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First Issue: | 8th March 1975 | |||||
| Last Issue: | 23rd January 1988 | ||||||
| Copyright: | IPC Magazines Ltd/Fleetway | ||||||
| Genre: | War then adventure | ||||||
| Incorporated Titles: | Valiant (23/10/76), Action (19/11/77) | ||||||
| Incorporated By: | Eagle (30/1/88) | ||||||
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| Covers | Characters And Stories | First Issue | Memory Lane | Annuals | ||
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When IPC took over the Fleetway reigns in 1969, one of the first comics to get cancelled was that great stalwart of high morales and tradition, Eagle (A fantastic comic in it's day). The climate for boys comics was changing and first on the scene were David Couper Thomson with Warlord. A much more aggressive and harder hitting comic then had gone before. It was purely based on the second world war, and proved to be a runaway success. IPC had to respond, but they had a problem. Most of the IPC boys comic department had been with the company since the 1950's, some had been there since the 1930's! They were firmly in the Eagle and Lion mode, and if asked to produce a new comic, they would surely have produced more of the same. Drastic measures were asked for and the Editorial Director, John Sanders, went outside the company and hired two freelancers. Their task was to design and prepare a new comtemporary boys comic.... in secret! These freelancers were Pat Mills and John Wagner and the comic was Battle Picture Weekly. It was ready within 6 months of Warlord's release. When news of Battle 'leaked' within IPC, just a short time before it's release, there was fury in the boys' department. However, the comic was a runaway success and there was nothing they could do. After this, Wagner was asked to try and revive Valiant while Mills was asked to work on Action. |
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The first issue, dated 8th March 1975 (wow, was it that long ago?) had Sergeant Steve Dawson, in D-Day Dawson, catching a bullet near his heart during the D-Day landings, and not letting the rest of his inexperienced squad know about it. He was given a year to live and the enemy were "Up against a man with nothing to lose!". Lofty's One-Man Luftwaffe had Prison escapee, Dave "Lofty" Banks fighting the German air-force from the inside. It was great how the writers devised ways of having Lofty shoot down a German aircraft to make it look like an enemy attack. The Flight of the Golden Hinde was about a replica of Sir Francis Drake's ship, that was built, just before WW2 started, to see if the British navy could still do what Drake achieved back in 1577 - Sail around the world. Unfortunately, war broke out while they were in the Indian Ocean, and the Germans treated the Hinde the same as they would any other British ship, and attempted to sink it. There were some good strategic moments within the story. Mike Nelson, secret agent, drawn by P.Wright, took the coloured centre pages in his ongoing story, Day Of The Eagle. Then we come to one of my personal favourites, The Bootneck Boy. Danny Budd wanted to be a marine, like his dad, but was considered too short. He lived with his Uncle Fred and cousin Piggy, who treated Danny cruelly and often got him into trouble, especially Piggy. In fact it was a scrap that Danny got into because of Piggy, that helped him get into the marines. As the fight was taking place, a passing recruitment officer saw how well Danny handled himself against a gang of three and asked him to report to his hut first thing in the morning. The story continues with Danny's life in the marines and at home with Fred and Piggy Bircher. Great story! Rat Pack was about Major Taggart, who was responsible for allowing four convicts to break out of prison, so that he could use their special skills in his special commando unit that would strike at difficult and dangerous targets behind enemy lines. Can you remember the names of the other four members? They were Kabul 'Turk' Hasan, Ronald Weasel, Ian 'Scarface' Rogan and Matthew Dancer. Rat Pack took over the centre pages from week two. Last, but most definitly not least, we come to The Terror Behind The Bamboo Curtain. An absolutly fantastic story of life within a Japanese prison of war camp based in Burma. The fanatical camp commandant was the 'lovable' Colonel Sado (great name), who treated all his prisoners like scum. Our hero was big Jim Blake, a crack jungle fighter, who was one of the prisoners determined to escape and discover the mystery of the bamboo curtain. Sado enjoyed playing games with the prisoners, like letting them escape, only to shout 'Bingo, Bingo' when one of his 'sporting' man-traps would spring into life and instantly kill the 'free' prisoner. So there you have it, a great starting line-up and there were some great stories still to come. Namely, The Sarge, Major Eazy, Darkie's Mob and the brilliant Charley's War. |
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 Starting alongside Coward's Brand On Bradley and Battle Badge Of Bravery (True Stories), Issue #13 saw the beginning of an unusual story. The Fortrose Falcon was not set in WW1 or WW2, instead it was set in 1743, Scotland. It told the story of how a falcon befriended the crippled son on a leader of the Fortrose Highlanders. When the highlanders went into battle against the French, and were losing, the falcon swooped down and attacked the French soldiers and gave the highlanders the inspiration to mount one final attack, and win the battle. After that, the leader of the highlanders stated that, whenever our descendants go into battle, a Fortrose falcon will accompany them. Each week the story moved on 10 or so years until the final chapter, set in 1943. Of course a falcon was there all the time. Quite unusual. Okay then, who remembers this next batch of stories? They Can't Stop Bullet, Sergeant Without Stripes and King Of The Yanks. They Can't Stop Bullet was Nick 'Bullet' Carter, an ex-Isle Of Man motor cycle champion who became a POW in Stalag 23 in Northern Italy. Nick managed to break out of the the prison camp, using a despatch riders motor bike, a Zundapp, and happened along a British agent working behind enemy lines. This agent reported Nick's bike riding skills to British intelligence who in turn offered Nick the chance to do dangerous jobs where a motor bike is specially suited. Sergeant Without Stripes was Bill Saxon. a soldier fighting in the Burmese jungle in 1943. It starts when a Japanese soldier came running out from the jungle and appeared to be a deserter. Saxon didn't believe him and tried to tell the new platoon commander, Lieutenant Flashley, of his reservations. Flashley refused to hear what Saxon had to say and promptly ordered the platoon to go into the jungle again, based on the information obtained from the deserter. As expected, an ambush awaited the platoon as they entered the jungle. Saxon managed to fight off the Japanese soldiers and retreat in good order. Unfortunately, Flashley approached Saxon, accused him of disobeying an order, and reduced him in rank to Private. The story continues with Flashley dishing out the suicidal orders and Saxon sorting out the mess. When the story stopped on the 8th November 1975, the parting line was, "Saxon will be back at a later date, lads - watch out for him!". Unfortunately, that was the last we ever saw of him. King Of The Yanks was Flight-Lieutenant Jeff King who was ordered to join a U.S. Squadron as Temporary Liaison Officer. Although King was an excellent pilot, the Americans thought he was jinxed and didn't want him flying with them. However, the squadron commander, Colonel Becker, realised that King was an excellent pilot and made him Captain of a fortress. King then had a tough time trying to convince the American's that he was on their side and each week had him having to prove how good he was in most aspects of flying. During this time, there was also a weekly feature entitled, Battle Diary, which recounted true stories from the second world war, which hsppened during this week in WW2. There was also the Battle Master Plan page which had detailed cutaway pictures of weapons that were used in WW2. Quite similar to what used to appear in the original Eagle comic. |
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15th November 1975 saw the start of the very popular story of Brigdier-General Frank D. Merrill in Merrill's Marauders. This true story was about the first American troops (5307th Composite Unit) to fight in Asia since the turn of the century. Each member was a volunteer and they were fighting in Northern Burma. There aim was to get to Myitkyina and each week we saw what battles ensued as they strived to reach their target. A feature length film of this story was made in 1962 and starred Jeff Chandler and Ty Hardin. Other stories which started in the same issue as Merrill's Marauders were, Destroyer, a very good naval story, Great Escapes, true-life POW escapes and Y For Yellow Squadron a good flying story. Then, on the 10th January 1976, we witnessed the arrival of Major Eazy. A very early Carlos Ezquerra strip. Written by Alan Hebden, Eazy was the super-cool British Major who went into battle driving his own Bentley, armed with a snipers rifle and who used to doze off after a fight. A very popular story, which is what the publishers must have thought as well, because Major Eazy took over the coloured centre pages from week one. In the 100th issue he took control of Rat Pack Also starting with Major Eazy was Iron Cross Of Courage. Each week, it had a complete story portraying acts of bravery by German soldiers. This story also pre-dated Hellman Of Hammer Force by 4½ weeks. On the same day that Action was released (14th February 1976), Ryan's Revenge started in Battle. This was about 16 year old Peter Ryan, whose dad became the first casualty of WW2. Shot dead by a German agent who had infiltrated his factory. Ryan then lied about his age so that he could get into the RAF and seek his vengence. Cold Steele started a week later. Private Robert Steele was a young soldier who liked to give 'Jerry' a fair chance. i.e. not shoot at parachutists until they had landed. Then, while Steele and two of his old school mates, were left behind to keep the enemy at bay, they were trapped in a snow blizzard and caught by German soldiers. They offered to surrender, but the Germans set the flamethrower on them and killed two of the three. Steele survived but suffered terrible frostbite on his right side and was unable to fire a rifle. From here on in, he just uses cold steel. This story only lasted for 6 weeks! On the 3rd April 1976, the physical size of Battle Picture Weekly increased. It was now an inch wider and quarter inch shorter. It also saw the start of two new stories. Fighter From The Sky, written by Gerry Day and drawn by Geoff Campion was about a German paratrooper, Paul Fallman, who had been striped of his rank because his father was involved in an anti-Hitler plot. He then sets out to rebuild the honour of the family name. The Team That Went To War, had the players of top football team, Barchester United, split up to join the forces after an air attack occurred at one of their exhibition matches in 1940 (The Phoney War), killing many spectators. Each week would see what happened to each of the team members as they fought the enemy onslaught. The intriging ingredient about this story was that not all the team members survived. Which made you read each frame to make the player last a little bit longer (or was that just me?). A great story! |
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Hold Hill 109 was about 13 men who had been ordered to defend an ex-German vantage point which they had called 'Hugel 109' (Hill 109). The 13 men had to defend the hill for 6 days which was when Allied reinforcments would come along and re-attack. Each of the following 6 issues reflected each of the remaining 6 days. Rattling Rommel was set in the North African desert during WW2. It concerned two soldiers Roy Robb and Harry Jones and a first world war Rolls Royce armoured car. The car was nicknamed Rattling Rommel by the two soldiers because it seemed to do things like stall and accelerate at just the right moment to benefit the lads when the going got a little bit hairy. Issue dated 14th August 1976 saw the start of four new stories. Yellow Jack was born coward Jack Loot who would always cower when it came to fighting, unless there was some financial gain to be made. When this occurred he fought like a hero. Operation Shark was set in the Channel Islands at the outbreak of WW2. With their fathers off fighting in the war, four teenaged schoolboys do their bit in trying to make the German occupation of their island as uncomfortable as possible. They are helped by a mysterious masked man known only as Shark. This story stopped in the last issue before the amalgamation with Valiant on the 16th October 1976, with the end message of, "The boys of Operation Shark will be back again soon!", however, this was the last time they were seen. The Unknown Soldier was Sergeant Tom Craddock (Emmmmm....that's killed that mystery!). While fighting on the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940, he and three others were in conflict with the Germans. One of the three men was coward Corporal Dyke who didn't want to get get killed in battle, so he shoot the other three soldiers. Two of them died, but Sergeant Tom Craddock survived. But on his ensuing chase of Dykes both men got caught in a German mine field explosion. When Craddock comes round he has lost all his memory. When he is fit again, he is posted to a training unit which just happens to have 'Sergeant' Dykes as its section leader. Dyke's then sets out to stop the unknowing Craddock (now temporarily know as Private John Smith) from gaining his memory and spilling the beans. The fourth story which started