“War! War!” (June 13, 1940)
by Emidio (Mike) Angelo (1903-1990)
18 x 18 in., ink on art board

Emidio Angelo was born in Philadelphia, a year after his mother and father, a baker, arrived from Italy. He studied art from 1924 to 1928 at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Angelo joined The Philadelphia Inquirer as a political cartoonist in 1937 and worked there until 1954. He also drew cartoons for the Saturday Evening Post, Life and Esquire.

On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. And less than a year later, both sides (but especially the Germans) were set to escalate past The Phoney War. Germany invades the West on May 10, 1940, taking the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. This was the day British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain resigned and was replaced by Winston Churchill. In six weeks time, Hitler would be walking through the streets of Paris.

On June 8, 1940, the Germans crossed the Seine.

On June 9, 1940, the French government fled Paris.

On June 10, Norway surrendered to Germany.

On the evening of June 10, 1940, Benito Mussolini appeared on the balcony of the Palazzo Venezia to announce that in six hours, Italy would be in a state of war with France and Britain.

“People of Italy: take up your weapons and show your tenacity, your courage and your valor.”

The Italians had no battle plans of any kind prepared. Anti-Italian riots broke out in major cities across the United Kingdom after Italy’s declaration of war. Bricks, stones and bottles were thrown through the windows of Italian-owned shops, and 100 arrests were made in Edinburgh alone. Canada declared war on Italy. Italy broke off relations with Poland. Belgium broke off relations with Italy. And the Italian invasion of France began.

While making a commencement speech at the Memorial Gymnasium of the University of Virginia, President Roosevelt denounced Mussolini: “On this tenth day of June, 1940, the hand that held the dagger has plunged it into the back of its neighbor.” The president also said that military victories for the “gods of force and hate” were a threat to all democracies in the western world and that America could no longer pretend to be a “lone island in a world of force.”

On June 14, the Germans entered Paris unopposed (and as every fan of Casablanca knows, Ilsa Lund left Rick Blaine a goodbye note as he boarded the train to Marseille, on the way to North Africa).

On June 23, 1940, Adolf Hitler took a train to Paris and visited sites including the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe and Napoleon’s tomb.

“Are You Just a Shadow Boxer?” (May 20, 1940)
by William (Bill) Crawford (1913–1982)
22″ x 19″ ink and crayon on textured paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford joined the Newark News as an editorial cartoonist in 1938 and his work was widely distributed (to over 700 newspapers).

Don’t just complain about the system, get out and vote! The Crawford cartoon here hinges on noticing that the fellow doing the air boxing is complaining about the Hague machine, and this turns out to be a reference with a lot of connectedness to the political fortunes of FDR and his reelections.

Because of their populations and political connectedness, the New York and New Jersey metropolitan areas were important to FDR.

One of the most influential political figures in the region was Frank Hague, the major of Jersey City, who was a mob boss by any other name. Corruption, bribery, and election fraud were his stock in trade, but he also parlayed a lot of incoming support for his constituents and stayed in power for years. He had a meager public salary and an extravagant life. During the height of his power Hague’s political machine, known as The Organization, was one of the most powerful in the United States controlling politics on local, county, and state levels.

Hague initially opposed FDR’s run for the presidency in 1932, but blew with the wind, as it was clear that Roosevelt was a winning hand.

The Great Depression and the New Deal forged a mutually beneficial alliance between FDR and Hague. Each needed the other. Hague benefited from the federal funds he was allocated by the New Deal relief agencies. Channeling this government assistance through his political machine and ultimately become the dominant figure of the Democratic Party in New Jersey. In return, Hague pledged to secure New Jersey for Roosevelt in his reelection campaigns. For FDR, this necessitated a policy of willful indifference (plausible deniability, sir) towards Hague’s corrupt ways.

Hague was skilled with voter support, having been a strong and early advocate for Suffrage and peddling influence in other urban areas, particularly in Chicago.

Hague’s influence not only made him the most powerful Democrat in his state, it helped nominate FDR and delivered New Jersey’s electoral vote to Roosevelt in all four presidential elections in which Roosevelt ran. Critics condemned Hague as the “Hitler of Hudson County,” where he was also accurately called “the law” (and saw himself that way).

Roosevelt wanted to prosecute the machine’s criminals, but he also wanted to provide Depression relief and New Jersey’s electoral vote, both of which the mayor controlled. This reality proved crucial to Roosevelt’s election to an unprecedented third term in 1940. Thanks to 173,000 ballots produced by the mayor in Hudson County, Roosevelt overcame Wendell Willkie’s lead of 101,500 and won the state’s electoral vote by a plurality of 71,500. Although most of the ballots were legal, critics complained of extensive fraud.

A report from the New York Times summed it up this way:

NEW JERSEY: Boss
Monday, May 20, 1940

Last week, as New Jersey prepared for its primary, Democratic Boss Frank Hague wore the innocent expression of a gambler with a sure thing. Mr. Hague has come so close to running both parties that he has nearly reduced New Jersey to a one-party State.

The secret of Boss Hague’s success is as simple and austere as arithmetic. He holds tight control of Hudson County, where he is boss and mayor of Jersey City. New Jersey, outside of Hudson County, normally votes Republican; but year in, year out, populous, Democratic Hudson County holds the balance of power in New Jersey, and Boss Hague has Hudson County tucked in his neat derby hat.

“Little Maniac, What Now?” (May 10, 1940)
by unknown
9 x 10 in., ink on paper

Likely an amateur and unpublished drawing. Perhaps a draft. I’ve tagged it to Churchill’s assumption of the Prime Minister position, which brought these two into direct conflict for the first time.

