Temper Dash with Discretion
Three German bombers with crosses on their wings are shown under fire from a single fighter, with the caption 'Don't let your eagerness spoil a combined attack and incidentally make you a sitter for the enemy'. It is marked 'For official use only', a training diagram; the tell is the staged risk of becoming a 'sitter' with one prescribed remedy, a combined attack.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1940
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Air Ministry Air Diagram 1304; printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and London; drawing by The Aeroplane (artist Leslie Carr)
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Churchill Government
- Leader
- Winston Churchill
- Audience
- Own forces
- Purpose
- Warn or inform
- Theme
- 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
- UK Crown copyright, 1939-1945, expired; hosted by owner decision
Air Ministry Air Diagram 1304; printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd.; drawing by The Aeroplane (Leslie Carr). National Archives and Records Administration, 44-PF-65n.
Text on the object
TEMPER DASH with DISCRETION Don't let your eagerness spoil a combined attack and incidentally make you a 'sitter' for the enemy. Drawing by THE AEROPLANE MAY, 1940 AIR DIAGRAM 1304 ISSUE NO. 1 DATE MAY, 1940 FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY [imprint:] Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and London. 51-4679.
