| Original caption: “Keep’em Rolling – Tanks.” The United States Office of War Information employed a large staff of book and magazine designers during World War II to design cautionary and patriotic posters, survival manuals, news magazines for overseas distribution, and hundreds of other pieces of wartime propaganda. Young American Modernists had a unique opportunity to prove the viability of the new design, specifically as contrasted to the Heroic Realism of other countries’ graphics. American advertising agency N. W. Ayer and Son’s Art Director, Leo Lionni (May 5, 1910 – October 11, 1999), created a series of dynamic posters intended to motivate defense plant workers. The image depicts the M2 Medium Tank, with a GI operating its pintle-mounted 30 caliber M1919 Browning machine gun. The same photo is reproduced 4 times in various sizes, while the canton of 48 stars is replaced with an image of a welder. The M2 was already obsolete when it entered service. It compared poorly with contemporary European tanks, such as the French Somua S-35 and German Panzerkampfwagen III. The 37 millimeter (1.47 inch) main armament of the M2 was equivalent to the 37 millimeter gun of the early Panzer III, but inferior to the 47 millimeter (1.9-inch) gun of the Somua S-35. By 1941, the Germans had begun upgrading their Panzer III with a 50 millimeter (2 inch) L/42 gun, and the Soviets had fielded the vastly superior T-34 tank, with a 76 millimeter (3-inch) gun and a sloped 52 millimeter (2 inch) glacis plate. Given this, the M2 was essentially a stopgap measure until more capable tanks, such as the M3 Lee and the M4 Sherman, emerged in 1942-1943. The United States Army Bureau of Ordnance recommended in January 1942 that the M2 should only be used for training purposes, and they were never sent overseas to combat areas. The United States Army fielded the M2 and M2A1 with the 67th Infantry Regiment and, subsequently, the 1st Armored Division’s 69th Armored Regiment, during intensive training maneuvers in the United States in 1941. The M2 design continued to prove useful in a basic training role for tank crewmen. Married to an Italian Communist, Lionni left Fascist Italy for the United States in 1939. He went on to become a successful children’s book author after World War II. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0981.jpg |
| Image Size | 5.4 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 5000 x 3792 |
| Photographer | Leo Lionni |
| Photographer Title | Office of Emergency Management |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | January 1, 1941 |
| Location | |
| City | Washington |
| State or Province | District of Columbia |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-44-PA-214 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
Author of the World War II Multimedia Database