Target Snafu

This at once imaginative and deadly serious cartoon- told by mosquitoes- depicts the manner in which pilots-to-be are rigorously trained to earn their wings and go into battle. Potential mosquito soldiers are screened with the "Malaria Germ Detector." Only those with it are 1-A and are recruited; the others are 4-F. The mosquitoes are depicted as the enemy, with the leadership saluting as if they were Nazis. The mosquitoes train through an obstacle course of flyswatters, DDT spray and flypaper, and maneuver through netting. Later, they will win a medal of honor, the "Order of the Rising Temperature." An aerial-photo reconnaissance team is convened, and weaknesses in enemy defenses are identified. Snafu, of course, has an unmended hole in his mosquito netting. His naked posterior is the "target for to-night." Everything is prepared, and sorties are launched.

Private Snafu, Mosquitoes

Robert Bruce has been cited as a probable contributor to this cartoon.

"The Toy Trumpet," by Raymond Scott, can be heard in one musical passage.

Animation was reused in a later Friz Freleng cartoon, "Of Thee I Sting."

Frank Capra, who was in charge of The Army-Navy Screen Magazine during the Second World War, is credited with having invented the character of Private SNAFU (a play on the army acronym for "Situation Normal- All Fouled Up"). The character model sheet was originated by Art Heineman and Chuck Jones.