---
title: You Can Make This Kind of Ammunition!!
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-owi-alston-make-this-kind-of-ammunition-1943/
description: Two beets and a carrot fall like bombs onto a swastika lying on the ground, under a clipping reading 'All Americans urged to grow Victory Gardens.'
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. You Can Make This Kind of Ammunition!!

**Content note:** A pencil cartoon of falling vegetables aimed at a three-dimensional swastika lying on the ground, as published by the Office of War Information. This object is shown as it was published. [Why](https://propagandaarchive.org/about/#as-it-was)

[![You Can Make This Kind of Ammunition!!, 1943 US cartoon: Two beets and a carrot fall like bombs onto a swastika lying](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/us-owi-alston-make-this-kind-of-ammunition-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/us-owi-alston-make-this-kind-of-ammunition-1943.jpg)

# You Can Make This Kind of Ammunition!!

Two beets and a carrot fall like bombs onto a swastika lying on the ground, under a clipping reading 'All Americans urged to grow Victory Gardens.' The tell is semantic hijack: vegetables are relabelled as ammunition so that home gardening is framed as a weapon against the Axis.

## Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

[Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/) [Semantic hijacking](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/semantic-hijack/)

## Text on the object

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

```
"ALL AMERICANS URGED TO GROW VICTORY GARDENS." ~NEWS ITEM.
"YOU CAN MAKE THIS KIND OF AMMUNITION!!"
[Signed:] Alston OWI
```

[← Lieut. Willa Brown - Aviatrix, Maker of Pilots](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-owi-alston-lieut-willa-brown-aviatrix-1943/) [Paul R. Williams, A.I.A. - Noted Architect →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-owi-alston-paul-r-williams-architect-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)
- [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)