Denial will only hurt you

"He who does not like the Lysander does not like life itself or themselves", or so the old air mechanics would say. Truely beautiful words for a beautiful machine. The enemy can only shake their fists in futile rage. It is all they have when confronted by such beauty and their own self denial.

I Shall Scream...

One must be awfully polite to be a Lysander pilot. The brash or dull types (most often the one and the same) would self identify for other duties and embark on short but glorious careers. 
It takes the right sort of chap in ability, spirit, and temperament to fly the Lysander. Even those these qualities may not be self-evident to those who hold them, they speak volumes to those who recognise them.

Is he in heaven? Or is he in hell?

...those black helmeted Nazis seek him everywhere.
Surely the Scarlet Pimpernel is due a movie remake? A film of epic, though of subtle proportions made with an indomitable Lysander as protagonist. That would get the crowds cheering!  It would be far more pleasing cinema experience then yet another overworked view of Ironman or ceaseless iteration of Spiderman.
Sink me!
Where is that crowd funding page?

Accuracy not required.

In the good old days pilots were required to only fly. Other impractical skills, such as counting, were considered almost frivolous. Yet here we see an example of a fellow rising above himself and giving it a red hot go. Well done that man!

Cover of the Week Air Ace Picture Library 284 Traitor Unmasked

Fanciful and fraudulent come to mind when contemplating the cover of Air Ace Picture Library 284 Traitor Unmasked. However I am letting my limited knowledge of aerial combat and the capabilities of WW2 aircraft colour my judgement.

The action is no doubt top notch. It would have to be for a Lysander sporting landing gear mounted guns and rockets to bring down an enemy fighter aircraft. Don't get me wrong I like the colours, particularly the use of reds and yellows. It's also nice to see that the allied plane has seen better days.

The funky title font is also somewhat endearing. There's also that lovely (if not slightly risqué) sub-head that's been spared the ignominy of appearing as a flash cut-out.

Whilst I have no complaints about the composition - indeed if I were a young lad back in 1966 the cover is exciting enough that I would have handed my hard earned 1'- in a thrice. It is the very idea behind this cover that drags it down in the rankings. Lysander lovers the world over will no doubt disagree me. 6/10.

War Picture Library 56 The Crowded Sky

Wow! There a lot of words in the Crowded Sky it almost should have been called the Crowded Page. I'm not saying that's a bad thing either. In a few short pages there is no doubt why Weymann (a German with a conscious) is so keen to fight the Nazis.

Just before the war begins he is approached by one of his countrymen who wants to escape Germany with his family. Weymann is affronted and considers the man to be a criminal. However he is brow beaten by an Englishman (Stowell) who offers to help the man. Weymann believes he is only naturally defending his country and cannot understand how Stowell can protect someone who is clearly a criminal. However Weymann's fast track to redemption begins when his own family is murdered by the Gestapo.

The story then sees Weymann escaping Gemany and joining the RAF. However it's not all plain sailling - you can take the boy out of Nazi Germany but you can't always take the Nazi Germany out of the boy. In other words he's not very good at being one of the chaps and this raises some tension and suspicion with the rest of the crew. However his Teutonic sense of duty, obligation and leadership sees him coming through for his crew.

Everything is going swimmingly until the navigators brother - the Englishman who saw Weymann when he was being patriotic - turns up one day. So in a nice moral twist Weymann is now the very same type of criminal that he would have once denounced and Stowell would have defended.

But of course there's always that one more mission to fly.

So in the end Weymann's sense of obligation is so great that he saves his crew from their crippled Blenheim and then he attempts to bring the aircraft back to base. The outcome has already been provided by the prophetic words of the CO concerning Spartans and their shields earlier in the story.

In the air there is a feast of early model Blenheims, tri-motor Junkers, trainers, Spitfires, Messerschmidts, Whirlwinds and even a gratuitous Lysander. The line work on the aircraft is well done as well as the composition and layout of the panels.

Not only is this a well written sophisticated story with excellent artwork  - it's also a planefest and you've got to love that!

...and do you know why you'll lose the war Jerry? Because we British know how to stand with our hands on our hips better than you can.

Weymann walked away because he knew he had been defeated by the better man.

Templehof airport looks more like Rick's Bar.

A civilian aircraft! You don't see many of those around these parts.

Crashed, upside down, dark, petrol, burnt oil, soar arm and German. Not a good day at the office.

That's right just like the Spartans. Except we're the pipe smoking, scarf wearing, dashing tash type. If you chaps want to be like Spartans you need to look like me!

Nice picture of a Blenheim.

An even nicer panel! However I can't help feeling the pilot of that 109 isn't the brightest crayon in the box.

Excellent gratuitous Lysander.

When things start reeking you know you're in trouble, big trouble.

How good is this pilot and his Whirlwind!












Whirlwind again!Damn right! Don't tell me what to do!

