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R. A. Montague, A Stirling Called Satan, first published in Commando Comics Nº. 869 (1974), republished as Commando Comics Nº. 5584 (2022)


Germany


Admiral Eisen

Deutchsland Class Cruiser(?)

Details as per the real ships.

Note: In dialog the ship is described as a 'Pocket Battleship' (e.g. Deutchsland Class Cruiser), which the name would fit.


However the one illustration of the ship in the comic shows a front-on view of a ship with two triple turrets forward, the aft cannot be seen. This would suggest the succeeding Scharnhorst Class, but to my knowledge the Scharnhorst's were never referred to as 'Pocket Battleships', but rather as 'Battleships' (Germany) or 'Battlecruisers' (UK). It's possible the artwork was changed between the two versions of the comic, but until a copy of the 1974 version can be located this cannot be confirmed.


The ship itself is depicted being trapped in an unspecified southern Italian port (Most likely the readers were meant to take this as meaning Taranto, the main Italian naval base, which means the story probably takes place no later than August 1943.), as I noted in an earlier posting on the J. E. MacDonnell novel 'Abandon and Destroy' (1963), it is impossible for any German naval unit larger than an S-Boat or a U-Boat to reach the Mediterranean during WWII.


Plot summary: Taking place somewhere between 1940 and 1943 (The year the Short Stirling was retired from bomber duties.), a crew find themselves lumbered with a 'hoodoo ship', whatever can go wrong will. Attempts to get another plane all fail and given a critical mission, will they be able to overcome the curse, or will it finally take their lives.


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