[Steely Tom]

I liked the Ernie Pyle cartoon that showed two bored GIs amusing themselves by shooting a big rat from range of about six inches.

As one of them aims his .45 at the rat, the other one says something like “make sure you hit a vital organ.”

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

“make sure you hit a vital organ. They’re known to charge when wounded!”

Yeah, I used to have all their cartoons in pulp paperback books. Wish I still had them!

[SES1066]

I liked the Ernie Pyle cartoon that showed two bored GIs amusing themselves by shooting a big rat from range of about six inches.

Ernie Pyle was a top-notch war correspondent but not a cartoonist. Methinks you are thinking of one of the "Willie & Joe" cartoons by Bill Mauldin. First in the 45th Infantry Newspaper and then in the European Stars & Stripes, these depictions of rough and worn front-line GIs made all but the top brass sympathize while laughing.

[doorgunner69]

Nah, it was Bill Mauldin: Willie and Joe. Had a paperback of his cartoons.

IIRC, Willie has a flashlight on the rat, Joe has the .45 inches from the rat's head. The caption went like:
"Aim between th' eyes Joe, sometimes they charge when wounded".

[X Fretensis]

Are you sure that that was by Ernie Pyle? He was noted as a an author and correspondent, not a cartoonist. Bill Mauldin’s Willy and Joe had a cartoon very similar.

[2001convSVT]

Still funny, LOL.