Cartoons and comic strips tell the story of the AEF from a different angle
Fighting a war involves a lot of hard work, but soldiers found time to pursue personal interests, too. Some wrote stories and poems, some sang songs, and still others drew cartoons and comic strips.
I chose some of my favorites to share from the Air Service Poems and Cartoons. There are sixty pages of cartoons beginning on page 196. I apologize that some of the lettering is difficult to read, but don’t forget that you can click on any of the images to open them in the Fold3 viewer, where you can see them in high resolution.
The cartoons touch on many aspects of life in the military, from enlistment to life in the trenches, learning to fly, digging, interacting with the French, fighting, sleeping, and coming home at last. Some are silly, some are touching; all together they tell the tale (in their own way) of what it was like to serve in the American Expeditionary Forces.
Don’t forget to check out the rest of the comics in the Air Service Poems and Cartoons.