Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Give 'Em Both Barrels, 1939 UK poster: A photograph of a sailor aiming a twin-mounted machine gun from a ship is paired

Give 'Em Both Barrels

A photograph of a sailor aiming a twin-mounted machine gun from a ship is paired with a painted factory worker in gloves holding a riveting or pneumatic tool against a plate, under the words 'Give 'em both barrels'. The tell is transfer: the worker's tool is set beside the sailor's gun so that war production borrows the standing of combat.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Transfer
Date
1939
Period
Second World War
Made by
Admiralty; printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Multi Machine Plates Ltd
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, 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
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 44266532.

Text on the object

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

GIVE 'EM
BOTH BARRELS

PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY MULTI MACHINE PLATES LTD. LONDON E.C.4. 51-3079
ISSUED BY THE ADMIRALTY

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