Loading supplies on to C47 Dakotas wasn’t the most glamorous job in the Far East. Hard work even for strong men and vitally important but hardly the stuff of death- defying adventures.
So, as Private Seth Yarrow and his mates diligently got on with their back-breaking chores, they never once imagined that they’d end up alongside a unit of Chindits – fighting the Japanese deep in the heart of the Burmese jungle!
Story: Bill Styles
Art: Olivera
Cover: Janek Matysiak
With six-inch guns, torpedo tubes and a Freidrichshafen-33 floatplane to hunt out targets for her, the German commerce raider Valkyrie was feared by British merchant crews in the South Atlantic in the early years of the First World War. So much so that the Royal Navy sent an M-Class destroyer to track her down, and destroy her.
However it was another, much more unexpected, enemy that the Valkyrie’s crew had to fear…
Story: Alan Hebden
Art: Rezzonico
Cover: Ian Kennedy
Six words. Just six small words were all it took to turn the tough, loyal team that formed the crew of a fighting desert tank into a bunch of snarling, suspicious enemies.
And those were the words Jack Baker, tank commander, heard from Military Intelligence only minutes before he was due to leave on a dangerous operation —
“THERE IS A TRAITOR AMONG YOU…”
Introduction
Early Commando stories can be pretty gritty at times – there’s an early scene here which pulls no punches – principally because the Second World War was in the very recent past and many of the comics’ creators had “done their bit.” This tale is no exception; there are details in the story which add an air of authenticity difficult to give a story nowadays because knowledge of these minutiae have been lost.
So grab yourself a slice of the real stuff while you can.
Calum Laird, Editor
Story: Kellie
Art: Martin
Cover: Ken Barr
Originally Commando No78 (July 1963), re-issued as No547 (May 1971)
Sergeant Tim Sanderson had heard all about The Fighting Hawk from a dying relative. It was an old and priceless carving on an ebony staff, encrusted with fabulous jewels, used by an Arab tribe to call their brethren to battle. But that was in the distant past and he half-suspected that the whole thing was just a myth with no place in the savage desert clashes of nineteen-forty-two.
Luckily he was better at fighting than seeing into the future…
Introduction
The arid wastes of the North African desert have provided Commando writers with seemingly endless story opportunities. Over the year, too, we’ve seen many a tale based on quests to rediscover ancient artefacts imbued with power, whether symbolic or mystical.
In this case the prized object is a magnificent, jewel-encrusted staff used to by an Arab tribe to rally its warriors in an eponymous “Call To Battle.” But it is not just for them. The staff is something from an old, never-forgotten tale that also galvanises our everyman Commando hero, Sergeant Tim Sanderson, into action.
Scott Montgomery, Deputy Editor
Story: Ken Gentry
Art: Denis Mcloughlin
Cover: Jeff Bevan
Ooriginally Commando No 2229 (November 1988)
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