---
title: Work, Save, Fight and so Avenge the Nurses! (Centaur poster)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/work-save-fight-avenge-the-nurses-1943/
description: The white-hulled hospital ship Centaur, its green band and large red crosses lit by flames, lists in the sea as two women swim in the foreground; the…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Work, Save, Fight and so Avenge the Nurses! (Centaur poster)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/work-save-fight-avenge-the-nurses-1943.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/work-save-fight-avenge-the-nurses-1943.jpg)

# Work, Save, Fight and so Avenge the Nurses! (Centaur poster)

The white-hulled hospital ship Centaur, its green band and large red crosses lit by flames, lists in the sea as two women swim in the foreground; the headline reads 'Work, Save, Fight and so Avenge the Nurses!'. The protected red-cross emblem is turned into evidence of the enemy's crime and the sinking into a debt that war work, saving and fighting are to repay (transfer).

- **Date:** 1943
- **Period:** [Second World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwii)
- **Made by:** Australian wartime poster by Bob Whitmore (Queensland); sponsor not named on the poster
- **Region:** [Oceania](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=oceania)
- **Country:** [Australia](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=australia)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [Mixed](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=mixed)
- **Regime:** [Curtin Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=curtin-government)
- **Leader:** [John Curtin](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=john-curtin)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Mobilize or secure compliance](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=mobilize-comply)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-ii)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Australian War Memorial](https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/ARTV09088), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (AWM record: 'Copyright expired - public domain') Bob Whitmore, Queensland, c. 1943-1945. Australian War Memorial, ARTV09088.

## Text on the object

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

```
WORK - SAVE - FIGHT
and so
AVENGE THE NURSES!

[on the ship's bow, partly legible] CENTAUR
```

The image as supplied by the holding institution carries a white strip below the sheet reading 'AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL' and 'ARTV09088', added by the museum and not part of the poster. No printer or sponsor imprint is visible on this scan.

[← Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain (film frame)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/why-we-fight-battle-of-britain-1943/) [Totaler Krieg – kürzester Krieg (Total War – Shortest War): the Sportpalast rally of 18 February 1943 →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sportpalast-total-war-speech-1943/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)