Willie and Joe

Willie and Joe - by Bill Mauldin, bless his soul!






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




-whatever

-Lou

 

Needless to say, I agree..... I mean, heck, it's my avatar, for Pete's sake!





Another of my faves.....





"I'll let ya know if I find th' one wot invented th' 88."



damn, my Dad hated those '88's. He's never talked much about his experiences, but he won't even mention his time over there without commenting on "...those damn '88's!"

-whatever

-Lou

 

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

 

More please!

 

Reportedly, Patton hated this one...





"Beautiful view! Is there one for the enlisted men?"




....and he probably wasn't too enamored with this one, either!...






"Radio th' ol' man we'll be late on account of a thousand-mile detour."

-whatever

-Lou

 

"This is th' town my pappy told me about."

 

Love this one thusfar. Gotta luv those StuGs.

 

One of my favorite books is Maudlin's Up Front. His description of a soldier writing a letter home, using a pencil stub and a candle stuck to his leg is unforgetable.

 

One of my favorites:

"And now we're entering American territory, old man."


JT

 

"Them buttons wuz shot off when I took this town, sir."

 

thanks for the link Jeff!!
i gotta get one of his books, those are so great!

 

Personally, I'm waiting for one of THESE. They're a double volume, hard-covered, slip-cased set due out next February (Feb- 2008).

They can be pre-ordered at Amazon with an additional 5% discount on pre-orders.

Looks to be a nice addition to the library.

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I don't have the panel, but one of my favorite captions:


"He's right Joe," says Willie after a superior admonishes them for the slovenly way they look. "When we ain't fightin' we should ack like sojers."

=================================

-whatever

-Lou

 

Here's a nice picture of Bill Mauldin in Italy








In a June 1945 magazine article, Time described Bill Mauldin and his jeep named for his wife Jean:

In a jeep named "Jeanie" he covered the fronts, commuting between Cassino and the Anzio beachhead, making his left-handed sketches with India ink, which he got from the engineers, and three carefully guarded worn-out brushes.​

Unlike Patton, Gen. Mark Clark was a real Willie and Joe fan, and made a jeep permanently available to Mauldin to go anywhere he wanted to meet the troops and get inspiration for future panels.

-whatever

-Lou

EDIT: Although Mauldin was in the 45th Infantry Division - I'm sure the airborne troops would forgive him for 'blousing' his boots! (...and they don't forgive THAT that easily!)

 

My favorite Bill Mauldin Willie and Joe cartoon was one where both were in a foxhole with bullets zipping by and shells bursting and one says to the other: "Th' hell this is not the most important hole in the world...i'm in it!"

Rest in Peace Bill. :-((

 

Here's a series of British cartoons of WW1 which shows a similar type of humour about life at the front
Propaganda Postcards of the Great War, Bruce Bairnsfather

 

Thank you Redcoat. I just took a look see and these are nice, very nice ;-)) I wonder if Bill got any inspiration from these?