fatman

Social commentary from the English "Punch" magazine. The 'faux French' caption reads: "Mais un monsieur qui pense lui meme tres beaucoups plus bon regardons que vraiment il est!" (Rough translation: Just a man who thinks he's better looking than he really is!"). The character in question may be a famous figure of the time, but more likely this is Punch identifying social 'stereotypical' characters seen around town, such as this business trader, perhaps seen as vulgar in his efforts to flaunt his wealth by dressing showily unlike the smartly dressed soldiers around him, something of a 'flash harry' type, with a phonetic knowledge of a foreign language passing for education. Or it may be a comment on how the French (the soldiers observing) see the English as uncouth of dress and speech? The lower picture now seems embarrassingly ill-informed, but was perhaps typical of the time.

The triangular configuration of the contact fuze housings distinguishes this as a "Pumpkin Bomb." This was high explosive analog (similar in size, shape, and weight) to the implosion "Fat Man"-type nuclear bomb (which had a square configuration for its four contact fuze housings). Approximately 50 of these bombs were employed in missions over Japan in preparation for the mission that resulted in "Fat Man" being dropped over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. See: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pumpkin_bomb