If The Invader Comes | June 1940, original wartime leaflet 'anticipating an event that never came to pass'. Framed.

If The Invader Comes - WHAT TO DO - AND HOW TO DO IT

If the INVADER Comes was issued in June 1940, the month after Churchill became wartime Prime Minister. The document is printed on both sides of a thin sheet of newsprint-quality paper, each measuring approximately 11 inches by 8.25 inches (27.9 x 21 cm). It has been expertly framed at Kings Court Galleries and is sealed in double-sided museum-grade UV Glass. There are faint traces of folding but no tears to the document.

Hitler’s Germany began its attack against France and the Low Countries on 10 May 1940, the same day Churchill became Prime Minister. Britain had learned from the swift fall of Holland and Belgium when “the civilian population fled” and “crowded on the roads, in cars, in carts, on bicycles and on foot, and so helped the enemy by preventing their own armies from advancing against the invaders.” This leaflet is a protracted admonition not to panic and to help the cause. Six rules with Roman numerals are articulated: stay put, do not believe or spread rumours, note and report anything suspicious, do not give any German any material or informational aid, be ready to assist the military if asked, and organize or participate in a plan to resist attack. The document closes with a stern and sombre admonition to “THINK ALWAYS OF YOUR COUNTRY BEFORE YOU THINK OF YOURSELF” – an interesting, dark rhetorical inversion of future President Kennedy’s famous inaugural exhortation “ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

In the words of Winston Churchill’s Bibliographer Ronald Cohen, the publication was “only a leaflet anticipating an event that never came to pass.”

Additional information and photos upon request

Size of frame - 380mm x 310mm