First World War Cartoon - Joffre

1915
Silent
1m

A cartoonist sketches out the grim stalemate of WWI through the metaphor of football.

This surviving fragment of an unidentified film is reminiscent of the famous Christmas ceasefire kickabout of 1914. Yet its message is much darker, as the Commanders in Chief of the French and German armies (Joseph Joffre and Kaiser Wilhelm II himself) are effectively committing their soldiers' lives to a long conflict in which a draw is not an option.

Lighting sketch with hand of artist of cartoon scene. Joffre and Kaiser Wilhelm and drawn on a football pitch with a ball marked "war" between them. The caption: "Joffre 'Draw! No, we go on to the end'" is written. The next sketch is of a well but is incomplete.

Note: there is no animation in this film

The First World War: Drawing the Enemy

Britain's cartoonists take up their brushes to confront the Kaiser and his armies.

As the First World War raged across Europe, Britain's animators dedicated themselves to the propaganda effort. These determined artists, among them Lancelot Speed, Dudley Buxton, GW Studdy and Anson Dyer, unleashed an arsenal of tricks with one objective - making the enemy look ridiculous, and victory seem inevitable.

In cartoon after cartoon, lightning sketch after lightning sketch, the elaborately-moustached 'Kaiser Bill' was subjected to a catalogue of indignities, whether at the hands of 'Tommy', 'John Bull' and their allies, or just falling victim to his own hubris.