Back the Attack, three figures in overalls for the 5th War Loan

Back the Attack! Buy More Bonds is an official U.S. Treasury poster for the 5th War Loan, dated 1944. A man, a woman, and a boy in work clothes stand before the flag, and the text asks for more bond purchases (NAID 513918).

What the poster prints

Three figures fill the sheet: a man, a woman, and a boy, all in overalls. Two hold the handles of farm tools. A large flag hangs behind them, and a V-shaped 5th War Loan badge sits at the lower left. The National Archives copy carries a handwritten filing note, which the transcription keeps.

Back the Attack!

[imprint: ☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1944—584052]

[handwritten: Classify - War Bonds -]

5TH WAR LOAN

Buy MORE BONDS

OFFICIAL U. S. TREASURY POSTER

[imprint: WFD 920]

Who issued it

The issuer is the U.S. Treasury Department, War Finance Division, and the sheet says so twice: "Official U.S. Treasury Poster" and the imprint WFD 920. There is no artist signature in the transcription.

How to read it

"Attack" is a military word. The people under it are civilians holding farm tools. The poster puts the two together without a sentence of argument, and the flag does the joining. The archive tags the sheet plain folks and transfer, which matches what is on the paper.

The family is not shown buying anything. They are shown standing, as if their presence were already the purchase. That is a fair image of a country at war that finances itself by loans from its own citizens rather than by seizing property. It is also a picture that leaves out the question a buyer might ask about rates, terms, or what "more" means for a household budget. The poster is an appeal, not a prospectus, and it should be read as one.

The 4th War Loan window card used the neighbors to sell; this one uses the flag. The wider poster program is on the Office of War Information hub and in the domestic-branch case study. For the Treasury's place among the war offices, see the Roosevelt administration essay.