'Your talk may kill your comrades', 1942

Lithograph poster after Abram Games (1914-1996), printed by James Upton Limited, 1942.

The famous 'Careless Talk Costs Lives' poster campaign used humour when addressing civilian audiences. But in this poster, Games is more direct in confronting soldiers with the possible consequences of revealing military secrets. Games included a self-portrait as a soldier at the centre of this arresting image. His words transform into a red-hot sword, which stabs clean through the bodies of three soldiers.

From a collection of 45 posters from World War Two (1939-1945).