Combat 12, page 15 by Sam Glanzman

The 3rd panel is beautiful. So is the 4th one, but it immediately gave me flashbacks to the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, which makes me whince!

Thanks, Rubén. I like Sam's storytelling layout here and off-kilter perspective in the second panel. The last panel is indeed quite impactful. I probably mentioned this before, but I can't rewatch Saving Private Ryan because its opening and closing scenes are so graphic and heart-rending. It's like you are in the battle being shot at. On the other hand, the dialogue and scenes in the middle of the movie struck me as contrived, writing school stuff, further discouraging me from a second viewing. 

Although I don’t have Peter's encyclopedic knowledge of WWII, I have read a lot. I visited the Normandy Beaches twice and Bastogne twice, including for the 60th anniversary memorial ceremony of the “Battle of the Bulge” in 2004 (which Tom Hanks also attended).

I visited the Normandy Beaches about a month before “Saving Private Ryan” was released. After returning from a business trip that Friday, I went straight from the airport to the film's final showing at a local theatre (I did that for Batman vs. Superman too). I could not believe what I had just seen. I could not sleep, so I  read about D-Day all night, then attended the first showing the following day. The opening scene was far more difficult to watch after having read all night.

I don’t think I have seen the movie since.

Correction. Off-kilter perspective is the third panel.

Thanks, Tom! Wow! Great comment! I would like to see Bastogne. Amazing time for you to be there with so many veterans plus Tom Hanks! Seeing Normandy is sobering; I was there a few years earlier in 1997. I can't imagine seeing the movie several weeks after visiting Normandy, reading about D-Day all night, and seeing it again in the morning! I couldn't do that! I saw the film in a large theater in China with Mandarin subtitles. 

How can they trust a prisoner with real information?  The center panel is very strong with the machine gun and its firepower cutting through the background of the brush.  The bottom panel is a massacre in the making!

Thanks, Marcus! Excellent question. From the US Naval Institute article: "He (sic the prisoner) was somewhat emaciated, and that lent credence to his statements. His account was further strengthened by similar accounts received from recently captured Korean laborers from the same area. It is unlikely that he deliberately set out to deceive his captors." It's unknown why Goettge didn't trust the prisoner about the landing site when the prisoner's other statements had been corroborated to the point of risking soldiers' lives in a reconnaissance patrol. 

another great page! to me that bottom panel (in isolation or in context) may be the strongest image I can recall in a war comic I've seen in quite some time. excellent (and horrifying). 

War is brutal!

The best defense is a good defense.

Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy