Random Back Issues #167 - Our Army at War #229

That is pretty much the only way I would end up in a leadership position, too.

Not quite an 80-page giant, because it's only 64 pages, this comic reprints 5 stories from the first half of the 1960s. Including one we saw an image from a few months ago, but we'll get to that.

Leading off, "Battle of the Sergeants," contrasts Sgt. Rock with Sergeant Krupp. The differences in their training - at one point Rock comments that they both went to "school", but learned different lessons. Krupp is hearing a speech about their superiority and how they will rule the world, Rock and the other GIs see a picture of people in concentration camps, and are told not to play big hero with them, because they already fought the Nazis - and how they look when they're done. Rock says Krupp looks like he just stepped out on parade, while Rock looks like the parade stepped out on him.

Krupp earns his stripes by playing to win, whatever it takes. Like pretending to be a wounded motorcycle courier, then blowing up an Allied tank that stops to help. Rock, well, see image at the top. Krupp loves his stripes, Rock just feels the weight of obligation. On his first patrol as a sergeant, they find a camouflaged base, but Krupp shows up in a weapons carrier before they can leave. Rock's unit gets steadily picked off until it's just him and Ice Cream Soldier, who gets shot by a pursuing fighter. So Rock starts carrying him, determined to get at least one guy back alive.

But Krupp's still on their tail, telling the halftrack to lay mortar fire in front of Rock, driving him back to them. Krupp wants to have fun, to the point he's mad when he thinks his prey were blown up. Doesn't seem to jibe with his "anything to win" attitude. Rock's not dead, and takes out the halftrack, but Krupp uses the smoke for cover. Out of ammo, Rock tries to lead him away, and gets his gun smashed, then shot. Which brings Krupp in close - he wants to gloat - where Rock can pull him down and handle things hand-to-hand. As he staggers away from the late Sergeant Krupp (now likely sporting a broken neck) and towards Ice Cream Soldier, Rock notes his stripes feel lighter with every step. Well, yeah, your sleeves are gone. 

Second, we have "The Mouse and the Tiger," where an Allied pilot is shot down in a snowstorm. He has intel about a Nazi surprise attack, and a broken leg that says he's not going anywhere under his own power. It's a race to reach him, a Nazi Tiger on one side, and what's probably a U.S. Stuart (the basis for the original Haunted Tank) on the other.

Both tanks come under fire from enemy aircraft, but in keeping with the title, the Stuka that attacks the mouse is called a "hawk", while the Mustang is dismissed by the Tiger as a "pigeon". The mouse survives because the Stuka's cannonfire sets the forest ablaze, and the pilot doesn't see some treetops through the smoke. The Tiger shrugs off the Mustang's machine guns and blasts it from the sky. Both arrive at the downed pilot, but the "mouse" can't get anywhere near close enough to actually hit the "tiger", let alone hurt it. Especially with its treads leaving a perfect trail in the snow. . .

Third is "The Fighting Blip", where an American "daylight" ace gets lost on a photo recon mission. At least he's got a belly tank of extra fuel. Too bad he's out after dark and comes under fire from a Nazi night fighter. The night fighter has radar, so the American can't get away no matter what he does. Unless he can give the enemy something else to shoot at. 

In "Two Men - One Hill!" Nazi and American paratroopers try to take a hill. Someone forgot to check the forecast, because high winds blow everyone far away, except one soldier from each side. The story plays up the gap in experience, as we're told Corporal Karl Schmid has 'planted his big boots on 20 battlefields - and never lost yet,' while PFC Andy Allen's boots, 'had only touched training fields.'

They land at the same time, the wind catching their parachutes and flinging them around until Schmid hits Allen's gun, breaking it so it hits Allen in the chin. Allen picks himself up and follows the trail, right to a narrow passage where Schmid is waiting. Allen takes one to the jaw and rolls over the edge. Schmid seems confident that's that, but still holes up in a tank they tried to unsuccessfully air-drop on the mountain. So when Allen, who caught a tree growing from a seam in the rock, hauls himself up and resumes the ascent, Schmid chucks a potato masher at him. Third time is the charm?

You know that's not how it works. Allen somehow dove for cover behind the tank - even though he's nowhere near it - they fight, and Allen's the one who crawls out of the tank. Good thing his buddies are just as tough. Woulda been awkward, him holding the hill and all those Nazis show up. 20 battlefields' of experience right there.

