MEN OF WAR #12

Code Name Gravedigger:  Agent Ulysses Hazard, Gravedigger, is on the outskirts of Berlin. As higher-ups in Washington, D.C. and Berlin guess at his whereabouts, he rides a train filled with concentration camp escapees. He is still with the children he met in Issue #10. In issue #11, he raided a concentration camp with them as they attempted to find their mother, who was being experimented on by a Nazi doctor.  The train is derailed by a shot from a tank, and Hazard says goodbye to the children, who move on to an uncertain fate. They warn him, as a black man he is more conspicuous than any Jew.    In Berlin, the object of Hazard's mission, Major Birch, who has been kidnapped by the Nazis, is being tortured and interrogated about Operation Gravedigger. Not far away, Hazard fights his way through a German checkpoint, crossing and sabotaging a bridge. As he rests, a gun is put to his head.    The German interrogator tells Birch what he knows of Operation Gravedigger, that the project is training a single commando. Birch refuses to confirm, so the Germans get their torture devices. Then Joseph Goebbels walks into the room. He knows a black man has infiltrated the city and questions Birch intently.    The gun held on Hazard belongs to a member of a cadre of English-speaking commandos. they explain they're part of operation Gravedigger, too, and have been behind the lines plotting and carrying out commando raids for weeks. They've been tasked with Gravedigger to save Major Birch before a bigger operation. They give Hazard an unseen disguise and say he'll sneak into Gestapo HQ with it.    Birch's interrogation continues. The German torturer gives Birch the choice of the rack or the iron maiden if he doesn't talk. He harangues Birch about Gravedigger's whereabouts until in one panel we see eyes inside the iron maiden. Hazard bursts from the iron maiden and kills Birch's torturer and meets Birch for the first time. He steals a truck and breaks Birch out of the Gestapo installation and the story is continued in the next issue.    Enemy Ace:  Hans von Hammer shoots down yet another enemy plane, saluting his opponent as he falls. Flying past his ancestral home, he sees his family's banner and is reassured. On the ground, he goes for a walk in the woods with his friend, the black wolf. He looks up to see one of his pilots shot down by a checkboard-painted Spad. The enemy pilot has him in his sights but does not fire.    The next day, the Spad is back with some other planes strafing the airfield. As von Hammer rushes to his Fokker Triplane, he sees the Spad has his family's banner. Von Hammer is mystified as to how the pilot stole it. As he climbs to attack, he recalls his father telling the millenium-old story of the banner and how if the banner is lost, the von Hammer line will end. Von Hammer closes in on the Spad to see he's been set up. Two other pilots have the drop on him. The story ends with him attempting to escape. — Description from Comic Vine community (comicvine.gamespot.com).

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