1944.04.01 “Waiting for the Green Light”
by George (Geo) White (1901 – 1964)
12 x 14 in., pencil/crayon on paper
Coppola Collection
George (Geo) White was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1901 and relocated to Tampa with this family in 1915. After completing a correspondence course in drawing, White studied art under Tampa artist Walter Collins. He started as a commercial artist at the Tampa Morning Tribune in 1928 and by 1934 was a regular cartoonist at the Tribune. His cartoons were featured on the front page and became a staple of the paper until his death on March 7, 1964. In 1943, a compilation of his World War Two cartoons were compiled and edited by Byron S. Stephens in a book entitled, The War in Black With White.
After the evacuation from Dunkirk in 1940 the Allies knew that to end the Second
World War they had to land powerful forces in German-occupied Europe. Four years later, on D-Day, these landings took place. Planning for D-Day gathered pace after the United States entered the war in December 1941.
Through 1942, an Axis victory in Europe seemed a very real possibility. And yet, in reaching widely, the Germans ended up overextended. In fall 1942, the Germans were knocked out of their positions in North Africa. The following summer, the Allies would claim Sicily and make their way into Europe through Italy. By winter of 1943, the Soviet Red Army forced the German army to retreat, slowly but surely, toward Berlin. And then in the summer of 1944, the Allies would make good on a promise to Stalin to open up a second front in Europe. When the invasion of Normandy occurred in June 1944, the German army was stretched as it fought a multifront war to the west, east, and south
The question for both sides on the invasion of Europe was “when” and not “if.” By early 1944, there was a sense of readiness, and a tension between secrecy and the misdirection needed to deflect Hitler from learning about the actual plans. In the months leading up to the invasion, the Allies conducted a substantial military deception, code named Operation Bodyguard, to mislead the Germans as to the date and location of the main Allied landings. They leaked enormous amounts of false information to the Germans of the impending invasion.
There was an impending sense of readiness – troops waiting for the green light.
April 1, 1944 - A 10-mile strip along much of Britain’s coastline becomes a restricted zone. Civilians living outside the zone are forbidden from entering it, and those inside cannot leave.