Finally, "Surrender Ticket!" Colonel von Kritz decides it will be a big propaganda win if they can subject some of these green GIs to such pressure they surrender without a shot. But he picked Easy Company as his target (the air recon photos are detailed enough you can see the stripes on Rock's helmet), so he's shit outta luck.

Kanigher keeps introducing some Easy Joe, then immediately kills them, then the airdrop of the "surrender tickets." So "Prince Charmin'" and his hair care routine interrupted permanently by Stuka dive bombers. As the temp rises and water runs low, the C.O. advises everyone save their canteens. Then an artillery barrage. The C.O. leads them out (at an oddly slow walk, isn't that a time to run?), then collapses because he was mortally wounded. Which leaves Rock in charge, as von Kritz insists they 'tighten the nutcracker on these G.I. peanuts!' Now really low on water, a couple of guys aren't willing to wait when two Tiger tanks perched on a ridge overlooking an oasis open fire. Rock catches the second (and threatens to shoot anyone else who tries), but one guy runs out there and gets killed. 

Alas, the Nazis filled in the oasis. Can't drink sand, and this time, some of the Joes don't toss their tickets. There's another waterhole ahead, one Rock assures the guys can't be filled up (doesn't say anything about whether it could be poisoned, though) while worrying about their morale. But good old Beanpole is always willing to lend a hand. Help a tired guy walk. Shoulder his rifle. Act as a human shield. Uh, about that last one. . .

Easy reaches the waterhole, but all of them, except presumably, Sgt. Rock, kept their surrender tickets last time. Which is what von Kritz was counting on, and the reason why the soldiers and tanks barring the path to the water aren't firing. Fed up, Rock grabs the bazooka and fires it at a tank, while running. (Probably the least accurate part is an American bazooka doing that to a Nazi tank in one shot.) He hits some quicksand, but that seems to spur everyone into action. Bulldozer runs up to act as loader, and some of the guys climb into the burning tanks to provide cover fire for the ones climbing the hill. Von Kritz's insistence the G.I.s must break is met with a punch in the mouth.

The kicker is Rock hands von Kritz a surrender ticket, admitting him to any American POW camp for the rest of the war. Boom! Roasted.

{8th longbox, 15th comic, Our Army at War #229. "The Battle of the Sergeants," by Robert Kanigher (writer), Joe Kubert (artist), Gaspar Saldino (letterer), colorist unknown. "The Mouse and the Tiger", by Ed Herron (writer), Ross Andru (penciler), Mike Esposito (inker), colorist and letterer unknown. "The Fighting Blip," by Bob Haney (writer), Jack Abel (artist), Saldino (letterer), colorist unknown. "Two Men, One Hill," by Haney (writer), Mort Drucker (artist), colorist and letterer unknown. "Surrender Ticket!" by Kanigher (writer) and Kubert (artist), colorist and letterer unknown.}

Sunday Splash Page #402

"Ticket Punched," in Our Army at War #229, by Robert Kanigher (writer), Joe Kubert (artist), colorist and letterer unknown

The Grand Comics Database says this story was originally published in Our Army at War #149, but the reprint is the issue I have, so that's what I'm going with.

The fourth 4 DC war title we've looked at - after Fighting Forces, G.I. Combat, Star-Spangled War Stories - Our Army at War is by far the one my dad had the most of. I don't know if that owes to a specific preference, or simply which series was on the spinner racks when he had a chance to buy comics.

It seems like Our Army at War was a war comic without a main feature for its first several years. Sgt. Rock shows up in issue 81's "The Rock of Easy Co.!", but it wasn't until #90, "Three Stripes Hill!" that the cover actually says "Sgt. Rock." After that, he's the lead feature up through #301, at which point the book was simply retitled Sgt. Rock (though maintaining its numbering), and continued for another 121 issues.

With one exception, all the issues I have are in the #200-240 range, by which time Joe Kubert is writing a lot - though not all - of the stories, and Russ Heath is artist. That said, and no offense to Russ Heath, who's excellent, if I'm posting a splash page of Sergeant Rock, it's going to be one Joe Kubert drew.

Because much of the character comes from the visuals Kubert provided. The stubble, the ragged uniform and battered helmet suggesting someone who sees combat constantly, so there's no time for a fresh uniform or a shave. Issue 217 even jokes about this, as the "combat happy Joes of Easy" try to surprise Rock with a fresh uniform, only to find it got torn up by the shrapnel in their latest battle and he looks rattier than ever.

