1944.11.21 “Here’s Your Chance to Hit the Jap Pot” (November 21, 1944)
by Carl Louis (Mort) Mortison (1895-1960)
12 x 14 in., ink and crayon on paper
Coppola Collection

Carl ‘Mort’ Mortison’s work was featured in the Waterbury (CT) Republican-American newspaper for almost 50 years. This and a 1945 cartoon are the earliest WW2 era example of his work that I have seen. A lot of what has appeared comes from the 1950s.

The Sixth War Loan Drive lasted 26 days in late 1944. The Drive faced a challenge that the earlier five drives had not. By the end of 1944, with German resistance somewhat winding down, there was a sense among American citizens that the war was reaching its conclusion. There was also a bit of a fatigue factor, being asked once more to dip into your funds to buy more bonds. The Treasury Department worked hard to counter both of these beliefs. Unlike earlier drives, the Sixth had five “slogans” rather than just one, one of them being “Your Country Is Still At War—Are You?” The Japanese were also targeted, including some horrific video spots that displayed graphic gore and violence, including executions, mainly committed by the Japanese on the Chinese.

Until the mid-1940s, Federal Tax was not withheld from paychecks, and so the government relied on its annual tax collection for income (hence the crowd-sourcing of the War Bonds). The recommendation was to use 10% of your salary for buying bonds. In 1944, the annual weekly wage was $44.11, and so the $4.41 contribution shown here is indicative of that.

1939.10.13 “I Have Never Seen a Game Like This” (October 13, 1939)
sby Jack Patton (1900-1962)
12 x 14 in., ink and crayon on board
Coppola Collection

Jack Patton was originally from Louisiana. He worked as an editorial cartoonist from the 1910s through the 1930s. In the 1930s, he was a widely read editorial cartoonist for The Dallas Morning News. His last editorial cartoons appeared at the end 1939 and perhaps through the start of 1940. During the 1930s, he also began the newspaper strip ‘Restless Age,’ which was followed by ‘Spence Easley’.

As a child, Patton read a magazine advertisement offering easy lessons in drawing. He signed up for a brief course, and it was enough to whet his appetite for a lifetime of cartooning. Scraping together enough money to get to Chicago, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts. While at the school, he received word that the old Dallas Journal, then the evening publication of The Dallas News, needed an assistant in the art department. Hurrying back to his hometown, Mr. Patton found to his delight that he would work with veteran News cartoonist John Knott. The year was 1918 and two years later his editorial cartoons won a place on page 1 of the Journal. In the early part of his career, Mr. Patton was one of the first men in the business to put out both an editorial cartoon and a comic strip daily. The editorial cartoons had a stinging wit, and the originals were frequently requested by the subjects, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and John Nance Garner.

The Maginot Line is a strong of concrete fortifications, obstacles and weapon installations built by France in the 1930s to deter invasion by Germany and force them to move around the fortifications. The Maginot Line was impervious to most forms of attack. In consequence, the Germans invaded through the Low Countries in 1940, passing it to the north. The line, which was supposed to be fully extended further towards the west to avoid such an occurrence, was finally scaled back in response to demands from Belgium. Indeed, Belgium feared it would be sacrificed in the event of another German invasion. The line has since become a metaphor for expensive efforts that offer a false sense of security.

The Siegfried Line, known in German as the Westwall, was a German defensive line built during the 1930s opposite the French Maginot Line. The Siegfried Line was a World War II German defensive system stretching some 390 miles along the western border of the old German Empire and referred to as the Westwall by the Germans.

Despite France’s declaration of war on Germany (September 3, 1939) after Germany had invaded Poland three days earlier, there was no major combat at the Siegfried Line except for a minor offensive by the French. Instead, both sides remained stuck in the so-called Phoney War (September 1939 through April 1940), where neither side attacked the other and both stayed in their safe positions.

The Saar Offensive was a French invasion of Saarland, Germany from September 7-16, 1939. When the swift victory in Poland allowed Germany to reinforce its lines with homecoming troops, the offensive was halted. The French opted to fight a defensive war, forcing the Germans to come to them. French General Maurice Gamelin ordered his troops to stop no closer than 1 km from the German positions along the Siegfried Line. At the same time, French divisions were ordered to withdraw to their barracks along the Maginot Line, beginning the Phoney War.

The World War II German invasion plan of France for May 1940, following its capture of Norway (ending the phoney war) was designed to deal with the line. A decoy force sat opposite the line while a second Army Group cut through the Low Countries of Belgium and the Netherlands, as well as through the Ardennes Forest, which lay north of the main French defenses. Thus the Germans were able to avoid a direct assault on the Maginot Line by violating the neutrality of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Attacking on May 10, German forces were well into France within five days and they continued to advance until May 24, when they stopped near Dunkirk.

