Previewing ‘Hellman Of Hammer Force: Downfall’ — Classic Brit War Comics Given The Anti-Hero Twist

by Richard Bruton

Time for another classic Brit war comic strip to get the deluxe Treasury of British Comics treatment as we take a look at the ground-breaking second volume of Hellman of Hammer Force:

Hellman really was an innovative strip in British war comics – concentrating not on the gung-ho action adventures that filled the Brit war comics of the past but on a strip that took the brave move of considering the war from the German viewpoint.

Appearing in the pages of first the short-lived and ever-so-controversial Action and then the iconic Battle comic from 1976 to 1978, Hellman was a German officer leading his tank battalion into battle across many fronts in hard-hitting action.

Hellman was no Nazi though, just a German forced into war, fighting for both his men and his country, all the while hating what the Nazis stand for, particularly the vicious SS who would become as much his enemy as those he was fighting. It was this nobility in battle, the ordinary man just looking out for his men that made Hellman work so well, made it completely different from all that came before – and no doubt made it palatable enough for Brit readers.

This second collection takes us through the Battle strips of 1977-1978, beginning with standard Hellman stories, the noble leader fighting his own war, doing what he could to be honourable, being the good German fighting in a terrible war basically.

We begin in September 1939 with the ‘Early Adventures of Hellman of Hammer Force,’ giving us snapshots of the action through the years 1939-1941, through the invasion of Poland the German Blitzkrieg’s push west through Europe, then into Greece, and finally into the fateful and doomed Russian Front.

It’s full of the sorts of action that we’ve already seen in the first Hellman collection, but one that gives you a potted history of the man and the war, taking us into 1941 and the history-changing moment of the doomed Eastern Front where an underprepared, under-resourced German army was brought, violently and brutally, up short by the massed ranks of the Russians.

The Russian Front strips are where things began to change in Hellman, getting darker as the Germans came to the realisation that all was not going their way as had previously been the case. We see them struggle against the new Russian T34 tanks, more than a match for their Panzers of the time. We also see a new brutality with the Russians, as vicious, singleminded, and brutal as the Germans’ own SS officers – effectively leaving Hellman two enemies to fight.

After that, things move forwards four years to 1945 and the never before reprinted ‘Fall of Berlin’ storyline. And it’s this that really makes Downfall one of those must-have, essential collections, as it’s one of the darkest series of strips of any Brit war comic of the time. Here the Germans are in retreat, from the freezing death of Russia all the way back to Berlin, fighting that rearguard action against the advancing Russians and their own leaders and commanding officers, determined that the soldiers should stand and fight, no matter how hopeless or suicidal. Here Gerry Finley-Day really pushes things – we see all the horrors of war right here as the world for Hellman descends in hell and giving us, as Ennis says on the cover:

A broadly accurate picture of the downfall of a nation, and what that means for its people once their crazed dictator leaves them to the inferno.

Finley-Day’s writing across this volume is an exercise in brevity, sharpness, succinct storytelling across three- and four-page episodes that is constantly pushing on, always full of action, yet manages to do so much more, go so much deeper. And alongside Finley-Day we have three magnificent artists, Mike Dorey, Jim Watson, and Pat Wright. Dorey was the original Hellman artist and returned for some of the ‘Early Adventures’ before Watson and then Wright took over. The Fall of Berlin strips are pretty much a Dorey and Wright co-production, each artist trading duties pretty much to the end.

This second and most important Hellman collection comes out in, as you’d expect, perfect reproduction from the Treasury of British Comics and is available from 28 March 2024. It’s certainly one of the greatest Brit war comics of all time and this is the absolute height of its achievement.

HELLMAN OF HAMMER FORCE: DOWNFALL – by GERRY FINLEY-DAY, MIKE DOREY, PATRICK WRIGHT, & JIM WATSON
Published by The Treasury of British Comics on 28 March 2024.

Now, time for an extended preview capturing the three distinct sections of what really is a great collection – the very start of the ‘Early Adventures’ in Poland 1939, followed by the first glimpses of the nightmare that would be the Eastern Front, and finally the brilliant and brutal ‘Fall of Berlin’ section that ends the collection and the entire Hellman saga.

First… Poland 1939, as the German troops sweep all before them and we have chance to see, in perfect shorthand, everything that Hellman stands for, right from the first page…