# Joe Dope Camouflaged His Garand (1942), Will Eisner's rifle-care rhyme

Joe Dope camouflaged his Garand is a 1942 three-panel Ordnance Department cartoon signed by Pvt. Will Eisner. Joe Dope buries his rifle in sand, it fails to fire, and caricatured German soldiers take him prisoner, under the tag "Don't be a dope!" (NAID 514701).

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      Joe Dope camouflaged his Garand

      Joe Dope Camouflaged His Garand (1942), Will Eisner's rifle-care rhyme
      Pvt. Will Eisner's 1942 Ordnance Department cartoon: Joe Dope buries his Garand in sand, it won't fire, and German soldiers take him. NAID 514701.

## Techniques named on the archive record

Name-callingFear appeal
      Date1942Made byOrdnance Department, U.S. Army; artist Will EisnerMediumPosterCountryUnited StatesRegimeRoosevelt AdministrationNARANAID 514701; Record Group 44SourceIdentified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they areSourceU.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters , retrieved October 4, 2026SourcePublic domain (U.S. government work) Ordnance Department, U.S. Army. National Archives and Records Administration, RG 44, 44-PA-1143H (NAID 514701).
      Object, image, and catalog record from the FRAME archive. Text on this page is CC BY 4.0. Image rights are as the archive records.

      Full record at propagandaarchive.org

  Joe Dope camouflaged his Garand is a 1942 three-panel Ordnance Department cartoon signed by Pvt. Will Eisner. Joe Dope buries his rifle in sand, it fails to fire, and caricatured German soldiers take him prisoner, under the tag "Don't be a dope!" (NAID 514701).

## What the sheet prints

Content note: the German soldiers are drawn as grotesque caricatures. The archive's content note says so.

The archive describes three panels. Joe Dope buries his Garand rifle in sand. The gun fails to fire. German soldiers take him prisoner behind barbed wire. A five-line limerick tells the story, and the sheet closes on a tag and an instruction.

Joe Dope camouflaged his Garand

By burying it deep in the sand;

He leapt from the mire,

But the gun wouldn't fire_

So the Nazis took Joseph in hand!

Don't be a dope!

HANDLE EQUIPMENT RIGHT

[signature: PVT. Will Eisner, ABERDEEN PVG. GDS.]

[imprint:] U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE : 1942-O-478615

[imprint:] ORDNANCE DEPARTMENT, U. S. ARMY

Transcription in the FRAME record, read from the image and not independently checked. Full record at propagandaarchive.org. NAID 514701, local id 44-PA-1143H, Record Group 44.

## Who made it

The imprint names the Ordnance Department of the U.S. Army, and the Government Printing Office number dates the printing to 1942. The signature reads "PVT. Will Eisner," followed by "ABERDEEN PVG. GDS." The archive records the audience as the Army's own forces and the purpose as warning or informing. The archive's own summary calls it a cartoon drawn for soldiers, on rifle care. The National Archives holds it with the World War II posters; the record gives no print run.

## How to read it

Name-calling and fear appeal are the tags. The name-calling is aimed at the American soldier, not the enemy: "Don't be a dope!" The fear is capture. The lesson itself is ordinary maintenance. A rifle buried in sand will not fire, and the sheet wants every soldier to know it.

The sheet treats its readers as adults who can laugh at a fool and take the point. It does not threaten them with punishment or invoke a law. It mocks a made-up private so that a real one keeps his weapon clean. The caricatured captors are the weakest part, and the verse would have worked without them.

The Ordnance Department also issued They're Closer Than You Think! the same year, with a machinist at his lathe instead of a soldier. Another Army series that trained by mockery, Benny the Bungler, appears on this site as Are You Like Benny? The anti-Nazi propaganda hub collects the German-enemy sheets.

## Sources

- FRAME object record, Joe Dope camouflaged his Garand, 1942. Ordnance Department, U.S. Army; artist Will Eisner.

- U.S. National Archives and Records Administration, Record Group 44, World War II Posters, 44-PA-1143H, NAID 514701, retrieved by the archive 4 October 2026. Rights as recorded: public domain (U.S. government work).

Canonical: https://americanpropaganda.org/collection/joe-dope-garand-in-sand-1942/