Our Army at War #214

Our Army at War #214 (On Sale: November 4, 1969) has a Sgt. Rock cover by Joe Kubert, another of the "we are safe" covers, of which, Kubert was the master.

We begin with Sgt. Rock in "Easy Co... Where Are You?" drawn by Russ Heath. As usual, the artwork by Russ is a thing of beauty. Working their way up the boot of Italy new replacement PFC Hogan joins easy just as they enter the town of Bonventura. Easy searches the town in two-man teams, but Hogan elects to go it alone. As he makes his way through the town we learn that Hogan is from the slums of New York's Lower East Side and has been in trouble all his life. Caught stealing from a shopkeeper, Hogan entered the juvenile systems and learned to never rely on anyone but himself.

Hogan enters a demolished church only to be captured by Nazi's hiding there. He is bound and gagged and watches helplessly as Easy slowly makes their way to the church and the trap laid inside. With all eyes on Easy, Hogan realizes the only way he can warn them is to run out the front door and let the Nazi's shots warn Easy.

He falls in a hail of bullets but Easy is now warned of the ambush. The Nazi's aim for the helpless Hogan lying on the ground  and that incites Easy to storm the church. After a heated battle (nice Heath graphics abound), the Nazi's are killed and Easy returns to find Hogan still alive. Later, as they patch him up, Hogan says that he is learning that maybe he does not have to go it alone any more.

That is followed by a Great Battles of History story, "The Bastille" written and drawn by Ric Estrada. It is the 14th of July, 1789 and the Monsieur Le Marquis will not surrender the Bastille to the people of France, saying that in the name of the King, he cannot surrender his post. He promises Monsieur Thuriot that they will not to fire on the people as long as they do not attack the Bastille. but soon after he leaves, Le Marquis orders the streets around the Bastille cleared of "the people" and the soldiers in the Bastille open fire on the crowds. When the people raise a white flag of surrender, Le Marquis has them gunned down where they stand.

The people find a canon and storm the Bastille till they surrender. A simple slice of history for sure, but, man, could Ric Estrada do some fine artwork.

We end with "My Coffin, the Tank" drawn by Sid Greene. Behind enemy lines in the African desert in 1942, the gunner of a lone tank thinks his tank is a coffin and knows he will die in it. When a Stuka attacks he manages to jump from the tank as it is hit by a bomb. Though the tank survives, all of his fellow soldiers are killed. He buries them in the sand and continues on till confronted by a Nazi Tiger Tank. The Nazi tank gives chase as he tried to run from it. He passes an Egyptian tomb in the side of a hill and as he does he realizes the tomb is hidden by a large overhand. Spinning his turret and aiming high, he blasts the overhand and it collapses on top of the Nazi Tiger, which he suddenly realizes looks a whole lot like a coffin.

Edited by Joe Kubert.