'Join the Crusade: Buy Defence Bonds' (British National Savings poster)
A hand holds aloft a pole carrying a Union Flag with a blazing torch-like flame above it against a stormy sky; the text reads 'Join the Crusade, Buy Defence Bonds'. The tell for transfer is the flag and flame lending the sanctity of a crusade to buying a savings bond; 'crusade' is the virtue word that carries the argument.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- National Savings Committee, London, with the Scottish and Ulster Savings Committees (printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Fosh & Cross Ltd.)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- Economy and finance, War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- 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)
National Savings Committee; printer Fosh & Cross Ltd. for H.M. Stationery Office. NARA, Record Group 44.
Text on the object
JOIN THE CRUSADE BUY DEFENCE BONDS W.F.P. 103. Issued by the National Savings Committee, London, the Scottish Savings Committee, Edinburgh, and the Ulster Savings Committee, Belfast. PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY FOSH & CROSS LTD., LONDON (51-7721)
