"Off Dover" From a Painting by Charles Pears, R.O.I.
A painting of the white cliffs and harbour at Dover shows vapour trails, bursts and falling aircraft in the sky and a German aircraft plunging into the sea, above a text describing the fighting as seen from the ground. The poster is largely descriptive; the one technique it honestly uses is transfer, attaching the national landscape of the cliffs to the air battle, and it makes no figure-based claim.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Unattributed British wartime poster series 'The Battle of Britain, August-October 1940' (no imprint visible); painting by Charles Pears, R.O.I.
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- World War II
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- 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 expired); NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
Unattributed British wartime poster series 'The Battle of Britain, August-October 1940' (no imprint visible); painting by Charles Pears, R.O.I.. National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-434f.
Text on the object
"OFF DOVER" FROM A PAINTING BY CHARLES PEARS, R.O.I. IN THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN, individual fights were taking place between aircraft flying at speeds between 300 and 400 miles an hour. Thus, a German aircraft intercepted over London would be chased hard for ten or twelve minutes and finally be shot down into the English Channel. Battles were often fought five miles high. All that watchers on the ground could see was the interlacing pattern of vapour trails left by the maneuvring fighters. [emblem:] THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN AUGUST-OCTOBER 1940 (1940 1942)
