Heroic Comics #33

Lt. Everett E. Pruitt of Munday, Texas leads a scouting mission across the treacherous Roer River Front in Germany, where a routine patrol through minefields and past German positions quickly turns into a fight for survival. As his men fall wounded, Pruitt must make impossible choices to get his squad back to safety while holding off enemy forces alone. This 1945 account captures one soldier's extraordinary courage under fire.

A young soldier named Harvey Fuller endures three brutal years in a Japanese prison camp following the fall of Bataan and Corregidor in 1942, sustained by the hope that liberation will come. When General MacArthur's forces return to the Philippines in 1945, American Rangers and Filipino guerrillas launch a daring commando raid deep behind enemy lines to reach the camp and free over 500 Allied prisoners. This true account captures the perilous rescue mission and the profound moment of salvation for men pushed to the edge of survival.

In occupied Holland, an underground leader must repeatedly risk deadly visits to see his wife and baby—until the day German soldiers arrive searching for him. When the Gestapo interrogates the family, the child's innocent refrain becomes an unexpected shield, as the soldiers grow frustrated trying to extract information from the youngster while Wilhelm remains hidden nearby. This true wartime tale from 1945 celebrates the quiet cunning of Dutch resistance, where even the smallest members of a family become unknowing allies against their Nazi oppressors.

Flying Officer John A. Cruickshank commands a Catalina flying boat hunting enemy submarines in the treacherous North Atlantic, but when his aircraft takes devastating fire during a bombing run, he faces an impossible choice. Wounded and with his crew struggling to keep the crippled plane airborne, Cruickshank refuses pain relief and fights to guide his damaged vessel and its crew safely home—a feat of courage that would earn him one of England's highest honors.

This 1945 educational feature breaks down the principles of mechanical leverage through clear, hands-on examples—from the simple see-saw and crowbar to the more sophisticated hydraulic jack and block-and-tackle systems. Readers discover how a small amount of effort, properly applied through the right tools and mechanical advantage, can move enormous weights: a hundred-pound boy lifting a five-hundred-pound rock, or a child's hand raising an entire car with a nine-pound jack. The story shows how these same leverage principles power everything from industrial presses and building jacks to the control systems in modern aircraft.

A cocky young fighter named Hal Avery discovers that his manager and an unscrupulous rival are willing to go dirty to control the outcome of his upcoming bout against the experienced Battling Redon. When a sabotaged drink threatens to derail his performance mid-fight, Hal has to dig deep and trust his instincts to prove what he's made of in the ring.