Military Comics Issue No. 3
|
October 1941
Writer: Will Eisner, Artist: Chuck Cuidera (Cover art by Cuidera)
The Doomed Battalion: One night on Blackhawk Island, the sound of a Nazi aircraft engine comes from the sky. The Black Knights run to man their defenses when a plane crashes. From the wreckage they pull a small, colorfully dressed Chinese boy who is cursing a blue storm. He tells them of "nurse missee Ann" who has been running a clinic in Yugoslavia and now is in danger from invading Nazis. The Chinese boy had cobbled together a plane from wrecked Nazi fighters and come to get help from the famous Blackhawks. They trick the Chinese into tying himself up and then they fly to the nurses rescue. Thinking them Nazis, the beautiful young nurse bravely attacks them with a pitch fork, but once she learns they are the good guys, she immediately falls for the handsome leader of the team. The Blackhawks organize the towns people into a defense force but they are betrayed by a turncoat. Blackhawk decides the only way to defeat the invaders is to destroy a damn and release a flood to wash them away. As he leaves on what seems a suicidal mission, he and Nurse Ann clinch for a good-bye kiss. Though the other team members protest against blowing up the damn and killing Blackhawk, Andre says they will follow Blackhawk's orders and pushes the plunger of the detonator. The damn crashes down but Blackhawk staggers from the rubble, battered but alive. With machine guns on the ground and in their planes in the sky, the Blackhawks wipe out the waterlogged Nazis. The local Nazi commander launches a retalitory air strike which the Blackhawks defeat with a "synchronized under and over" attack (the "editor's note" explains that this difficult maneuver has been performed by a few British fliers but only the Blackhawks can do it en masse). They return to the ground where the Nazi general cowardly attempts to shoot Blackhawk in the back. Andre pushes his leader aside and takes the bullet himself. Andre, knowing he is mortally wounded, throws himself down the hill, causing an avalanche that buries the Nazis. Nurse Ann returns to Blackhawk Island to care for the wounded Blackhawk. There the Chinese boy attacks them for leaving him out of the rescue. The last page of the story has Blackhawk step out of the panels to introduce the newest member of the team, Chop-Chop and to tell all the boys and girls reading that the next issue would have a full color map of Blackhawk Island.
Other stories in this issue:
Blue Tracer (by Fred Guardineer, a good story featuring a unique aircraft)
Loops and Banks (by Bud Ernest)
Sabotage (by Texas Blaisdell)
Secret War News (a true war story)
Yankee Eagle (by John Stewart)
Shot and Shell (by K. Nordling)
Miss America (by Tom Hickey)
Archie Adkins, Desert Scout
Death Patrol (by Jack Cole)
Back to Military/Modern Index Page
All characters, pictures, and related indicia on these pages are the property of DC Comics. All text is ©1998-2001 Dan Thompson, except where otherwise noted. This homepage is not intended to infringe on the copyright of DC Comics to its characters, but was created out of gratitude to all the wonderful writers, artists, and editors who created the Blackhawks.