1940.02.05 “He Needs More Than A Cheering Section”
by Cyrus Cotton “Cy” Hungerford (1889-1983)
13 x 18 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cy_Hungerford
Hungerford worked for the Wheeling (West VA) Register before becoming editorial cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Sun for fifteen years from 1912. He joined the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 1927 and stayed there until his retirement in 1977.
During the early stages of World War II, the British and French Allies made a series of proposals to send troops to assist Finland against the Soviet Union in the Winter War, which started on 30 November 1939. The war was a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, which put Finland into the Soviet sphere of influence. The plans involved the transit of British and French troops and equipment through neutral Norway and Sweden. The initial plans were abandoned due to Norway and Sweden declining transit through their land, fearing their countries would be drawn into the war.
In February 1940, a Soviet offensive broke through the Mannerheim Line on the Karelian Isthmus, exhausting Finnish defenses and forcing the country’s government to accept peace negotiations on Soviet terms. As the news that Finland might be forced to cede its sovereignty to the USSR, public opinion in France and Britain, already favorable to Finland, swung in favor of military intervention.
Finland’s defensive war against the Soviet invasion, lasting November 1939 to March 1940, came at a time when there was a military stalemate on the continent called the “Phony War.”