[crashryan]

An unpleasant lead story features a GI who robs dead Germans rather than fight with his unit--but he comes out of it with a medal because he happens to pilfer important enemy plans. I can't figure out if this is intended as a cynical "war sucks" story or if the moral ambiguity is inadvertent.

Link to the book: Battlefield Action 28

[narfstar]

There was a very strong lack of humanity attributed to the enemy. This would most likely account for the stories attitude.

[betaraybdw]

There does not appear to be any "lack of humanity" attributed to the enemy in the story in question. There was just no purpose to fleshing them out as characters since the Germans were just a background upon which the story was told (and any enemy or war could have been used to tell this tale, you could even reverse roles and have a German as the protagonist pilfering stuff off of US or UK troops, It happened)

This comic was written in 1960 so it does not have quite the same all out "gung-ho" flavor of GA war comics. During this time frame Hollywood was starting to make complicated , less gung ho war movies too and the anti-hero westerns were just around the corner.

This comic was not meant to get you all patriotically worked up, it was meant to be ironic and leave you with exactly the kind of mixed up, WTH feelings that it left you with Crash. War, like any other endeavor of human existence is not simple. It is messy, complicated, morally ambiguous and always unfair to someone.

I knew a USMC LtCol in Desert Storm in 1991 who pretty much did what the scrounge did. He was a senior staff officer for the 3rd Marine Air Wing (so he never should have been near the battlefield, his job was to be at 3d MAW HQ back at the air base). A couple days after the Army and Marines had launched the ground war and rolled through the Iraqi positions in southern Kuwait, he traipsed along afterwards collecting souvenirs. When he got back to base he wrote it up in a report as if he had conducted a reconnaissance and put himself in for a Bronze Star.... and he got it!    (I know, WTH!, right?)  At least something good came out the scrounge story, the only thing that came out the above incident was that an already not well liked officer earned himself the never ending enmity and disrespect of all those who served with and under him.

anywho , one thing I did enjoy in this story was the illustration 3 times (pgs 3, 9 & 10) of the German MP-44 rifle ( a German weapon not usually portrayed in fiction, though Brad Pitt wielded one in the movie, Fury )  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StG_44    Nice attention to detail, perhaps the artist served in WWII?  The average person does not even know that rifle existed especially back then before countless History Channel shows about military stuff existed.

[crashryan]

What struck me wasn't so much the souvenir-taking. it's the way The Scrounge runs off to hunt souvenirs while his unit is in combat. In war comics each man is expected to do his duty and stand by his fellow soldiers. Those who don't experience a Redemptive Moment in which they recognize their failings and make up for them with some heroic act.

Weston deserts repeatedly, letting the others take their chances. As the narrator says, "We fought his battles for him." Sometimes he picks up useful intelligence ("There are German snipers in town") but he isn't looking for it; he's after loot. I guess leading a patrol to the German command post is intended to be his Redemptive Moment. He does kill some enemy and capture a prisoner. But he only does it because he's ordered to. We're left with the impression Weston will continue to desert under fire, but now the others won't mind so much.

Kracalactaka, in the hundreds of war stories Sam Glanzman illustrated he always seemed to research his equipment. When I was a kid I didn't like his work because of the loose inking and homely faces. Over the years I've developed considerable respect for him. The "DDS Stevens" shorts he wrote and drew for DC are especial favorites.