A Message for Us!
A typed letter on Ministry of Supply business, dated 19 October 1942, is reproduced full size on an orange ground under the headline 'A message for US!'. The letter asks locomotive firms to treat the locomotive as 'just as much a munition of war as the gun, tank or shell'; the tell for transfer is that the authority of an official letter is borrowed to address every worker.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1942
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Ministry of Supply (poster no. 'M. of S. No 59'); letter signed by the Controller-General of Munitions Production
- 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
- Home front, Labor, 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)
Ministry of Supply, 1942. U.S. National Archives, Record Group 44.
Text on the object
A message for US! TELEPHONE No.: GERRARD 6933. Ext. 979. L.5343/143 SHELL MEX HOUSE, LONDON, W.C.2. 19th October 1942. Dear Sir, The present circumstances of the war have made it necessary for us to carry out a heavy programme of locomotive manufacture in this country, and I have, therefore, had to divert to this work certain locomotive firms which were hitherto engaged on the manufacture of other munitions of war. Without an efficient transportation system our war effort, both at home and abroad, is bound to suffer and we must regard the locomotive as just as much a munition of war as the gun, tank or shell. I should accordingly be grateful if you would impress on all the Managements and workers concerned that it is of vital importance to the success of our war effort that the present programme of locomotive production shall be completed in the time laid down. Yours faithfully, [signature] Controller-General of Munitions Production, MINISTRY OF SUPPLY. The Secretary, Locomotive Manufacturers' Association, 82, Victoria Street, S.W.1. M. of S. Nº 59
