---
title: No Spares - No 'Ammo
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-no-spares-no-ammo-langdon-1939/
description: A cartoon soldier in shorts and a steel helmet shouts and points a thumb at a smoking, broken-down lorry, with a spare wheel and ammunition boxes
section: Collection
---

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3. No Spares - No 'Ammo

[![No Spares - No 'Ammo, 1939 UK poster: A cartoon soldier in shorts and a steel helmet shouts and points a thumb at a smoking](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-no-spares-no-ammo-langdon-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-no-spares-no-ammo-langdon-1939.jpg)

# No Spares - No 'Ammo

A cartoon soldier in shorts and a steel helmet shouts and points a thumb at a smoking, broken-down lorry, with a spare wheel and ammunition boxes on the ground. The slogan likens vehicles without spares to guns without ammunition; the tell is the ordinary, exasperated cartoon 'Tommy' who speaks in the reader's own idiom ('Ammo).

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Plain folks](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/plain-folks/)

## Text on the object

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

```
NO SPARES -
NO 'AMMO

Vehicles without spares are
like guns without ammunition

DAVID LANGDON
MINISTRY OF SUPPLY No 97.
Printed for H.M.Stationery Office by H. Manly & Son Ltd. London. N.
```

[← No Child, However Good its Health and Home, is Safe](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-no-child-however-good-its-health-is-safe-1939/) [Now That Our Men Have Landed on Enemy Soil Surely No One Will Endanger Their Supply of Vital Munitions by Taking Unnecessary Journeys →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-now-that-our-men-have-landed-railway-executive-committee-1939/)

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- ['This log cabin was the first building erected on the North Bend', Whig print by T. Sinclair, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/harrison-north-bend-log-cabin-sinclair-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Plain folks, Transfer)
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