In July 2023, I zoomed into the Aviation Cultures Mark VII – Flying High: Aviation in Popular Culture conference.
My paper was: ‘I wanted wings.’ Donald Duck, Pilot Officer Prune, and a motorbike: the popular culture of Stalag Luft III.
The talk varied a little from the abstract (as they often do - well in my case anyway) but it gives you a fair idea of what I cover:
Captivity was an alien state. Stalag Luft III’s airmen prisoners of war (POWs) needed to accept their newly ‘wingless’ state, make sense of incarceration, and learn to cope with it. Donald Duck was one icon of popular culture which helped them do this. Although an American army draftee, Donald desperately wanted to fly. Following a series of misadventures, he had his chance but, after falling from an aeroplane, the hapless bird became, like the POWs themselves, a downed airman. Trapped behind bars in wartime logbook illustrations, wearing wings insignia and displaying the artist’s own POW number, Donald represented the fallen airmen. ‘I Wanted Wings!’, he wailed.
This paper highlights the significant place of popular culture in Stalag Luft III’s wartime history and post-war memory. It discusses how the airmen POWs appropriated Donald Duck and other cartoon icons such as Bugs Bunny and their very own Pilot Officer Percy Prune to make sense of their experience by reframing capture and captivity as a humorous interlude. But the airmen did not just embrace existing popular culture. They created their own as they negotiated life behind barbed wire. Ultimately, aided by Hollywood and Steve McQueen’s motorbike, they entered it.
Here's the link if you're interested in listening in:
https://echo360.net.au/media/ee5291dc-9070-4974-9b2f-8a744d8d10da/public
