---
title: Ranks and Insignia of the British Armed Forces [2]
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-ranks-and-insignia-navy-text-1943/
description: The other side of the sheet shows Royal Navy and Merchant Navy insignia (printed upside down) and a cover panel with narrative text on the Navy.
section: Collection
---

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3. Ranks and Insignia of the British Armed Forces [2]

[![Ranks and Insignia of the British Armed Forces \[2\], 1943 UK poster: The other side of the sheet shows Royal Navy and Merchant](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-ranks-and-insignia-navy-text-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-ranks-and-insignia-navy-text-1943.jpg)

# Ranks and Insignia of the British Armed Forces [2]

The other side of the sheet shows Royal Navy and Merchant Navy insignia (printed upside down) and a cover panel with narrative text on the Navy, Army and RAF giving figures such as ships sunk, tons of bombs dropped and enemy aircraft destroyed. The tell is card-stacking: only British successes and totals are listed, with no losses or setbacks except a ship-loss rate of under one half percent.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Card stacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/card-stacking/)

## Text on the object

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

```
RANKS AND
INSIGNIA
OF THE
BRITISH
ARMED
FORCES

PUBLISHED MAY, 1943 BY
BRITISH INFORMATION SERVICES
An Agency of the British Government
30 ROCKEFELLER PLAZA • NEW YORK CITY

THE ROYAL NAVY
Britain has had to send supplies by a sea route of 11,000 miles to its Armies in the Middle East. In 1941, 300 ships were continuously engaged in this task. 3,000,000 tons of military stores (including 1,000,000 tons of food) had been landed by April 1942 in Egyptian ports alone. [...]

[text continues in four further columns on British Navy, Army and RAF achievements; not transcribed in full here]

[insignia labels (upside down) include:] MERCHANT NAVY; ROYAL NAVY; CAPTAIN; CHIEF ENGINEER; RADIO OFFICER; ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET; COMMODORE; MIDSHIPMAN; CADET
```

[← Ranks and Insignia of the British Armed Forces \[1\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-ranks-and-insignia-army-raf-auxiliaries-1943/) [Send Airgraphs - They Save Aircraft Space and are Quicker! →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-send-airgraphs-aircraft-space-cooper-multimachine-1943/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Fragments of the Abydos king list from Ramesses II's temple, in the British Museum: rows of royal cartouches](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/abydos-king-list-ramesses-ii-temple-british-museum/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer)
- [Behistun (Bisotun) rock relief and trilingual inscription of Darius I: the king, two attendants and the bound rebel leaders beneath the winged figure of Ahuramazda](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/behistun-relief-darius-and-rebels-521bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Name-calling, Testimonial). Content note: Shows bound captives before the king, and the inscription records the mutilation and public execution of rebel leaders, as the king's own account.
- [Tomb of Darius I at Naqsh-e Rustam: the king in relief beside his inscription DNa, c. 490 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dna-inscription-darius-i-naqsh-e-rustam-490bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Testimonial, Card stacking)
- [Line drawing of the Great Kadesh battle relief on the walls of the Ramesseum, from Breasted's History of Egypt](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kadesh-relief-ramesseum-breasted-drawing-1275bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Card stacking, Transfer). Content note: A drawing of an Egyptian royal battle relief showing Hittite soldiers and horses killed and drowned, as the king's monument presented the battle; it is a one-sided image made by the winning side's own account.
- [Persepolis, Apadana staircase relief: a figure with an animal from a procession of delegations, early fifth century BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/persepolis-apadana-delegate-relief-500bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Card stacking, Manufactured consensus)
- [Alabaster relief, Assyrian troops storming a citadel, from Nineveh (reign of Sennacherib)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/relief-sennacherib-storming-citadel-nineveh-704bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Card stacking). Content note: An Assyrian palace relief of troops storming a fortified city, with a file of figures below; Assyrian royal reliefs and texts record killing, mutilation and deportation, shown as carved, with the historical context and scholarly dispute on the regime page.
- [Colour lithograph of the Latin text of the Res Gestae Divi Augusti on the wall of the temple of Roma and Augustus at Ancyra, with the heading in large letters (Perrot, Guillaume and Delbet, 1872)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/lithograph-res-gestae-ancyra-heading-0014/) (Roman Empire · 0014 · Card stacking, Glittering generalities)
- [Silver denarius of Vespasian, reverse IVDAEA with a trophy of arms and a seated mourning woman](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/denarius-vespasian-judaea-capta-0070/) (Roman Empire · 0070 · Card stacking). Content note: A Roman victory coin showing a mourning female figure as the personification of the conquered province of Judaea after the Roman suppression of the Jewish revolt; shown as struck, with the historical context on the regime page.