was the extremely popular Darkie's Mob written by John Wagner and drawn by Mike Western. In 1946, a small bloodstained diary was found at the scene of a brutal jungle battle. It belonged to Private Richard Shortland and told one of the starngest stories ever to have come out of WW2. Set in Burma 1942, 20 British soldiers have spent their last ounce of energy in constant battles and marching. They had now collapsed in a heap and were waiting to die when, from nowhere, Captain Joe Darkie storms in and orders the men up onto their feet and ready for marching. The men don't move, so Darkie has them dig their own graves. This changes their minds, and eventually they decide to follow Darkie across the Chindwin and onto the safety of the British lines. The story is narrated by Shortland's diary and continues to tell of tales which has Darkie grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat using his cunning jungle experience. Extremely well written. |
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Then, on the very same day that IPC's Action comic got banned, Battle Picture Weekly completed its first amalgamation. Issue #86, dated 23rd October 1976, saw Battle team up with the comic that John Wagner was asked to save, Valiant. Towards the end of 1975, Valiant was sinking fast and John managed to give it the kiss of life with harder hitting stories. However, it was up against Battle Picture Weekly and the very popular Action, as well as D.C.Thomson's Warlord and Victor. It was a fight which culminated in this merging. The new stories to the Battle Picture Weekly reader were, One-Eyed Jack, drawn by John Cooper, a very good modern day US Secret Service story which had Jack McBane, an ex-Marine and then detective, being asked to work within the Military Intelligence Service and seek out political meglomaniacs. Jack was very much in the same mould as Dredger from Action. Soldier Sharp (The Rat Of The Rifles) was similar to Yellow Jack. An absolutely devious coward who would kill friend and foe alike. He would kill unarmed soldiers, use live wounded soldiers as a body shield and thieve from dead bodies. Not a nice character, but a great story. The Black Crow was a war time resistance story set in 1942 France. The story also had one one the nastiest German S.S. officers in comics called Major Klaus Von Steutsel. i.e. To get information from a suspected resistance member who was remaining silent, he would shoot the hand of his piano playing daughter and ask the question again. Panzer G-Man, drawn by Jim Watson, was a story which debuted in this first amalgamated issue. Kurt Slinger was a Panzer tank gunner that was in conflict with a Russian T34 tank regiment and losing. One of his crew couldn't take anymore and baled out. Slinger chased after him, just before his tank got destroyed by a Russian shell, killing all inside. The coward crew member also got killed in the explosion which just left Slinger. When he got rescued, he was accused of cowardice and forced to run alongside the Panzers as a grenadier - a dog soldier. Slingman then had enemies within both camps that wanted him dead. Issue 100 (29th Jan 1977) saw the start of Johnny Red, drawn by Joe Colquhoun. Johnny Red had been dishonourably discharged for striking an officer as a young air cadet. Then, when war broke out he became a galley-rat in the merchant navy and wasn't seeing any action, then fate lent a hand. While out at sea his ship was under a German Stuka attack. His ship was going down but it did have a Hurricane on its launch pad, which Johnny 'Red' Redburn borrowed. He proceeded to destroy a couple of ememy aircraft before flying off to the Russian mainland and meeting up with Yakob, the mad Russian fighter pilot. This was the beginning of a very long-running story. Joe Two Beans, drawn by Eric Bradbury, was a mysterious Red Indian who wasn't sure whether he should be fighting this white mans war. Especially after what they did to his ancestors a few decades earlier. He was befriended by a US soldier called Sawdust Smith who gradually swayed him round to the Allies side, but not without complications. Joe didn't speak until the issue dated 9th April 1977, 11 issues later. Operation Black Death was the latest Mike Nelson spy story. An interesting event occured in this 100th issue when Rat Pack were joined by Major Eazy in a nice link up story which had these five trying to rescue ex-Rat Pack leader Major Taggart. |
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Mark
Jarvis' fan site of Battle characters  |
Johnny Red -
Another |
Neil
Emery's fan site dedicated to Pat Mills, Joe Colquhorn and, of course,
Charley Bourne  |
