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1960: A line to the Almighty?
Pre mobile phones, of course.
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1960: Important Phone Call?
Picture windows feature quite often in 1960 Punch. They always cause an awkward dilemma.
I have now used all my 1960 cartoons and have decided to go back to 1918. Although we know that the war was to end before the end of the year this seemed a far of dream until the autumn of that year.
Common themes were still rationing and women replacing men in yet more jobs. A new topic now appears which playfully suggests that the war would last for another generation or even forever.
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1918: Horse Training
The quantity of horse based cartoons suggests that horses were still seen as an important element of the military machine. Very few were actually used in action but they were often employed in transporting material of different kinds in situations where motorised transport was not feasible.
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1918: Another Reluctant Quadruped
I wonder what the padre would have said. Today a cleric would be pleased to find a soldier being aware of Noah’s story. In 1918 it would have been quite normal. The young soldier would have been told the story of the Flood at Sunday School.
I think that the reluctant animal is not a horse but a mule. They were heavily used during the World War One.
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1918: Women Soldiers
The British Army suffered a severe manpower shortage during World War One. Women began to take over many auxiliary roles to make male soldiers more available for active service.
The body language here is finely depicted showing the contrast between the posture of the recent recruit on the right and that of the experienced woman soldier on the left.
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Gung Ho in 1918?
This kind of ‘humour’ was much more common early in the war. By 1918 it looks quite strange. Although the figures are drawn realistically the situation presented is utterly implausible. The overzealous Tommy would stand no chance. My theory this has been drawn to keep up morale on the Home Front. It was not that firm by this stage of the war. There was a distinct undercurrent of war weariness. The death rate and the privations were beginning to tell. In Germany it was much worse but people in Britain would not have known that.
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1918: Hero Worship
In spite of the trend towards war weariness there was also a tendency to venerate outstanding acts of heroism. How much better it would have seemed if daring exploits could quickly bring the wholesale slaughter to an end.
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1918: Hating the ‘Hun’
Throughout the 14-18 war we have seen cartoons showing hatred of all things German. Here we see anticipation of how German goods would be viewed after the fighting had come to an end. Immediately after the war the Germans were in no position to export anything but by the mid-Twenties commerce resumed and the hatred soon disappeared.
I remember that during World War Two things were different. While opposing the Nazis there was no hatred of the German people. For instance during WW1 no music written by German composers was performed in public. (There was an attempt to let Beethoven off because he was called Ludwig van Beethoven – not von. The suggestion was that he was really a Belgian – an ally. In fact Belgium didn’t even exist in Beethoven’s lifetime.)
In WW2 there was no such embargo though I’m not quite sure about Wagner. Hitler was so besotten with Wagner that people might have avoided him. I certainly don’t recall hearing his music being broadcast by the BBC.
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1617 and 1917: A Secret Place
The cartoon would have been drawn in 1917 and then published in 1918.
It is a priest who is being hidden in 1617. Catholics were seen as dangerous enemies of the state. Only 12 years earlier Guy Fawkes had been prevented from blowing up the King and Parliament. Many aristocratic families remained true to the Roman Church. If caught the priests were likely to be executed. Nowadays owners of stately houses proudly show off their priests’ holes where priests used to be hidden.
In 1917 the current owners of the house are hiding food. They do this because hoarding is widely condemned at the time. In times of food shortage it is natural to want to build up a stock against the time when certain items become unavailable. This was judged to be antisocial because it makes shortages more likely. The personal policy was to hoard but public policy was against hoarding.
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1918: There’s Something about a Soldier!
Rational thought suggests that it is better to be a civilian in a time of war because you face fewer dangers. But a war creates strong pressures to participate actively. Shakespeare famously puts this feeling into words in Henry V’s speech before the battle of Agincourt:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.
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1918: British Army v. Nature
The Orderly Sergeant has a one track mind. The moon’s reflected light in the barrack room window is not subject to King’s Regulations. We detect here a minor dissatisfaction with the military mind.
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1918: Prisoners in Quantity
The German officer has been put down by the mere Tommy to the amusement of the German other ranks. Dougie ‘Aig is, of course, Field Marshall (soon to become Earl Haig), the supreme commander of the British Expeditionary Force.
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1918: Spin doctors already at work
I do wonder what kind of war work this lady is resting from. Sitting in a committee for a couple of hours a month? I don’t think she has been doing an eight-hour shift filling shell casings with gunpowder.
Judging by their clothing and surroundings I would agree with you Mr. M. Not for them the harsh realities of war - not unlike today’s austerity measures.
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1918: Downsizing
She has given up the car (chauffer in the Army?) but does not intend to let War restrict her life style.
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1918: She doesn’t understand…
The little girl hasn’t properly understood the full implications of this remark.
By this stage in the war people had begun to harden themselves to the heavy load of deaths. As well as ‘stop a bullet’ another cynical description popular at the time there was ‘he is pushing up daisies’ as the answer to what is so-and-so doing just now.
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1918: Uncle Sam to the Rescue
America’s entry into the war in 1917 was a really important factor in Germany’s defeat. After all the bloodshed the three main participants (Britain, France and Germany) were near exhaustion. As more and more fit and able American soldiers arrived the balance was moving decisively in the Allies’ favour. Two main reasons stand out for the Germans’ acceptance of defeat – the arrival of the Americans and the widespread civilian riots protesting against inadequate food.
Naturally the artist shows the Americans in a good light indicating a more free and easy relationship between Officers and Enlisted Men than existed in the British Army. Theodore (aka Teddy) Roosevelt was the larger than life ex-President.
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1918: Is this a job that only man can perform?
The title of this cartoon mentions combing out. That was the urgent pressure to release as many men as possible for the army. Often there was an attempt by the man’s employer to have an exception made for this ‘essential’ employee. The Queen makes it clear that the case has been heard by a tribunal which has decided that an exemption cannot be made for the male court jester.
This cartoon is one of many drawn by the same artist in which modern situations are placed in the past, literature or the bible. Had there really been any combing out in the Middle Ages then naturally the King would not need to ask for an exemption.
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1918: Away from the Front
A fair number of soldiers never saw the front line even in 1918. Various support activities used up a substantial number of men although there was a strong intent for women to assume these support roles. The soldier complains that his current task cannot be sees as contributing to the war effort.
Since Britain is an island an invader would have to arrive by sea. Sea forts were established around the coast to attack an enemy invader. Since the man scrubbing the table is a Gunner we can take it that this is a Royal Artillery unit. No invasion was ever attempted which means but the Sergeant Major and the Gunner were going to see out the war in safety.
HAPPY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
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1918: Scarcity was the Normal Situation
Although the war is not mentioned it clearly has influenced this cartoon. The title here is the Queue Habit. We can see that many items are scarce. Today Post Offices are few although there are many sub post offices. More and more transactions take place online.