DONALD DUCK, PLUTO, DUMBO AND BAMBI, PROTAGONISTS IN THE SECOND WORLD WAR

During World War II, the U. S. government, as a method of financing, issued so-called war bonds, public debt securities used by the state to finance war conflicts. In addition to obtaining funding, it was also a way of involving society in the defence of the homeland.

For the fund-raising campaign, the U. S. government relied on a massive advertising campaign that involved film studios, the press, radio stations, TV channels, media houses, and co?mics editorials... But the cornerstone of this campaign was the Hollywood actors.

One of these initiatives was All-Star Bond Rally, a 17-minute short film produced by the 20th Century-Fox where more than 70 movie stars (Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, James Cagney, Bing Crosby, Bette Davis, Marlene Dietrich...) interpret themselves with the purpose of selling bonds.

Another modality, with the same purpose and which also implied Hollywood celebrities, were the mi?tines and promotional events in the form of electoral campaigns. In one of these promotions, actress Carole Lombard, Clark Gable's wife, died when she was returning from an act in Indiana when the plane she was traveling in crashed.

American President Roosevelt awarded her? the Medal of Liberty and declared her? the first woman to die? in the line of duty in World War II. Another actress, Dorothy Lamour, was so successful in selling bonds that the government exempted her from paying taxes for life.

If funding was important, so was propaganda to make American society see that they were confronted and thus sell the need for mass recruitment.

And this is where Disney did his bit producing several animated short films such as Education For Death, the story of a German boy named Hans whom the Nazi regime educates to become a fanatic; The Three Little Pigs, in a version where the ferocious wolf, with a Nazi cap and a bracelet with the esva?stica, is incapable.

The protagonism of other Disney stars like Pluto, Dumbo or Bambi is something... different. PLUTO is Pipe Lines Under The Ocean, a pipeline built under the English Channel and supplying fuel from the United Kingdom to France to supply allied troops after the landing of Normandi?a and the beginning of the liberation of Europe.

In the Pluto operation, two different routes were developed: BAMBI, from Hampshire and crossing the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg (France), and DUMBO, from Dungeness to Ambleteuse (France). The first one to come into operation was Bambi, but when the Allies secured the French north coast, Dumbo, which was the shortest route, was launched.