---
title: He Talked - They Died
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-he-talked-they-died-games-1939/
description: A red-tinted face looms over a small grey photograph of an open mouth and a larger red circle showing bodies tangled in barbed wire.
section: Collection
---

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3. He Talked - They Died

**Content note:** Shows a photograph of dead soldiers lying in barbed wire, used to warn against careless talk. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![He Talked - They Died, 1939 UK poster: A red-tinted face looms over a small grey photograph of an open mouth and a larger red](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-he-talked-they-died-games-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-he-talked-they-died-games-1939.jpg)

# He Talked - They Died

A red-tinted face looms over a small grey photograph of an open mouth and a larger red circle showing bodies tangled in barbed wire, above the words 'He talked - they died'. The tell for fear-appeal is the single causal claim that one person's talk killed others, shown with a death image and no figures or case named.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
HE TALKED - THEY DIED

[artist:] A. GAMES.
[imprint:] PRINTED IN ENGLAND by Henry Hildesley Ltd. London. 51/3459
```

[← He Needs Our 'Ammo' to Shoot Down Huns](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-he-needs-our-ammo-to-shoot-down-huns-1939/) [Heat Plays Havoc With Shoe Leather →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-heat-plays-havoc-with-shoe-leather-1939/)

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- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
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- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)