1941.10.17 “Too Late and Too Little”
by Ralph Lee (1906-1947)
23 x 14 in., ink on board
Coppola Collection
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.
In mid-October 1941, the German drive on Moscow reaches its most dangerous phase and Allied aid looks painfully inadequate. Operation Typhoon launched October 2, 1941, and by October 15–17, German forces have broken through Soviet defenses, panic spreads in Moscow; parts of the city begin evacuating, and there is real fear that Moscow might fall. “Moscow” already engulfed in flames.
Aid is beginning to flow, but it is logistically difficult, politically constrained (US not yet at war), and materially limited. The hose barely functions, the help is too little and too late.