There's also the fact that when I think of "tough" in comics, characters drawn by Joe Kubert are what I picture. They aren't teeth-gritting, one-liner spitting badasses, or guys with huge muscles. Rock is drawn as fit, and more than one Sgt. Rock story ends with hand-to-hand combat. No room for shooting, so club guys with rifle butts or just punch them, but win the fight. But he's almost wiry, Kubert's shading emphasizing the outline of Rock's ribs more than his abs. The way Rock's clothes and those ammo belts hang off him, he looks like he's not getting near enough food. I can't imagine k-rations were all that filling or nutritious.

Kubert's characters are tough because they look like they've survived some shit. Mountains where all the softest materials wore away over time, all that's left are the most resilient elements. Rock survives countless encounters with infantry, tanks, artillery, aircraft, bombs, grenades, everything. He's inside a tank when it gets blown up more than once just in the issues I have, and if he has to be carried out, he's on his feet again before long.

And yet, Kanigher and Kubert and Heath all emphasize that Rock is still human and still capable of compassion. Even if he's a sergeant because he was the last guy alive on a 'certain hill he'd rather forget,' he takes the responsibility seriously. He looks after his guys, trying hard to keep them alive even when he knows there's gonna be casualties. If two wander off and get lost in the desert (issue #225), Rock goes out alone to track them down. If it's winter and everyone's exhausted, Rock handles the recon patrol himself rather than 'squeeze the last drop' from them (#228). If they get a new guy who acts like an army of one and gives Rock a lot of shit, Rock still leads the charge to save that guy when he gets captured (#214.) He lets them joke around when they're just marching, and will even toss some jabs back at them. He knows he's in a war, but hasn't let it steal his humanity.

Kanigher's stories tend to have some sort of hook that repeats. In "Surrender Ticket," it's that a Nazi officer has the idea of applying pressure to one specific unit of the GIs (freshly landed in North Africa), until they surrender without a shot, a demoralizing result. So we get repetitions of Easy Co. coming briefly under fire, a few guys (always introduced a page earlier) being killed, and then "surrender tickets" raining down, with more and more soldiers keeping them as the issue progresses. In "Easy's Had It!" Rock is worried the guys rely too much on him, that he's all that keeps them going. All his attempts to assert that he's a flesh-and-blood human like them, and that they have to keep going even if he falls, are undercut by him single-handedly saving Easy Co. from fighter planes or tanks. Until finally he does fall, and Easy has to take a hill without him.

(To be clear, it's not always this approach. Kanigher wrote issue 214, which focuses on the new guy, Private Hogan, and why he's so determined to be a one-man show.) 

Kubert doesn't necessarily shun this approach - we saw it in a Random Back Issue not long ago - but at least in the issues I have, more of his stories are a specific mission with some sort of twist ending. "Surprise Party" in 217 was one Kubert wrote and drew, "Dig In, Easy!" in issue #222 is another, where it's a question of what Easy Company will do once Rock is captured.

Regardless of the writer, there's always a sense war is an ugly business, and none of Easy are happy to be killing, or something has gone wrong. Issue 233 focuses on a new guy, Johnny Doe, who grew up in an orphanage, never adopted, and feels being a soldier is the first time he was ever wanted. So he kills (it's significant that Rock often talks of "fighting", but not "killing.") Kills Nazis surrendering, arguing Nazis have faked surrendering before (as Audie Murphy could attest). Kills farmers moving towards them with weapons, dismissing the possibility they might have been resistance fighters or just regular farmers.

Always quick on the trigger, always waving away Rock's questions or doubts with a lazy grin (afer one of Rock's questions, he says, 'If I'm wrong, Rock, I'll apologize.') The climax coming when Johnny is ready to drop a grenade into a house where the Nazis are holding hostages, because he's sure (or indifferent) that the woman at gunpoint is working with the Nazis. But he hesitates, and it's an open question whether Johnny dies because he held the grenade too long, or because Rock shot him to stop him. There's never doubt in the stories that the war needs to be fought, the Nazis need to be stopped, but Rock's written as someone convinced there are lines that shouldn't be crossed in the process. You can't take back killing someone, nor can you bring back one of your own that dies because you pushed the fight to a bloodier conclusion than necessary.

Random Back Issues #154 - Our Fighting Forces #132

Who knew a dog could do the "slow bad-ass walk away from an explosion" bit? 

Of the 3 stories in this issue, we start with Robert Kanigher & John Severin's, "Pooch: The Winner", less a Losers story and more a flashback to happier times. On their way to a mission briefing, Gunner and Sarge spot someone entering Buckingham Palace. It's Pooch, an all-white dog that served with them in the Pacific Theater.

