Rag Rag : The Rag Rag Annual Magazine, 1941

University of Manchester Student Union

Rag Rag

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Volume 18 of the University of Manchester Rag Rag. Cover features a cartoon snake coiled around a column amongst war-torn ruins, wearing an auxiliary fire service (AFS) helmet and holding a medical canister. A sign beside the column says ‘1941 Keep it up!’. The magazine was produced by students to raise money for charity. This volume was produced during the Second World War, and highlights changes to University life during the war.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Features include ‘Military News’ and ‘Bunghole Bungs the Battleaxe’, both satirising imperial military strategies, unlikely stories of individual courage and arrogant attitudes that were being celebrated and proposed by retired aristocratic generals. 'Bunghole Bungs the Battleaxe' includes a strong racial slur. There are also jokes referencing Mussolini, Hitler and blitzkriegs. Cartoons show naval conflicts, gas masks, air raids, female military personnel, food shortages and firefighting. Some cartoons show sexualised female imagery and racial stereotypes.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>There are comedic advertisements for Redfern’s scrap merchants, Saint Mary’s hospitals, C.W. & H. Dean furnishers, Ellis Sykes fireplaces and baths, Swinton & District steam laundry, Manchester Corporation Transport Department, the Manchester and Salford Hospital Saturday and Convalescent Homes Fund, Birkett & Bostock bread, S. P. V. paints & varnishes, Jones & Jackson decorators, Manchester Royal Eye Hospital, Victoria Memorial Jewish Hospital, W. H. & N. Bethell air raid shelters, Manchester Northern Hospital and others.</p>