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).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1943
- Period
- Second World War
- Made by
- Australian wartime poster by Bob Whitmore (Queensland); sponsor not named on the poster
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Curtin Government
- Leader
- John Curtin
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War II
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Australian War Memorial, 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.
