Men of War #10

Code name: Gravedigger  
Gravedigger's plane is attacked by a Stuka and severely damaged. Gravedigger, real name Ulysses Hazard, manages to shoot the plane down with his Thompson submachine gun (!), but he finds the pilot gravely injured and has to take the controls and land the plane himself. The plane lands and starts to burn as Hazard drags the pilot away. It explodes, knocking Hazard unconscious, He is about to be killed by a German patrol when several children burst from the woods to kill the Germans.  
 
Two days later, Hazard wakes up in the children's house, the pilot having died. He learns the children's father was murdered by Germans who broke into the house and accused him of being an underground fighter. Their mother was taken away and their grandfather was about to be killed when the oldest daughter reached for her father's dropped weapon and killed the Nazis. The girl, Marie, explains their mother, Anna, has been taken to a concentration camp. The children armed themselves and began fighting back as they try to track down their mother.  
 
A German patrol arrives. The grandfather hands Hazard a locket with his daughter Anna's picture inside. Hazard and the Grandfather cover the childrens' escape, but when the children are pinned down, Hazard leaps to rescue them and is shot by a dying German. The grandfather, filled  with anguish and rage, empties his pistol at the Germans and is gunned down. Hazard, shocked to be alive, sees this and mows down the rest of the Germans.  
 
After burying the children's grandfather, Hazard walks away to continue his mission. He pulls the locket from his pocket to see it has a bullet indentation in it. The old man's locket saved his life. He turns and runs to catch up with the children to help them find their mother. 
 
Enemy Ace: 
Hans von Hammer, joined by his sister Ingrid and his father's nurse, stand in the rain at his father's grave. In the previous issue,  a French pilot, looking for von Hammer, strafed and killed his father instead. Von Hammer vows not to rest until he finds his father's murderer. He leaves his family and his new love behind to return to his command. On his way to his squadron, von Hammer happens upon two Spad airplanes shooting down a German observation balloon. He quickly dispatches the two enemy fliers, but is then attacked by the French pilot who killed his father, a Nieuport with a guillotine insignia on its fuselage. The Frenchman chases von Hammer through the night sky until von Hammer flies under a bridge, does a loop and gets behind the Frenchman, shooting him down and avenging his father. 
 
Von Hammer returns to base to face the man whose face he slapped after von Hammer believed he broke the rules of war. Pistols are broken out and they prepare to duel. Von Hammer's opponent flinches and fires early, giving von Hammer a free shot. Von Hammer fires into the air, sparing the man, who openly wonders why. Von Hammer, walking away, answers silently, "Because the killer skies have their victory--and need no more." 
 
Dateline: Frontline: 
Wayne Clifford, embedded with British troops in North Africa, writes in his notebook, in a collapsed house, a baby on his lap. In flashback, we see Clifford heading to the front with a Corporal Barr. In the previous issue, Clifford did not reveal a British colonel's cowardice, which would have ruined the colonel's political ambitions. The colonel, owing Clifford a favor, has given him a shot at better stories.  
 
Barr, Clifford's driver takes him to a vantage point to view the next battle. Through binoculars, Clifford sees a man in Arab robes attack both sides alone, on horseback, slinging grenades at both sides' tanks. Barr applauds the man's courage, understanding he is fighting for his country's freedom, a concept Clifford has trouble with. The horseman is gunned down by a hidden machine gun, and Barr jumps in the jeep to ram the machine gun with his jeep. Fighting with gusto, Barr destroys the machine gun, turns it on the enemy and fires until they fall back. All the while, Clifford is amazed by Barr's attitude, as if it were all a game. Barr explains when the shooting stops that conflict brings a man alive. 
 
A ricochet zings past. Barr believes the enemy is behind them and firs the machine gun into a house. When he stops shooting, a baby's cry can be heard. The men approach, knowing what they're about to see. A woman lies dead on the floor, her crying child next to her. Barr has killed one of the very people he was trying to protect from oppression. The damaged house is shelled and it collapses. As the air runs out, Clifford has managed to put the baby to sleep, but there is no help for Cpl. Barr, who has gone from a "glory soldier" to a "prisoner of guilt."