Adolf Hitler and Winston Churchill never met, and who knows how it might have changed the course of history in the 20th century if the Nazi had made a different decision in the spring of 1932.

Churchill had come to Munich to conduct research for a new book, and while he was there, he wanted to use the opportunity to meet the notorious Hitler, whose supporters were in the process of destroying the Weimar Republic.

Churchill’s son and Hitler’s foreign press agent arranged for the two men to meet over dinner. The evening progressed without Hitler. After the dessert, Hitler’s agent saw Hitler standing in the lobby. The Nazi had coincidentally met with a benefactor there. He said: “Mr. Hitler, you should come. It’s truly important.” But the party leader remained obstinate, and said: “You know perfectly well that I have a lot to do at the moment and that we plan to get an early start tomorrow. So — good night.”

On May 10, 1940, Churchill become Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of England.

Hitler berated his rival as a “lunatic,” “paralytic” and “world arsonist.” Churchill shot back, calling Hitler a “wicked man,” the “monstrous product of former wrongs and shame” and said “Europe will not yield itself to Hitler’s gospel of hatred.”

“And What Sir, Are Your Intentions?” (March 1, 1940)
William “Bill” Crawford (1913-1982)
19 x 22 in., ink and crayon on heavy paper
Coppola Collection

Crawford worked as a sports cartoonist and for the Washington Daily News and the Washington Post from 1936 until 1938. Crawford then joined the Newark News as its editorial cartoonist. He was a highly syndicated cartoonist, noted for his WWII commentary.

On 1 March 1940, Sumner Welles arrived in Berlin. He had just visited Mussolini in (neutral) Italy and would be going on to London and Paris afterwards. His instructions from President Roosevelt, as far as we know, were to seek a basis for peace and to offer the United States’ services as mediator.

Unfortunately, World War II was not about to end that easily. Hitler was in no mood to give up the conquered territory in Poland, or Czechoslovakia, or anywhere else. Welles was fluent in German and needed no interpreter when talking with Hitler, whom Welles found to be ‘dignified.’

On the same day (March 1, 1940) Hitler received a break that would end up leveraging Mussolini. That day, the British had announced that they were cutting off shipments of German coal to Italy. This was a heavy blow to the Italian economy and threw the Duce into a rage against the British – warming his feelings toward the Germans, who promptly promised to find the means of delivering their coal by rail. Taking advantage of this circumstance, Hitler got off a long letter to Mussolini on March 8, which Ribbentrop delivered personally in Rome two days later.

The day before March 1 (February 29—it was a leap year) Hitler had taken the reportedly unusual step of issuing a secret “Directive for the Conversations with Mr. Sumner Welles.” It called for “reserve” on the German side and advised “as far as possible, Mr. Welles be allowed to do the talking.” It then laid down five points for the guidance of all the top officials who were to receive the special American envoy. The principal German argument was to be that Germany had not declared war on Britain and France but vice versa; that the Fuehrer had offered them peace in October and that they had rejected it; that Germany accepted the challenge; that the war aims of Britain and France were “the destruction of the German State,” and that Germany therefore had no alternative but to continue the war. A discussion [Hitler concluded] of concrete political questions, such as the question of a future Polish state, is to be avoided as much as possible.

Hitler received Welles and insisted that the Allied war aim was “annihilation,” that of Germany “peace.” He lectured his visitor on all he had done to maintain peace with England and France.

“He Needs More Than A Cheering Section” (February 5, 1940)
by Cyrus Cotton “Cy” Hungerford (1889-1983)
13 x 18 in., ink on paper
Coppola Collection

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.”

“Every Defeat A Victory” (January 8, 1940)
by Charles (Chuck) Werner (1909-1997)
14 x 18 in., ink and crayon on textured paper

Charles (Chuck) Werner won the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning in 1939 for a cartoon he did for the Daily Oklahoman titled “Nomination for 1938” which allowed for the transfer of the Sudetenland to Hitler’s Germany (October 6, 1938). At age 29, Werner was the youngest person to win the Pulitzer. Werner left the Daily Oklahoman to be the Chief Editorial Cartoonist at the Chicago Sun in 1941 before leaving for the Indianapolis Star in 1947. Throughout his nearly sixty-year career, many U.S. Presidents expressed interest in Werner’s cartoons, including Lyndon B. Johnson and Harry Truman requesting cartoons for their presidential libraries.

At the outbreak of WW2 on September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland and they carved up the spoils based on their secret agreement with Stalin. Three months later, in late November, the Soviets went after Finland in what is called The Winter War. The terms for carving up Europe were all, as we would learn much later, spelled out in that agreement with Germany, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

Finland repelled Soviet attacks for more than two months and inflicted substantial losses on the invaders while temperatures ranged as low as −43 °C.

The Battle of Raate Road was a battle fought during the Winter War, January 1-7, 1940.

During January 6, heavy fighting occurred all along the Raate Road as the Finns continued to break up the enemy forces into smaller pieces. The Soviets attempted to overrun Finnish roadblocks with armor, losing numerous tanks in frontal attacks, but were unsuccessful.

The Soviet commander, Vinogradov, ordered retreat back to the Soviet border. The despairing Soviet troops began to escape, but many soldiers froze to death without proper clothing or supplies. The Finnish army captured a tremendous amount of materiel in this battle.

Vinogradov and two of his chief officers, Volkov and Pahomov, retreated in the middle of crucial battles. According to reports, this act had a fatal influence on morale. As they reached the Soviet lines four days later they were court-martialed, found guilty and sentenced to death; the executions were carried out immediately.