They’re all out –
Rickenbacker lauds Russia
Premier Stalin pictured as super-nationalist
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Nation called to celebration of brotherhood
President sends message to conference of Christians and Jews
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More fathers to be called up
Lag in 1943 inductions creates new need
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Pinups giggle at Army view of morale art
What’s a sarong for? Asks the gals who wears one
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Heart fails gang stooge as gunman slays leader
‘Little Zookie’ shot down on his Chicago doorstep as rivals battle for Capone throne
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Law violated by portal pay, Republic says
Miners’ travel time never intended under labor act, court told
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Army dog decorations bring an investigation
Washington (UP) –
The War Department is investigating the award of an Army decoration to Chips, war dog hero of the Sicilian campaign.
The inquiry was instituted, it was said, because there is no provision in Army regulations for warding medals to dogs, however heroic.
Chips reportedly received the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star and the Purple Heart.
If the War Department decides it does not approve of giving medals to dogs, presumably it could invalidate the awards to Chips.
Nelson sticks to WPB’s plan to hoard paper
Government holds surplus despite protest of industry leaders
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Riot-swept internment camp returned to civilian rule
WRA to take over Tule Lake camp for second trial at ‘peaceful conditions within the center’
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‘Murder, Inc.’ pilot messages mother
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Ditch Sinatra for own folks, women urged
Defense conference hears Legion head urge service law
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American designers of ‘new’ fashions revive creations brought out in Paris
Ultra-low waistlines and shorter-short skirts are highlight of New York display of styles
By Lenore Brundige
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Roving Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
‘Finest cartoonist of the war’
“Corp’l Ginnis and his Very pistol will now contribute Th’ Star o’ Bethlehem.”
“No complaints, Sir – Except Company K is puttin’ rocks in its snowballs again.”Ernie Pyle’s column today tells about Sgt. Bill Mauldin of Phoenix who draws cartoons for the Italian edition of the Stars and Stripes, serviceman’s newspaper. Ernie says it is agreed generally that the sergeant’s cartoons are the best of any produced by servicemen in this war. Here are two samples of Sgt. Mauldin’s work, reproduced in the United States for the first time.
In Italy – (by wireless)
Sgt. Bill Mauldin appears to us over here to be the finest cartoonist the war has produced. And that’s not merely because his cartoons are funny, but because they are also terribly grim and real.
Mauldin’s cartoons aren’t about training-camp life, which you at home are best acquainted with. They are about the men in the line – the tiny percentage of our vast Army which is actually up there in that other world doing the dying. His cartoons are about the war.
Mauldin’s central cartoon character is a soldier, unshaven, unwashed, unsmiling. He looks more like a hobo than like your son. He looks, in fact, exactly like a doughfoot who has been in the lines for two months. And that isn’t pretty.
Mauldin’s cartoons in a way are bitter. His work is so mature that I had pictured him as a man approaching middle age. Yet he is only 22, and he looks even younger. He himself could never have raised the heavy black beard of his cartoon dogface. His whiskers are soft and scant, his nose is upturned good-naturedly and his eyes have a twinkle.
His maturity comes simply from a native understanding of things, and from being a soldier himself for a long time. He has been in the Army three and a half years.
64 KP days in four months
Bill Mauldin was born in Mountain Park, New Mexico. He now calls Phoenix, Arizona, home base, but we of New Mexico could claim him without much resistance on his part.
Bill has drawn ever since he was a child. He always drew pictures of the things he wanted to grow up to be, such as cowboys and soldiers, not realizing that what he really wanted to become was a man who draws pictures.
He graduated from high school in Phoenix at 17, took a year at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago, and at 18 was in the Army. He did 64 days of KP duty in his first four months. That fairly cured him of a lifelong worship of uniforms.
Mauldin belongs to the 45th Division. Their record has been a fine one, and their losses have been heavy. Mauldin’s typical grim cartoon soldier is really a 45th Division infantryman, and he is one who truly has been through the mill.
Mauldin was detached from straight soldier duty after a year in the infantry, and put to work on the division’s weekly paper. His true war cartoons started in Sicily and have continued on through Italy, gradually gaining recognition. Capt. Bob Neville, Stars and Stripes editor, shakes his head with a veteran’s admiration and says of Mauldin:
He’s got it. Already he’s the outstanding cartoonist of the war.
Mauldin works in a cold, dark little studio in the back of Stars and Stripes’ Naples office. He wears silver-rimmed glasses when he works. His eyes used to be good, but he damaged them in his early Army days by drawing for too many hours at night with poor light.
He averages about three days out of 10 at the front, then comes back and draws up a large batch of cartoons. If the weather is good, he sketches a few details at the front. But the weather is usually lousy.
Wears Purple Heart medal
He says:
You don’t need to sketch details anyhow. You come back with a picture of misery and cold and danger in your mind and you don’t need any more details than that.
His cartoon in Stars and Stripes is headed “Up Front… by Mauldin.” The other day some soldier wrote in a nasty letter asking what the hell did Mauldin know about the front.
Stars and Stripes printed the letter. Beneath it in italics, they printed a short editor’s note:
Sgt. Bill Mauldin received the Purple Heart for wounds received while serving in Italy with Pvt. Blank’s own regiment.
That’s known as telling ‘em.
Bill Mauldin is a rather quiet fellow, a little above medium size. He smokes and swears a little, and talks frankly and pleasantly. He is not eccentric in any way.
Even though he’s just a kid, he’s a husband and father. He married in 1942 while in camp in Texas, and his son was born last Aug. 20 while Bill was in Sicily. His wife and child are living in Phoenix now. Bill carries pictures of them in his pocketbook.
Unfortunately for you and Mauldin both, the American public has no opportunity to see his daily drawings. But that isn’t worrying him. He realizes this is his big chance.
After the war, he wants to settle again in the Southwest, which he and I love. He wants to go on doing cartoons of those same guys who are now fighting in the Italian hills, except that by then they’ll be in civilian clothes and living as they should be.