---
title: Scrap Metal Helps to Make Tanks
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-scrap-metal-helps-to-make-tanks-1939/
description: 'A large tank is placed over a red panel of household scrap: a broken pan, spade, fork, tin and nails. Tagged by technique, with source and rights.'
section: Collection
---

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3. Scrap Metal Helps to Make Tanks

[![Scrap Metal Helps to Make Tanks, 1939 UK poster: A large tank is placed over a red panel of household scrap](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-scrap-metal-helps-to-make-tanks-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-scrap-metal-helps-to-make-tanks-1939.jpg)

# Scrap Metal Helps to Make Tanks

A large tank is placed over a red panel of household scrap: a broken pan, spade, fork, tin and nails. The tell for transfer is the adjacency, which lets the weight of the tank stand for the value of a discarded kitchen item, and the bottom line, 'You must play your part', assigns the duty directly to the viewer.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

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

```
Scrap metal helps to make tanks

TINS, OLD KEYS, DISCARDED COOKING UTENSILS, EVEN
OLD NAILS AND SCREWS, EVERY SCRAP OF METAL IS NEEDED

YOU MUST PLAY YOUR PART
EVERY SCRAP IS NEEDED NOW

PRINTED FOR H.M STATIONERY OFFICE BY W. R. ROYLE & SON LTD 51-3319
```

[← Save Timber! ... And Hammer the Hun!](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-save-timber-and-hammer-the-hun-1939/) [See How Your Salvage Helps a Bomber →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-see-how-your-salvage-helps-a-bomber-1939/)

## 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)
- [Clay cylinder with the Ehulhul inscription of Nabonidus, king of Babylon, describing work on three temples](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/cylinder-nabonidus-ehulhul-inscription-555bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Seated limestone statue of Hatshepsut as king, with feminine royal titles on the throne, reassembled from fragments broken up at Deir el-Bahri](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/hatshepsut-seated-statue-limestone-met-1458bce/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer, Testimonial)
- [Glazed-brick panel with a striding lion, from Babylon (reign of Nebuchadnezzar II)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ishtar-gate-panel-striding-lion-nebuchadnezzar-ii-604bce/) (Neo Babylonian Empire · 0000 · Transfer)
- [Limestone relief block of Ramesses II wearing the White Crown, a jubilee relief from his temple at Herakleopolis](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jubilee-relief-ramesses-ii-herakleopolis-met-05-4-256/) (New Kingdom Egypt · 0000 · Transfer)
- [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.
- [Gypsum alabaster slab inscribed in cuneiform, from Nimrud (Kalhu), reign of Ashurnasirpal II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/nimrud-slab-ashurnasirpal-ii-inscription-883bce/) (Neo Assyrian Empire · 0000 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Egyptian alabaster jar inscribed with the name of Xerxes the Great in four languages (Old Persian, Elamite, Babylonian, Egyptian), 486 to 466 BCE](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xerxes-jar-four-languages-486bce/) (Achaemenid Empire · 0000 · Transfer)