“That Damocles Urge” (October 15, 1941)
by Edward Scott “Ted” Brown (1876-1942)
18 x 13 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

Ted Brown, who spent his early years chasing the Alaska gold rush of 1898, returned to the US with no gold score and was a longtime editorial cartoonist for the New York Herald-Tribune, supplanting Jay N. (Ding) Darling in that position. This cartoon, titled “That Damocles Urge”, appeared on October 15, 1941, and features Hitler attempting to plow towards Moscow, with the Damocles Sword of Russian Winter hanging over his head. As is typical of Brown’s work, it is filled with wonderful pen work, especially the activity of his line. The drawing has an almost animated feel about it.

Brown took ill in mid-1942 and died in late December.

The winter climate contributed to the military failures of several invasions of Russia, including (and perhaps particularly) Operation Barbarossa (meaning “Red Beard, named by Hitler to honor of German ruler Frederick I, nicknamed Red Beard, who had orchestrated a ruthless attack on the Slavic peoples of the East some eight centuries earlier), the Nazi attack on their Soviet ally – a bold grab for territory by the Reich.

In Operation Barbarossa, Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941: their largest military operation of World War II. The Germans pushed hard; the Soviets pushed back. The plan, to take Moscow by the end of summer, was delayed, and so the Nazis first got bogged down (literally) during the heavy autumn rains (the “rasputitsa,” or “General Mud”). Loaded vehicles and marching men were now relying on horse-drawn wagons for support.

By mid-October, this cartoon makes it clear that the challenges faced by the German army were well known, and that the impending problems from the onset of winter were approaching fast.

The Nazis did not end up making it to Moscow until December. And December 6, 1941, the Soviet Union launched a major counterattack, driving the Germans back from Moscow.