Electric Boat Company advertisement describing the exploits of its submarines during WWII in the Pacific. The drawing depicts an assault on Makin Island where U. S. Marine raiders landed from submarines.
Robert L. Benney (1904-2001) a prolific painter and illustrator "who belonged to the vanishing breed of American combat artists". When the United States entered World War II, combat artists added another dimension to what the public at home gleaned from grainy newsreels and still photos. Most of the artists were members of the armed forces.
Mr. Benney became one of the accredited civilian correspondents who went into battle to paint and draw the reality as well as the raw emotions in what they witnessed at close quarters.
They sent home the colors of gun smoke and flamethrowers and bloody bandages. Mr. Benney moved with the troops to cover land, sea and amphibious operations at Saipan and the Marianas. At the behest of Abbott Laboratories, he documented Army medical personnel in action in the South Pacific.
His representations of Army medicine were published in ''Men Without Guns.'' Other books to which he contributed were ''Our Flying Navy,'' ''The Illustrator in America, 1880-1980,'' ''WWII'' by James Jones, and Life magazine's ''Picture History of World War II.''
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/03/nyregion/robert-l-benney-97-prolific-combat-artist.html?_r=0
