Word: mauldin
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Last week in Denver, asked what he thought of Mauldin's cartoons, Georgie Patton snorted: "I've seen only two of them and I thought they were lousy. He's the Bairnsfather of this war and I don't like either of them...
...Broad-Minded. Willie and Joe, speaking their sardonic mouthfuls, usually say what youthful Bill Mauldin himself has to say on the subject of war. But in a book (Up Front, published this week) written around them, Mauldin has added further remarks, for the benefit of those civilians who find Willie and Joe a little bewildering. He explains: "I haven't tried to picture this war in a big, broad-minded way. I'm not old enough to understand what it's all about...
...Front, which is like a long letter home, sets forth some of Bill Mauldin's favorite gripes, which are the gripes of all infantrymen. Among them: revulsion at "spit & polish" in the field; envy of rear-echelon men who take over the towns after the infantrymen have captured them, occupy all the best spots and drink all the liquor; disdain for brass hats full of arrogance and stuffing...
Some brass hats have squawked at Mauldin's lampooning, which he freely admits is sometimes "seditious." Some brass hats complained that Willie and Joe did the U.S. Army no credit. Well known by now is the story of General George Patton threatening to have Stars & Stripes banned from his Third Army as long as Mauldin's unkempt heroes appeared in it. Patton and Mauldin were told by Eisenhower's headquarters to discuss the matter. Said Mauldin after the conference: "I came out with all my hide on." Stars & Stripes continued to circulate in the Third Army...
...plenty of other generals, including Ike Eisenhower, recognized their worth. Mauldin was occasionally lectured but never suppressed...