Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Buses Give Way to Tanks - Pleasure Travellers Must Give Way to War Workers! Avoid Rush Hours, 1939 UK poster: A light tank

Buses Give Way to Tanks - Pleasure Travellers Must Give Way to War Workers! Avoid Rush Hours

A light tank stands before a crowd of buses under the heading 'Buses give way to tanks', with the line 'Pleasure travellers must give way to war workers! Avoid rush hours'. The tell for transfer is the tank as the symbol of the war effort, attached to a request to change travel times; it is a practical instruction from a bus operator, not a state order.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Transfer
Date
1939
Period
Second World War
Made by
Thomas Tilling Group of Companies (private bus operator), England
Region
Western and Central Europe
Country
United Kingdom
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
Corporation
Regime
Churchill Government
Leader
Winston Churchill
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Mobilize or secure compliance
Themes
Home front, Labor
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
Held by NARA, Unrestricted; UK private publication, printed 1939-1945; hosted by owner decision
Thomas Tilling Group of Companies, England. National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-123.

Text on the object

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

BUSES GIVE WAY TO TANKS

Pleasure travellers must
give way to war workers!

AVOID RUSH HOURS

[imprint:] ISSUED BY THE THOMAS TILLING GROUP OF COMPANIES, ENGLAND

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