1941.02.15 “Playing Second Fiddle” (February 15, 1941)
by Jack Patton (1900-1962)
12 x 14 in., ink and crayon on board
Coppola Collection

Jack Patton was originally from Louisiana. He worked as an editorial cartoonist from the 1910s through the 1930s. In the 1930s, he was a widely read editorial cartoonist for The Dallas Morning News. His last editorial cartoons appeared at the end 1939 and perhaps through the start of 1940. During the 1930s, he also began the newspaper strip ‘Restless Age,’ which was followed by ‘Spence Easley’.

As a child, Patton read a magazine advertisement offering easy lessons in drawing. He signed up for a brief course, and it was enough to whet his appetite for a lifetime of cartooning. Scraping together enough money to get to Chicago, he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts. While at the school, he received word that the old Dallas Journal, then the evening publication of The Dallas News, needed an assistant in the art department. Hurrying back to his hometown, Mr. Patton found to his delight that he would work with veteran News cartoonist John Knott. The year was 1918 and two years later his editorial cartoons won a place on page 1 of the Journal. In the early part of his career, Mr. Patton was one of the first men in the business to put out both an editorial cartoon and a comic strip daily. The editorial cartoons had a stinging wit, and the originals were frequently requested by the subjects, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and John Nance Garner.

The “second fiddle” relationship was clearly perceived at the time, and not just in the retrospective analyses written in the modern age. It was not only an apt metaphor, but probably reinforced by Mussolini being an amateur violinist.

Hitler was attracted by Mussolini’s fascism for the way it centralized power, and Mussolini saw an ally in the aggressive Hitler to help lead the way to a world under their shared power. Hitler propped up Mussolini when the Italians were generally opposed to his Fascist regime. Most historians believe that Hitler had genuine affection for the man. Mussolini coined the idea of Europe spinning on a new axis, linking Berlin and Rome, in November 1936, while announcing a friendship alliance with Germany: “This Berlin-Rome protocol is not a barrier, it is rather an axis around which all European States animated by a desire for peace may collaborate on troubles.”

By 1940, Hitler was calling the shots. Mussolini hesitated to join the war, and only declared war on France (July 10, 1940) when it was clear that the underprepared Italians would be riding the coattails of the Germans. The occupation was over so quickly that the Italians did not even have a chance to score a victory. At a meeting between the leaders, Mussolini’s foreign secretary and son-in-law, Count Ciano, said that Il Duce’s opinion had “only a consultative value.” Indeed, from then on Mussolini was obliged to face the fact that he was the junior partner in the Axis alliance, and was not consulted on military decisions until after the fact.

It was to “pay back Hitler in his own coin,” as Mussolini openly admitted, that he decided to attack Greece through Albania in 1940 without informing the Germans. But it was too much for the Italians to handle and Germany came to their aid to clean up the mess. The 1941 campaign to support the German invasion of the Soviet Union also failed disastrously and condemned thousands of ill-equipped Italian troops to a nightmarish winter retreat. Mussolini set his sights on North Africa and extending his Empire to match the territory held by the ancient Romans, whose conquests he desired to copy.

British troops were in North Africa under a 1936 treaty, stationed in Egypt to protect the Suez Canal and Royal Navy bases. Hitler had offered to aid Mussolini early on in his North African quest, to send German troops to help fend off a British counterattack. But Mussolini had been rebuffed when he had offered Italian assistance during the Battle of Britain. He now insisted that as a matter of national pride, Italy would have to create a Mediterranean sphere of influence on its own–or risk becoming a “junior” partner of Germany’s.

Mussolini’s forces proved no match for the Brits. British troops pushed the Italians westward, inflicting extraordinary losses on the Axis forces. On February 5, 1941, Adolf Hitler scolded his Axis partner, Benito Mussolini, for his troops’ retreat in the face of British advances in Libya, demanding that the Duce command his forces to resist. As Britain threatened to push the Italians out of Libya altogether and break through to Tunisia, Mussolini swallowed his pride and asked Hitler for assistance. On February 12, German General Erwin Rommel arrives in Tripoli, Libya, with the newly formed Afrika Korps, to reinforce the beleaguered Italians’ position.

As the modern writers put it:

“Benito Mussolini has been universally regarded as an almost comical stereotype of a blundering dictator, a petit-bourgeois hick from the provinces who played a distant second fiddle to his powerful ally Adolf Hitler, and whose inept leadership and lust for power led Italy to disaster.” – RJB Bosworth

“Their relationship evolved gradually over the years they had known each other. At first, Hitler deferred to the Duce and appeared to have genuine admiration for the more senior dictator. Later, and especially after Mussolini began to play second fiddle to Hitler as a war leader, summit meetings between the two men had consisted mainly of long monologues by Hitler, with Mussolini barely able to get in a word. At one memorable meeting in 1942, Hitler talked for an hour and forty minutes while General Jodl dozed off and Mussolini kept looking at his watch.” – Ray Moseley

After Hitler’s rise to power, Mussolini almost always played second fiddle to Hitler in their joint venture. Aside from a brief span of time in which Mussolini stood in the way of Hitler’s plans to seize Austria, the Italian dictator seems to have been all too willing to accept Hitler’s flattery and praise, while at the same time watching his Axis ally drag him into a war that he couldn’t hope to win. During the many times that the two dictators met, Shirer says that Hitler did all the talking and Mussolini all the listening.

