We begin with Sgt. Rock in "Head-Count" by Robert Kanigher and Joe Kubert. Easy Company is joined by a new replacement Johnny Doe. Johnny is anxious to kill Nazis, but he takes dangerous risks and shoots first without asking questions. Sgt. Rock warns him to be careful, but Doe doesn't listen.
At first, Johnny's antics earn him respect as he single-handedly takes out an enemy pillbox and uncovers a Nazi trap. However, in the town of Alamy, the surviving Nazis kidnap innocent civilians and use them as hostages. Johnny plans to use a grenade to kill the Nazis without regard for the hostages. When Johnny refuses to stop, Rock fires on him. The grenade explodes killing Johnny. Rock is not sure if he was responsible for Johnny's death. Reprinted in America at War: The Best of DC War Comics HC (1979), America at War: The Best of DC War Comics SC (1979), DC Special Blue Ribbon Digest #18 (1982), and DC Goes to War HC (2020).
Next is a "Battle Album" on "Mobileguns and Howitzers" by Sam Glanzman.
That is followed by a "Medal of Honor" regarding "Dwite Schaffner" by Norman Maurer. In 1917 and the 306th Infantry is getting clobbered by the Germans. Lt. Schaffner is sent to find out and discovers the Germans are living in luxury while his men are wading through mud. They try to take the German position but are thwarted by machine-gun nests. Schaffner is sent to find the nests and he takes them out. When the rest of the men arrive the Germans come out of hiding as it was all a trap. Schaffner goes ballistic and singlehandedly mows the Germans down, saving his men and gaining the Medal of Honor.
This is Norman Maurer's first work for DC since 1952. Maurer had a long association with the Three Stooges that began about the time of his marriage to Joan Howard, the daughter of the comedy team's Moe Howard on June 29, 1947. In 1949, he produced two Three Stooges comic book issues for Jubilee, based on the short films the team made for Columbia Pictures. In 1953, Maurer created the first 3-D comics, Three-Dimension Comics featuring Mighty Mouse, with his brother, Leonard Maurer, and Joe Kubert. Two three-dimensional Stooge comics were also issued in 1953. He returned to the Stooges in comic form in 1972 with Gold Key Comics' The Little Stooges, which ran for seven issues over the next two years. Between 1971 and 1976 Maurer would do 19 stories for DC, mostly "Medal of Honor" stories for his old friend Joe Kubert.
We end this issue with "The Sapper" by Sam Glanzman. Joe Jingles was a Sapper, he wielded the mine detector and he liked saving the lives of his men rather than killing the enemy. One day during a rainstorm his men found out that as he dug out the mines he found, he would plant flower seeds in the holes. Like Joe Kubert was fond of adding to his books, Make War No More.
Edited by Joe Kubert.
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