Pooch remembers them, too, and thus begins the flashback, where we see Gunner and Sarge weren't excited initially about their new partner, but Pooch immediately warns of a Zero diving silently out of the sun, and that's convincing enough. He later saves a whole group of Marines from being killed by a 'banzai charge', Japanese infantry planning to hold onto their grenades until they're on top of the Marines' ammo dump. Which raises the question, why did the barber set up next to the ammo dump? There must have been other boxes to use for chairs somewhere.

Pooch falls ill, and minus his senses, Gunner and Sarge are captured on their next patrol - clearly having gotten lazy, trusting the dog to do all the work - with the idea they'll be bait to lure the other Marines into a trap. Pooch leads the way, catching a bullet in the process (though he stays upright long enough to chew through the ropes holding Gunner and Sarge.) While he recovers, Gunner and Sarge are redeployed to Europe, where their entire squad is wiped out in the first battle. They meet Captains Cloud and Storm not long after, and we return to the present. Pooch seems eager for a team-up - likely more fun than whatever function he's attending at the Palace - but Gunner and Sarge figure their "loser" stink would finish Pooch off for sure this time. Or maybe having your super-awesome dog pal back would turn things around?

"The Invincible Armada", by Kanigher and Ric Estrada, is a "history repeats itself" story, as we open on Don Julio Francisco Alverez y Diego promising to bring his son the head of Sir Francis Drake as a present (as seen in Sunday Splash Page #193.) Yes, it's time for the Spanish Armada to invade England! There's no way fighting a naval battle against the British can go badly! Don Julio's pretty cocky, but Drake's smaller ships are too nimble to hit. As he falls beneath the waves, Don Julio vows the Armada will return.

The only returning his widow does is to Prussia, but 350 years later, his descendant, a Luftwaffe bomber pilot, prepares to "avenge" the defeat. But the Nazis are apparently still operating under the delusion the "bomber will always get through", so there's no fighter support, and Spitfires send Don Julio the Sequel to a watery grave of his own, his plane coming to rest beside a Spanish galleon (remarkably well-preserved after 350 years.)

"Cabbages and Kings" is one of Sam Glanzman's U.S.S. Stevens' tales, this time focused on a Bo'sn Egloff, who ventures on deck during a typhoon to make sure everything is secured. While he gets the guns taken care of, some of their food was stored topside for lack of room below, and the crates burst, flinging cabbages everywhere. While Egloff ties down the remaining food, he notices an ensign being swept away. Egloff saves him by chucking a "monkey's fist", a lead weight on the end of a heaving line, then towing him back aboard. The ensign (who looks years away from being able to grow facial hair) was trying to help Egloff, but just ended up creating more work for the man. That's why I don't do group projects. 

{4th longbox, 161st comic. Our Fighting Forces #132, by Robert Kanigher (writer), John Severin and Ric Estrada (artists), Sam Glanzman (writer/artist), colorists and letterers unknown}

Saturday Splash Page #128

"Unfriendly Skies" in Star Spangled War Stories #154, by Robert Kanigher (writer), Joe Kubert (artist), colorist and letterer unknown

The five issues of this DC war comic I have (courtesy of my dad's collection), are all from the start of The Unknown Soldier's tenure as lead character, a spot he'd hold until the book ended around issue 204. That said, none of the comics I have contained a splash page for The Unknown Soldier I thought really showed off Kubert's work, so Enemy Ace (who became the second feature after his own lengthy stint as the lead) it is.

Kanigher takes a few issues to find his stride with the Unknown Soldier. The first couple of issues just position him as a sort of super-secret agent man, well trained in unarmed combat and disguises, while also implying that "The Unknown Soldier" has been a recurring title held by different soldiers in all of the U.S.'s various wars. This issue establishes the backstory for this specific guy (I don't know if the notion of previous Unknown Soldiers ever comes up again), as your stereotypical clean-cut kid that joined the Army when his older brother did. They're stationed together in the Philippines, and the older brother dies from a grenade when the Japanese attack.

Younger brother survives, badly scarred from the explosion, and from beating a lot of Japanese soldiers to death(?) with his bare hands. Feels like Garth Ennis pulled from that for Punisher: Born, albeit he took the notion in a very different direction. Kubert keeps the guy's face in shadow until it can be swathed in bandages like Claude Rains in The Invisible Man.

