---
title: Britain - Spearhead of Attack
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-britain-spearhead-of-attack-1942/
description: A pictorial map shows British factories, farms and convoys on the left and burning German, French and Italian cities and ports on the right.
section: Collection
---

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3. Britain - Spearhead of Attack

[![Britain - Spearhead of Attack, 1942 UK poster: A pictorial map shows British factories, farms and convoys on the left](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-britain-spearhead-of-attack-1942.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-britain-spearhead-of-attack-1942.jpg)

# Britain - Spearhead of Attack

A pictorial map shows British factories, farms and convoys on the left and burning German, French and Italian cities and ports on the right, with a panel text on RAF and Navy operations. It shows only Allied strikes and output, with no losses (card-stacking), under a title that casts Britain as the attacker (glittering-generalities).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/) [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/)

## Text on the object

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

```
BRITAIN - SPEARHEAD OF ATTACK

SUPPLIES TO RUSSIA
TO LOFOTEN AND VAAGSO
SUPPLIES AND TROOPS TO AFRICA, MIDDLE EAST, INDIA, PERSIA, AUSTRALIA, ETC., ETC.

BOMBER COMMAND | FIGHTER COMMAND | COASTAL COMMAND | COMBINED OPERATIONS | M.T. BOATS | THE ROYAL NAVY

Night and day the bombers of the R.A.F. strike deep into the enemy's war machine . . . Almost daily R.A.F. fighters sweep over enemy occupied territory to strafe communications and strategic targets . . . Coastal Command aircraft strike at U-boats and their bases, stalk and destroy enemy coastwise convoys, sow minefields in enemy waters . . . Combined Operations swoop with sudden and devastating effect, keeping a whole German army on the defensive . . . Coastal forces attack supply ships and their escorts . . . The Royal Navy maintains its blockade stranglehold on the continent while assuring to Britain a ceaseless and gigantic flow of supplies which will give irresistible power to the Spearhead of Attack when the time comes to strike.

[map labels include FOOD, SHIPS, GUNS, TANKS, AIRCRAFT, COAL, ELECTRIC POWER, LONDON and the names of bombed cities and works]

F. DONALD BLAKE
British Information Services
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York City
```

[← Bravo! British Shipyards](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-bravo-british-shipyards-1942/) [Did I Switch Off? Everyone Should Back Up the Fuel Watcher →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-did-i-switch-off-fuel-watcher-1942/)

## 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.