MEN OF WAR #5

Code Name: Gravedigger: Ulysses Hazard, agent Gravedigger, has just jumped out of a plane. His parachute is not opening. He slits the parachute open with his combat knife and it opens in time to break his fall. A German patrol finds him and demand he come out from under the parachute. The Germans brag about Hitler and Aryan superiority until they discover Hazard isn't under the parachute. Hazard kills them both and heads for his destination, a town called Touborne, home to a cathedral with a statue of the Virgin Mary in it. The town lies in the path of the Allied advance, between two mountains, which makes bombing raids useless. Hazard must go in alone and neutralize the German forces. Hazard hears the bells of the cathedral ring just as he plants his explosives to cause an avalanche to bury the city. He discovers his intelligence reports are wrong and the French civilians have not been evacuated. He rushes downhill to save them. In a three-panel interlude, a nurse at a military hospital in Brighton, England, brings dinner to wounded British Major Birch, but discovers he has left the hospital. She looks out the window as a plane flies over carrying Major Birch and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who is explaining Operation Gravedigger to Birch. Back in France, Hazard destroys a Nazi-held building as a diversion and sprints to the Cathedral. There, the Germans are making the townspeople dig their own graves outside town. The town's priest defies the German general, saying his parish, if they must die, will die in Touborne, under the eyes of the Virgin Mary. The German general shoots the priest, who falls in front of the statue of Mary, blood on his hand making it look as though she is crying tears. The Germans are about to execute the townspeople when Hazard arrives and kills the French people's would-be executioners. He explains about the bomb and their need to evacuate. They refuse him, claiming the Lord will protect them, like their priest said. With six minutes to go, Hazard breaks into the church through a stained-glass window, mows down the Germans and attempts to persuade the priest to leave with his parishioners. He refuses, claiming the rocks will protect them. As the Germans advance on the cathedral, the bomb goes off, triggering an avalanche. Sure enough, the rock formations above the church steer the cascading snow away from the cathedral. In the morning Hazard and the townspeople bury the priest in the shadow of the statue of Mary. Dateline: Frontline: Wayne Clifford and his fellow reporter, Ed Barnes, are drinking in a London pub. Stymied by the British censors, clifford decides to write a human interest story about the people living in the London Underground during the blitz. Barnes says Clifford is trying too hard, that he can't see the big picture yet. Clifford ignores him and heads to a station, where he meets an attractive volunteer named Julie, who tends to the sick and broken in the damp, smelly, overcrowded subway station. Faced with her contempt, Clifford pitches in to help and learns the people living there are desperate. Homes destroyed, hospitals full, and terrified of the bombing, they stay underground. Clifford learns about one man, called Digger, who lost his home and wife in a bombing raid. He fled to his son's house, only to see it and everyone he loved destroyed. He fled to the subway station, where in his few lucid moments, he raves about the Germans continuing to dig after him. As Clifford tends to the ranting Digger, there is another bombing raid, and the subway tunnel collapses partially. British Civil Defense workers begin to make repairs, but Digger believes the Nazis are digging to get him. He flees up the stairs toward the street and Julie follows. A bomb hits nearby and kills both of them. The next day, Clifford sees Barnes and lets him know he's seen more of the big picture. — Description from Comic Vine community (comicvine.gamespot.com).

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