Brian Coppola :: WW2 Era

1943.07.17 “Last Chance Crossroads” By Ralph Lee

Artist: Ralph Lee (All)

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1943.07.17 “Last Chance Crossroads” By Ralph Lee Comic Art

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Artwork Details

Title:	1943.07.17 “Last Chance Crossroads” By Ralph Lee
Artist:	Ralph Lee (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Illustration
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	617
Likes on CAF:	1 2
Comments:	0
Added to Site:	3/18/2020
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Description

1943.07.17 “Last Chance Crossroads”
By Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
14 x 22 in., ink on board

Ralph Lee was an editorial cartoonist for the Portland Oregonian. He died suddenly, at 41, in January 1947. His cousin, Art Bimrose, was the editorial cartoonist for the Oregonian for more than three decades. In 1937, the Oregonian hired him part-time to work on printing plates. Following Lee’s death, Bimrose was hired as the Sunday editorial cartoonist.

This cartoon, from July 17, 1943, has auspicious timing. Let me explain.

The Allies won the North African Campaign on May 13, 1943, with a quarter-million German and Italian troops surrendering at Tunisia. With its massed army and navy in the southern Mediterranean and free for new action, British and American strategists faced two options: transfer these forces north for the impending invasion of Europe from the English Channel, or remain to strike at southern Italy, which Churchill called “the soft underbelly of Europe.” At this crossroads, the Allies, after some dissension, decided to press north into Italy.

The invasion was assisted by some subterfuge (see the 1957 film “The Man Who Never Was”). In April 1943, a month before the Allied victory in North Africa, German agents recovered the body of a British Royal Marine pilot from the waters off a Spanish beach. Documents in an attaché case handcuffed to the officer’s wrist provided a goldmine of intelligence about the Allies’ secret plans, and German agents quickly sent the documents up the chain of command where they soon reached Hitler. Der Fuehrer studied the captured plans carefully, and, taking full advantage of their top-secret details, directed his troops and ships to reinforce the islands of Sardinia and Corsica, west of Italy, against an impending Allied invasion. There was only one problem: The recovered body–which was not a Royal Marine but actually a homeless man from Wales who had committed suicide–and its documents, were an elaborate British diversion called Operation Mincemeat.

The invasion of Sicily began early on July 10, 1943. By the afternoon, supported by shattering naval and aerial bombardments of enemy positions, 150,000 Allied troops reached the Sicilian shores. General Patton commanded the American ground forces and General Montgomery led the British. Hitler had been so deceived by “Mincemeat” that he had left only two German divisions in Sicily to battle Allied soldiers. Even several days into the attack he was convinced that it was a diversionary maneuver and continued to warn his officers to expect the main landings at Sardinia or Corsica.

This cartoon appeared a week later. And over the next two weeks, the Italian people made their choice: the fascist regime fell rapidly into disrepute. On July 24, 1943, Prime Minister Benito Mussolini was deposed and arrested.

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	Brian Coppola Premium Gallery Owner
Joined:	March 2009
Last Login:	September 2025
Country:	UNITED STATES
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