Description
The Hit Hard and Often With the Marines poster
Hit Hard and Often With the Marines was issued by the Marine Corps Publicity Bureau on 15 September 1942, nine months after Pearl Harbor. A silver Grumman F4F Wildcat with the white star of the United States dives across a deep blue sky, its guns streaming red tracer, as two Japanese aircraft marked with the red sun break up and fall. Below them lie the curved roofs of a Japanese town, and in the distance the snow cap of Mount Fuji.
The poster carries the bureau’s code MCPB 105578 9-15-42 15M, a print run of 15,000, and was lithographed in Philadelphia. The artist is not credited. It was printed as a 28 × 40 inch poster and as a small window card for shop windows and recruiting offices, and the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library holds one of the cards.
Marine Corps historians single it out as the most direct reference to the Japanese air attacks of any Marine recruiting poster of the war. In September 1942 Marine Wildcat squadrons were fighting daily over Henderson Field on Guadalcanal, and the poster invited the viewer to picture himself in the cockpit.
Read the full history of the poster.
Restored edition
Restored from a photograph of an original print. The colour was cleaned and brought back, with folds, stains, tears and wear removed. The lettering and printed marks are kept from the original.
Sizes and options
- Paper print: 11.7 × 16.5 in, 20 × 28 in or 23.4 × 33.1 in
- Framed print: 12 × 17 in, 20 × 28 in or 23 × 33 in, in a black, white or natural wood frame, ready to hang
Printed to order in the USA on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Art paper. Free Standard shipping to the US. Compare the print sizes.
More posters
See Ready, Join U.S. Marines, or browse the Marine Corps collection.