Air Ace Picture Library 412 Tigers in Action

More Americans? Well not exactly. Even though the Americans are talked up at the beginning - there is a literary slight of hand and the story is not really about them at all despite the expectations set by the title. Tigers in Action is really about a British pilot Alan Sinclair. He is a former pilot, tagged unfit to fly due to a head wound sustained in the Battle of Britain. He jokes that the steel plate in his skull makes him "the only pilot with an armoured head". More about that later.

The Americans line up for their typical stereotypes and are depicted as being brave, brash and boastful. The British are relatively bland but suffer from having a pompous superior officer (who does make good in the end). The Chinese (after all the Flying Tigers are a Chinese unit formed with foreign pilots) manage to escape being badly stereotyped and are depicted as brave and intelligent. Finally the Japanese are shown as arrogant and boastful. However what's really interesting is that a lot of effort or consideration has gone into not drawing Japanese faces in full or at all. Is there something sinister behind this decision? Was the thinking that readers might get confused between the Chinese and their Japanese opponents. I've never had a problem in distinguishing between the Germans and their opponents - so why should there be problem with distinguishing between Chinese and Japanese. Or am I just looking at this through a filter created by years of political correctness?

Otherwise Tigers in Action is a pretty good story following the squadron getting chased around China as the Japanese continue their aggressive attacks. The bromance between Alan Sinclair (Englishman) and Mike Wade (American) comes to an abrupt end when Wade is shot down over the jungle due to a lack of concentration by Sinclair. Was Sinclair's old head wound to blame? While Sinclair undergoes medical evaluation to find out, Wade has a series of adventures with the ground troops and returns to finish off the story with his friend.  There are also a good number of elaborate plans , frantic opportunities, grim determination from both sides and lots of aircraft in the sky and at times even more falling out of the sky.

As expected there is a fine assortment of aircraft in Tigers in Action including Tomahawks, Nakajimas,  twin-engined Mitsubishi bombers, Lysanders, Zeros and Warhawks which is always a good thing to see in an Air Ace Picture Library.

Look! Lots and lots of aircraft. Good to see a Nakajima buzzing around.

Look Ma! No helmet hair! (These two have spent the whole morning flying around and have just taken off their flying helmets and their coiffures are still perfect!)

Murder!

Time to get that mocking hiss fixed. It might still be covered by warranty.

A good AAAAGH! from a Japanese pilot.

I'm fighting my over developed sense of school boy humour to leave this one alone.

The good old days!

What is it with this guys hair?

Lysanders! Always a welcome sight in any pocket war comic.

Oops! The Tigers go from heros to Zeros in no time at all.

Do I really have to take off all of my clothes for you to check my pulse? Hey! Are you really a doctor?

Bad guy lesson number 33 never diss the enemy while during a smoko break. You should know what happens next.







Nasty business. The allies don't get it all their own way in this one.

War Picture Library 295 Operation Doomsday

This one reads like a script from a 1965 Hollywood movie. The allied breakout from France is under threat as a crack German force led by the ruthless and skilled (is there any other kind?) General Von Zoller prepares to counterattack the exposed flanks of Patton’s spearheads.

The Allies (well this really means the British) put together a handpicked team with a crack paratroop company of sappers to assassinate General Von Zoller (who likes to start every sentence with the word “So!”) and to blow up a dam. With no Von Zoller and their troops under water German counterattack is sure to fail. 

The Americans get mentioned several times and even make an appearance on the title page.

Even more amazing there are women in this issue! Thankfully they don’t have anything directly to do with the story line. They’re there because the Germans are using a fashion house as their headquarters.

While the British assemble their paratroopers and demolition experts for the raid the Germans are suffering numerous setbacks from an organised French resistance led by the mysterious Monsieur Neuf. There is a touch of a 2nd story line as the reader is left guessing, is Neuf really the priest or the proprietor of the fashion house? Both are equally likely contenders as both always appear to be not too far away when grenades get lobbed through open windows where reasonably high ranking enemy officers tend to mill around.

The story reads something like a cross between Where Eagles Dare and The Dirty Dozen. As I read Operation Doomsday I couldn’t help but thinking that you could cast Sir Richard Burton, David Niven, Clint Eastwood, Derren Nesbitt, Anton Diffring and whole host of other 1965 movie stalwarts in the movie of this story.

This is another unbelievable adventure - but a real page turner none the less.

Americans? They had something to do with World War 2 didn't they?

Smug struttin' SS. I hate those guys!

Now that's how you say AAGH!

Or how about Major "Bonkers" Bretherton or Captain "Wacky" Wallace or Major "Crazy" Collins or Colonel "Mad" McMillan or Major "Insane" Illife or Major "Slightly Unhinged" Somerville-Urqhart or "Major "Flakey" Favershom?  

Lock is clearly a leader of men.

Hey thanks for telling me about this on the way to the plane.

Didn't I see you in the Tarantino movie?

Am I supposed to get the wrong idea when I read this one?