Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
We're Waiting to Start as Soon as You're Finished, 1939 UK poster: Two photographs are stacked

We're Waiting to Start as Soon as You're Finished

Two photographs are stacked: RAF airmen sitting on a twin-engined bomber on an airfield, and below them civilian labourers laying a concrete runway. The headline runs across both, so the airmen's readiness is attached to the labourers' pace (transfer).

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Transfer
Date
1939
Period
Second World War
Made by
His Majesty's Stationery Office (printed for H.M. Stationery Office by Greycaine Ltd., Watford and London)
Region
Western and Central Europe
Country
United Kingdom
Medium
Poster
Issuer type
State
Regime
Churchill Government
Leader
Winston Churchill
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Mobilize or secure compliance
Themes
War and the military, Labor, Home front
Event
World War II
Regime
Churchill wartime government
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)
His Majesty's Stationery Office; printed by Greycaine Ltd. National Archives and Records Administration, NAID 44267375, local ID 44-PF-520.

Text on the object

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

WE'RE waiting to start
as soon as YOU finish

PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY GREYCAINE LTD., WATFORD & LONDON  51- 1008

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