The expert in weapons and combat and disguise stuff remains, and the former sergeant introduced in issue #155 becomes what I think passes for a supporting cast, since I only have one more issue past that. I'm not sure if the Soldier achieves his stated goal of being, one man in the right place to change the outcome of the war, as he claims, but it wasn't for lack of trying. The last issue I have, he takes his own shot at Hitler, simultaneous with the Valkyrie plot. The both fail, of course. *sad trombone*

As for Enemy Ace, Kanigher writes him with a sort of fatalistic nobility. The guy believes the sky will be the only true victor, outliving them all, but he also seems determined to never come back from a mission without shooting something down. I guess you could peg that as equal opportunity for him to be shot down, and the whole thing is a death wish. He doesn't seem to take any joy in anything, Kubert drawing him as eternally grim and brooding, always separate from the other pilots and ground crew.

Sunday Splash Page #207

"88-mm Wake-Up Call," in G.I. Combat #148, by Robert Kanigher (writer), Russ Heath (artist), John Costanza (letterer), colorist uncredited

Another of DC's war titles my dad was apparently very fond of, although this'll be the last one we see for a few years. All of the issues I can recall him having were in the stretch from #137 to this issue. Only missed the crew's Stuart tank being destroyed by about three issues. This is actually the last of a five-issue run where it was "BIG G.I. Combat", because they were doing double-sized issues (for only a quarter). Mostly by rerunning stories from earlier issues.

For example, other than the story above, this issue has four other comics, ranging from 5 to 19 pages, that originally ran in the late 1950s or early 1960s (this issue came out in 1971). But at this point, the odds that there were many kids reading G.I. Combat in '71, that had been reading DC's comics in 1960 were low. My dad would be an example, since I don't think he was buying comics at that point. 

It gives you an interesting mix of writers and artists. Here's a Bob Haney story about some Navy scuba guys running into a bunch of weird traps. Here's Mort Drucker drawing a Korean War story. Here's an older Haunted Tank story with Joe Kubert art.

You can see more of a formula in some of the earlier stories. The Joe Kubert drawn Haunted Tank has that structure where the central premise is laid out (the ghost of Jeb Stuart makes a prophetic warning about the crew's lives hinging on one shot), and then they keep getting in confrontations with either seem to disprove the prophecy, or fulfill it, while there's an element whose purpose hasn't been shown yet (an old French soldier sitting by the window in a small town). 

That's not quite as prevalent by the early 1970s. The story this week's page is from is about the crew being placed under the command of a new general who insists they all be clean-shaven and showered when going into combat. Because it's professional. There's not really the same structure. The Haunted Tank wins a fight, the general scoffs at their appearance, they clean up, they win a bigger fight later where the general ends up looking like, 'he just stepped out of the coal bucket, sir.' It's almost more like a sitcom, with the final panel being the general getting a one-liner about why it's OK if he looks like a bum.

The Haunted Tank had been the lead feature in the book since at least issue 90, and held that position until pretty much the book ended. Although there's a brief stretch in the 260s where it looks like DC tried to pivot to a trio called "The Mercenaries" as the lead. There was a crew shift, as one guy died and was replaced by a black American G.I. who I think they met previously when he worked at an ammo depot (issue 141, which I have.) Of course, then you have the awkward bit where you've got a black man fighting in a tank supposedly blessed by the ghost of a Confederate general, but Jeb was the only one who could see or hear his namesake, so maybe it's just a matter of everyone else thinking their boss is a bit daffy.

Sunday Splash Page #193

"Narrator: England Did Not Fall," in Fighting Forces #132, by Robert Kanigher (writer), Ric Estrada (artist), colorist and letterer unknown

One of DC's several war comics back in the day, of which my dad was obviously a big fan. To the extent I see anyone online talking about Fighting Forces (or Our Fighting Forces, whichever), it's in reference to Jack Kirby's stint as writer/artist of the Losers. Which started around issue #152, and lasted for maybe a year.

My dad doesn't have any of that. This is the from last issue of the title I ever saw in his collection, out of maybe five, total, all between this one and when the Losers took over as the lead feature in #123. Essentially a proto A-Team, consisting of a PT boat skipper (Captain Storm), a fighter pilot (Captain Johnny Cloud), and two Marines (Gunner and Sarge), thrown together as a squad to handle jobs that required all their disparate skills. Unfortunately, none of the issues I have had good splash pages for the Losers.

They were "losers" because, well, they'd all lost. Storm's PT boat got blown up on a mine and only he survived. Cloud was shot down along with the rest of his squadron and only he survived. Gunner and Sarge had done pretty well in the Pacific Theater, but once they were reassigned to the Western Front, they too lost their entire squad. 

