Writer – Paul S. Newman
Artists – Jay Scott Pike, Werner Roth, Joe Orlando, Ed Robbins
Letters – Artie Simek

Beginning the book off with a bang is a story called To Die at Dawn!, exciting for the fact that there is nothing quite as good as a prison break when done right. This particular one is a little different from the norm as it takes place during the Second World War and focuses on those prisoners of war comprised of servicemen, both English and American. It is soon learned that Hitler, who is tired of Germany getting bombed by the Allies, has sentenced them all to death when the sun rises and so a desperate plan is put into place to free them. Court-Martial deals with a man who cannot stand the sight of a gun, much less having to carry one. When he and the men he serves with come under fire, he is unable to serve and his commanding officer orders him arrested to await a court martial. As it is, he finds himself conscripted to work at the local field hospital and as they all find themselves under attack once more, he is finally able to prove himself, exonerating his reputation by doing so. Some men get stuck in their ways and find it hard to change their beliefs as seen in the tale called The Last Battle! The man in this story has no taste for war and thinks of himself and those like him as just cannon fodder so that those captains and generals and so forth might collect more medals. Things take a turn when a group of horsemen enter the battle and all four hundred of them are killed to a man in what will come to be known as the Charge of the Light Brigade. The book closes with a final chronicle called Trip Flare about a hill some soldiers clear in Korea and it is one that they do not want the enemy retaking. So it is that one man remains behind to set up some grenades and flares, a fail-safe as it were to discourage the enemy from returning and yet things are not always as easy as they might seem and they do indeed return, much to the soldier’s dismay. Four more great tales percolate within these pages with some great artwork and some great writing by various people to make for an excellent package. Nothing like a good war book to entertain when in need of some reading to pass the time.

4 out of 5