1940.10.31 “Bad Choices” (October 31, 1940)
by Tom Smitch (unknown dates)
5.5 x 7 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection

Tom Smitch was an illustrator and cartoonist who worked as a printer in Ryde, for the Isle of Wight County Press. The Isle of Wight is the largest and second-most populated island of England. It is located in the English Channel, just south of Portsmouth. He was British Paratrooper whose work during WW2 is preserved in a book published in 1945, Engelsk krigshumor (English War Humor) with a Danish imprint (Kobenhavn, Samlerens forlag, 1945). He continued his artistic work with cartoons that appeared in the County Press. In an interview, he said about his wartime work, “Despite the heat, dust and flies, I have managed to accumulate a number of sketches. Art must go on if life may be short.” He provided illustrations for two books, at least: “West Indies Tour of England,” (1950), and “Newport Isle of Wight in Bygone Days,” (1952). And that is it for information.

In the cartoon, the Fuhrer is unhappy with the plays being made by Hermann Goering who was, among other things, head of the Luftwaffe. Late October 1940 marked the end of the Battle of Britain (July-Oct, 1940), and the first major defeat of Germany’s military forces, whose reputed air superiority had been seen as the key to sure victory.

The relationship between Hitler and Goering, a WW1 flying ace, was deeply rooted. When Hitler first attempted to seize power in the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch, Goering was by his side. Unlike Hitler, who went to prison, Goering escaped capture and fled to Austria, taking a bullet to his leg in the process. It was during this time that Goering first came in contact with morphine, to which he became addicted. After two rounds of institutionalization for psychiatric issues, probably resulting from the morphine use, he returned to Germany in 1927. Thanks to his loyalty to Hitler, he quickly rose to the Nazi Party’s upper ranks. His political efforts were instrumental to the Party winning the most seats during the 1932 election, and Goering managed to take the presidency of the Reichstag, which in turn resulted in giving Hitler the title of Chancellor, the de-facto leader of Germany. Among other strong political positions, Hitler appointed Goering as the Commander-in-Chief of the Luftwaffe. From his position of power, one of his first key acts was to create the Gestapo. By the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Hitler had named Goering as his successor.

Goering’s rise through the ranks of the Nazi party was accompanied by his ever-expanding waistline (note the delightful dig at this in the cartoon, with a frame picture of a sausage on the wall). His ongoing morphine addiction made him prone to have severe mood swings and may have contributed to the weight gain that transformed the former dashing war hero into the portly figure that was an easy target for mockery. His indulgence went beyond food and drugs. He lived lavishly, setting himself up in a palace in Berlin he named for his first wife. His natural flair for flamboyance and pomp led to him to change uniforms at least five times a day, occasionally donning a medieval hunting uniform or even, as one visitor reported, a full toga and sandals.

Goering’s celebrity came to an abrupt halt in 1940. As head of the Luftwaffe, Goering was responsible for the great air offensive against the one enemy that still stood against Germany in Europe: Britain. However, when the Royal Air Force managed to beat back the Germans against all odds, during the Battle of Britain, Goering bore the brunt of the blame.

Historians tend to agree that disorganization and competing priorities led to two big blunders that, otherwise, might have had this battle go badly for the British. Churchill gave an inspired speech on June 18 announcing ‘the Battle of France is over and the Battle of Britain is about to begin.’ The Germans waited 3 weeks before making a move, which gave a lot of time for the RAF to prepare. Also, against all rules of warfare, the Luftwaffe ended up going after civilian targets, including racking up the political capital of bombing London, rather than focusing on wiping out the airfields and other military installations. Hitler’s attention was on the upcoming surprise attack on Russia. Yet, still, the Luftwaffe fell immediately into a period of intensive blame-laying, including questioning the choices made by Goering.

In the ensuing years, although Goering retained a great deal of authority throughout the war, he increasingly fell from the Fuhrer’s favor and he became more heavily addicted to drugs.

On April 23, 1945, when Hitler was cut off in Berlin as Soviet troops encircled the capital, Goering (who had once again escaped from Germany) sent a telegram to Hitler requesting authorization to take over as Hitler’s successor. Hitler denounces Goering as a traitor, strips him of all his offices, and orders his arrest.

A week later, the defeated Hitler committed suicide. Goering was found and arrested, and was perhaps the highest-ranking member of the group brought to trial at Nuremburg. The day before his scheduled execution, while in custody, he managed to commit suicide with a cyanide pellet.