Will you fight now or wait for this (Australian recruiting poster, Norman Lindsay)
German soldiers in spiked helmets level rifles at a man pinned against a corrugated-iron water tank, an old man kneels pleading and another lies on the ground beside a burning building. The question 'Will you fight now or wait for this' stages an invasion of Australian soil as the alternative to enlisting, offering enlistment as the only way to prevent it (fear-appeal).
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Government of the Commonwealth of Australia (1918 recruiting campaign); artist Norman Lindsay; printed by W. E. Smith Ltd, Sydney
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Hughes Government
- Leader
- William Morris Hughes
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Australian War Memorial, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (AWM: copyright expired; published 1918, before 1931)
Government of the Commonwealth of Australia; W. E. Smith Ltd, Sydney. 1918. Australian War Memorial, ARTV00079.
Text on the object
Will you fight now or wait for This ISSUED BY THE GOVERNMENT OF THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA. W. E. SMITH LTD., SYDNEY.
The image as supplied by the holding institution carries a white strip below the sheet reading 'AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL' and 'ARTV00079', added by the museum and not part of the poster.
