BOOK REVIEW: Commando: Bandits at 12 O'Clock

Commando: Bandits at 12 O'Clock: The Twelve Most High Flying Commando Comic Books Ever! by George Low
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Everybody who has ever turned a page of a Commando war library has a favorite air story. The first thing to catch the attention are the names—Spitfire, Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest, Whirlwind, Mosquito. Who wouldn’t want to read a story with aircraft like that twisting and turning through the pages, machine guns or cannon flaming? And then there are the men who flew the fighters, bombers, seaplanes, flying boats, and transport aircraft into combat. These pilots of every nationality had one aim—to make sure that they won their deadly duels high in the sky. Here is a collection of some of the finest and most exciting air adventures ever published by Commando, so strap in, buckle up, and enjoy the ride!

What a jolly excellent trip down memory lane, reading these stories brought back so many memories from my youth when I would enjoy a jaunt through one of my Commando comics. Some other chaps I knew and I had quite a swap system going on for a while.
I usually would prefer the air combat tales and that is what this collection is all about, with twelve of some of the best Commando air combat stories. There are some real beauties here - we've got renegade bomber crews, glory-seeking heroes and heaps of top blokes hell-bent on inflicting as much destruction as possible on those terrible Nazis and Japs. Oh no.
I loved them all but the standouts for me were 'A Stirling Called Satan' about a Stirling bomber that appears to be jinxed but comes good in the end, and 'Mosquito Ace' which tells of a New Zealander Mosquito pilot who pays back a debt owed to the French Resistance.
As is the idea with this sort of thing there are satisfactory endings to the stories with the goodies winning (not the cursed Krauts or Nips) and lots of 'Aaargh!', 'Aieeee!', 'Himmel!' and 'Banzai!' among other well-used vociferations and buzzwords. Top stuff.

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