One of the most innovative and well remembered British war comics was the weekly Battle which featured a number of famous strips including this one which bucked the trend of content by feauring not British or Allied soldiers but that of the enemy.
Of course Deathsquad wasn't the first such attempt to view the war from the "other side" so to speak I recall reading others including Charlton Comics Captain Willy Schultz DC Comics Enemy Ace though the latter from the First World War was probably less controversial all round.
The Germans or "Krauts as we used to call them were all Nazi's as far as we were all concerned, the ultimate enemy of humanity. Plainly this was not entirely true. Many Germans resisted Hitler and paid for it with their lives such as The White Rose organised by a group of students from The University of Munch.
Whilst most Germans held their heads down and avoided politics some retained their humanity as best they could which on the Eastern Front where this tale takes place was probably the hardest thing for any combatant to do. This was total war between two monolithic ideologies, two dictatorships as murderous as each other. The Russians however were our allies and without them the war may have had a very different outcome but that is a matter for another day.
This is the tale of five men in a Punishment Battalion "Grandad", "Swede", "Gus", "Frankie" and the resident Nazi "Licker". At best they can be considered anti-heroes since they were not all bad even though they fought for the enemy.
Most of the action takes place on the eastern front and is brutally portrayed by both the writers and artists involved. There is a lengthy sequence on the Atlantic Coast where the squad face British commando's before returning to the Eastern Front never to be heard of again.
Deathsquad appeared in Battle from July 1980 to June 1981. One further story is taken from the Battle Annual 1982.
This volume is still available from Rebellion: 2000ad.com
Rating 5 Stars (Recommended)
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