And since Robert Kanigher never met a horse he wouldn't beat until it was dog food, the four of them were constantly bemoaning their fate as losers. If the little boat they used for a nighttime incursion sank as soon as they reached shore, well it was from associating with losers like them. If the only plane they could get was a 30-year-old biplane, well that's just a loser's luck. Even when they were succeeding in missions they were somehow still losers.

The power of positive thinking is clearly lost on these guys.

They took over as lead feature from Lt. Hunter and his Hellcats (literally as Hunter and his crew need someone to handle a mission while they go on R&R), which took over from Captain Hunter, which took over from the "Fighting Devil Dog", who took over from Gunner and Sarge (and Pooch!). 

Besides the Losers story, the issue would usually contain one other, slightly shorter story. Usually set in an earlier historical time period, possibly with some sort of twist to it. Such as "The Invincible Armada", where the Spanish Admiral up there sinks with his fleet, and 350 years later, his descendant is a Luftwaffe bomber pilot trying to avenge his ancestor's defeat by bombing England. It doesn't go any better for him, and naturally, his plane sinks into the channel and comes to rest next to a Spanish galleon. Remarkable how that works.

Random Back Issues #43 - Star Spangled War Stories #155

Yeah, Unknown Soldier, I can't imagine why a black man in the 1940s might sound bitter.

OK, so the writing is not the appeal for this week's entry. No, it's that sweet Joe Kubert art that's the draw. First up, we have "Invasion Game!", where Unknown Soldier is parachuting into Occupied France under the cover of being a traveling salesman. He's seeking the leader of the Nightengale resistance cell Chat Noir, who is a former US Army sergeant, court-martialed. He never does say what the actual charge they made against him was, which I feel like is Haney trying to hedge and not actually suggest the Army might have engaged in racism.

Anyway, they've been talking for about five minutes when the Nazis find their hideout. In the escape, one man is wounded, and Chat Noir says they have to leave. 'We can't afford to sacrifice two. . .for one!' The resistance meets up again, and the Soldier explains Nightengale is needed to take the Nazi stronghold at Fleur-Le-Duc, to support the Allied landing at that beach. On June 5th.

You can see where this is going.

Chat Noir is suspicious, considering they got attacked right after they welcomed the "Salesman". The Soldier goads him by saying he ran out on his buddies because of a 'bum rap.' I'm pretty sure the Nazis aren't going any easier on Resistance fighters than official soldiers. Nightengale takes the stronghold, but surprise! There's no Allied landing. What's more, now they're under attack from a bunch of tanks and Stukas. The Soldier catches some shrapnel in the leg, and explains to an angry Chat Noir they used Nightengale to draw troops here, so they won't be able to make it back to Normandy by tomorrow. Considering how slow the Allies initial progress was through France, I'm not sure one day is gonna help that much, but fine.

Chat Noir, curiously, decides to help the Solider reach the shore and a French fishing boat, stating that since they're fighting the same enemy, 'maybe we're still part of the same country!' The Soldier must have gotten Chat Noir reinstated, as his batman, or second, or assistant, something like that.

Then we've got an untitled Enemy Ace story, where von Hammer is formally challenged by the Canadian ace, The Hunter. The Hunter showed up a couple of issues earlier to challenge two German pilots who ran for their lives from him. Von Hammer made them accept, and the Hunter shot them both down.

But this time, with challenging the Hammer of Hell, the Canuck bit off more than he can chew. Or maybe not. Their battles a back-and-forth thing with von Hammer in pursuit for most of it, but the Hunter always staying just out of reach. Finally, the Hunter turns so they're on a collison course. von Hammer can't pull away because it'll leave him exposed, so they just keep flying right at each other and shooting, until they both fall from the sky.

Von Hammer survives almost unharmed, despite his plane landing nose first into what looks like solid rock. That's what being drawn by Joe Kubert will do for ya. Your entire body transmutes to steel. He's determined to take his opponent in as a war prisoner. The Hunter's got other plans, and first tries to shoot von Hammer. He misses, but it doesn't matter, because he dies of his wounds anyway. Oh well, no prisoner for von Hammer, but he'll get another victory cup. Of course, as always, the sky is the true victor.

[10th longbox, 169th comic, Star Spangled War Stories #155. "Invasion Game!" by Bob Haney (writer), Joe Kubert (artist). Enemy Ace story by Robert Kanigher (writer), Joe Kubert (artist)]