A safe bet for this title: every time Hitler appears somehow, drink!

I had to go back and add a tag for "Weird War Tales," since we had not only blogged a few of them, but other tags didn't quite cover it. Usually it was a horror book, sure; sometimes it was a fantastic yet somber meditation on the horrors that war could inflict upon the innocent and the guilty alike or the depths either could sink to; and other times it was soldiers vs. dinosaurs. And today, well, let's see! From 1974, Weird War Tales #26, cover by Luis Dominguez.

"The Survivor" opens in World War I, where French soldier Deauville is a cheery, sadistic butcher; but one that seems to get the job done. Sent to take out a machine-gun nest, he is seemingly riddled with bullets, yet still clears the nest. Later though, he uncharacteristically nudges a soldier shooting at a retreating young German soldier, so that he is only wounded instead of killed. Deauville then disappears, seemingly deserting; but one of his comrades wonders if he hadn't been there, for some specific reason, that he had accomplished...like saving a young Hitler! (Written by John Albano, art by Alfredo Alcala.)

"Jump into Hell" follows a band of paratroopers, sent to take a small village, but they find an extra man on the ground; a captain separated from his unit. Unsure if they could trust him, they take him along, but are then taken by seeming ghosts: devil-worshippers from centuries ago! The captain, actually a chaplain, saves them; but the lieutenant still gets chewed out for not taking the village he was supposed to...(Written by Jack Oleck, art by Alfredo Alcala.)

Lastly, "A Time to Die" feels really stolen from a Twilight Zone episode or comic? (Yeah, "King Nine Will Not Return.") A WW II bomber captain had bailed out and saved himself, but the guilt was now killing him, as all he could do was wish he could take it back. And he does, as in his do-over he crash-lands with his men...who are then slaughtered by Nazis anyway, but this time he gets to die with them. Back at the hospital, the doctors figure he died in his hallucination...except, how were his shoes full of sand? (Written by Jack Oleck, art by Ernie Chua, aka Ernie Chan, of about a million Conan comics.)