Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe, WWII cartoons

Duty Honor Country

Active member
I looked around on the forum and I couldn't find anything on Bill Mauldin's Willie and Joe. Mauldin was in the Army durring WWII and started to draw cartoons about US soldiers in the field. In stead of drawing the soldiers clean cut, he drew them as they were, filthy and in need of a shave. Mauldin made a few people in high places mad, but his popularity with the common soldier kept his cartoons alive. Here are a few of my favorites. More can be found at http://ww2.pstripes.osd.mil/02/nov02/mauldin/

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"Able Fox Five to Able Fox. I got a target but ya gotta be patient."

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"Nonsense. S-2 reported that machine gun silenced hours ago. Stop wiggling your fingers at me."

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Fresh, spirited American troops, flushed with victory, are bringing in thousands of hungry, ragged, battle-weary prisoners.

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"Now that you mention it, it does sound like th' patter of rain on a tin roof."
 
I can't seem to be able to get the image in like you guys but the one I always liked is number 35. An old Cavalry 1st Sgt turns his back, hides his face and shoots his broken down jeep like he would've done a wounded horse years ago.

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Here you go - DTop
 
I love Willie and Joe. I bought the book a while back. My fave is the one where one turns to the other and says, "You saved my life earlier. Here, you can have my last pair of clean socks."

The brass hated the comic. The dogfaces loved it. That says volumes.
 
Patton demanded Mauldin to stop drawing the officers in such a negative light and said that it destroyed morale. Eisenhower told him to stop his complaining.
 
TheGrinch073 said:
Patton demanded Mauldin to stop drawing the officers in such a negative light and said that it destroyed morale. Eisenhower told him to stop his complaining.

According to Mauldin, t was Patton and his officers who destroyed morale...
 
My Granddad had an autographed copy of one of the original books of his comics from when they were all compiled after the war. I found it as a youngster in the early 70's, and enjoyed them then, eventhough I didn't understand a lot of them at the time.
 
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