINTED IN ENGLAND by CHROMOWORKS LTD. LONDON. S1-4265.
```

[← 我愈戰愈强，敵愈戰愈弱 (The more we fight, the stronger we grow; the more the enemy fights, the weaker he grows)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-more-we-fight-the-stronger-china-1940/) [Beware of the Hun in the Sun →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-beware-of-the-hun-in-the-sun-1940/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.