"Don't let the bastards get you down!" 1945

[Stephen Goranson]

A possible precursor to "don't let the bastards grind/wear you down" appears in
Quentin Reynolds' Officially dead;
the story of Commander C.D. Smith.
Quentin James Reynolds
1945
English Book Book 4 p.l., 3-244 p. 21 cm.
New York, Random House,  page 54.

Now [Colonel] Yosei gave us what he thought to be a horribly humiliating punishment. He put regular dog leashes around our necks and had his guards march us all around the camp. The men winked to us as we passed. One would call out, "Don't let the bastards get you down!" Another would call, "Better luck next time!" We didn't mind our "humiliation" at all. To a Jap such a march, held by a leash, would have meant a horrible loss of face from which he might never have recovered. To us it was just a laugh. Then we were loaded back into trucks and told that we were headed for Bridge House in Shanghai for questioning and trial. This sobered us considerably.

Stephen Goranson
http://www.duke.edu/~goranson

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org