The Airman Depends on the Telephone
A dark, brush-drawn close-up of an airman in a flying helmet fills the poster, with a diagram below linking wireless station, P.O. repeater station, P.O. telephone exchange and R.A.F. headquarters. The airman's image lends the prestige and danger of air combat to the Post Office telephone service, the transfer tell.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1939
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- General Post Office (GPO), printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Wm. Brown & Co., Ltd., London; artist Austin Cooper
- 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
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- 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
- Public domain (UK Crown copyright, 50 years from publication, expired before 1996; no URAA restoration)
General Post Office; artist Austin Cooper; printed by Wm. Brown & Co. Ltd., c. 1939-1945. U.S. National Archives, RG 44.
Text on the object
the Airman depends on the Telephone Wireless Station P.O. Repeater Station P.O. Telephone Exchange R.A.F. Headquarters AUSTIN COOPER GPO Printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Wm. Brown & Co. Ltd., London, E.C.3 51-2567 P.R.D.273
