This original ink drawing by Pulitzer Prize–winning editorial cartoonist Bruce Alexander Russell (1903–1963), chief cartoonist for the Los Angeles Times, offers a satirical take on Adolf Hitler’s disastrous decision to invade the Soviet Union during World War II. Titled “Put on that Old Field Gray Bonnet”—a sardonic play on a popular American song—the cartoon mocks Germany’s return to militarism and its reckless plunge into the Eastern Front.

Russell depicts a weary Hitler holding a German spiked helmet marked with a skull, as a diminutive Nazi figure clutches a paper labeled “Mauled Small Nations” and gestures toward a sign reading “Russian War.” The imagery highlights both the cycle of German aggression, from Kaiser Wilhelm’s gray-uniformed troops of World War I to Hitler’s armies in World War II, and the peril of repeating past mistakes.

On the verso, Russell’s original pencil sketch reveals the artist’s working process, making this a rare survival of both the concept and final execution of a published cartoon.

The piece is personally inscribed: “To Hayes Goodwin with kindest regards.”

Joseph Hayse (“Hayes”) Goodwin (1903–1996) was a Hollywood studio artist and illustrator active during the Golden Age of American cinema. His connection to Russell situates this cartoon not only within the pages of the Los Angeles Times but also within the broader artistic and cultural circles of Los Angeles in the 1940s.