1944.12.07 “War Birthday Cake”
by Cyrus Cotton “Cy” Hungerford (1889-1983)
13 x 16 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.
On the second anniversary of the US entry into WW2, things had been moving in favor of the Allies. On June 6, the D-Day invasion ultimately led to the liberation of Paris in late August.
Hitler’s June troubles were compounded by a Russian counterattack, which drove 300 miles west to Warsaw, and killed, wounded or captured 350,000 German soldiers. By the end of August, the Russians had taken Bucharest. Estonia was taken within months, and Budapest was under siege by the end of the year.
One glimmer of light for Germany came in the Ardennes, in France, where the December 16 German counteroffensive – the Battle of the Bulge – killed 19,000 Americans and delayed the Allies’ march into Germany.