Commando This Week: 5395-5298

It might be Christmas week, but DC Thompson isn't going to stop for something like that. Instead, they're giving us Christmas Commando issues - because what else would we get at this point in December? Issues 5395-5398 have everything from patrol boats to glider pilots, from Blitz to telepathic links with eagles! It’s a pre-Christmas miracle!

5395: Home of Heroes: HMAS Expendable 
Story | Brent Towns | Art | Morhain & Defeo | Cover | Keith Roberts

There’s something fishy going on in the Coral Sea — and it’s not the fish! A new kind of terror is lurking there and reports coming out of the area are shocking to say the least. According to the survivors, American Patrols Boats are attacking their own allies! Well, leave it to the crews of the HMAS Wombat and HMAS Tiger to get to the bottom of it!

5396: Gold Collection: War Eagle 
Story | Skentleberry | Art | V. Fuente | Cover | Penalva | Originally Commando No. 371 (1968).

A Commando whose pre-published title was ‘Spy in the Sky’, Issue 5396 ‘War Eagle’ is a yarn you won’t want to fly by! When Sergeant Bill Drake takes a whack to the noggin, he soon finds that he is connected to an injured eagle he helped. The bird of prey seems to listen to his very will — his will to prey on the nasty Nazis on a mountain!

Skentleberry’s penchant for oddball Commandos is marvellously brought to life by Victor de la Fuente’s interior artwork with a Penalva cover perched on top!

5397: Action and Adventure: Cardiff Blitz 
Story | Gary Dobbs | Art | Khato | Cover | Neil Roberts

For the people of Cardiff, the evening of the 2nd of January, 1941, was just another night and another raid from the German Luftwaffe. Except this night, the Jerry bombers were determined to blitz the Welsh capital to ruins. On the ground, the Martin family was determined to do their bit, Charlie Martin as a firefighter in the AFS and his daughter, Freda, as an Air Raid Warden. Their paths didn’t often cross while they were at work, but fate had plans for the pair — whether they knew it or not!

5398: Silver Collection: On Silent Wings 
Story | RA Montague | Art | Gordon C Livingstone | Cover | Cox | Originally Commando No. 1624 (1982).

Being a glider pilot was a tough gig in World War Two but imagine having the guts to do a loop the loop with a glider packed to the brim with troops while under attack by German fighters! That’s exactly what Sergeant Hugh Miller, co-pilot of the glider in question, was about to do. He had little other choice — what with his pilot injured and the men in the back depending on him — he had to do something!