Before the days of 2000AD’s future wars, the British comics revolution exploded with Battle, which offered a refreshingly different, more adult take on traditional stiff-upper lip, derring-do Boy’s Own wartime adventures and as this collection demonstrates, the variety of stories, including the highly acclaimed Charley’s War, that made this one of the most successful Brit comics ever.

Created and devised by the dual imaginers, Judge Dredd creators Pat Mills and John Wagner, Battle was launched in 1975 and became a huge success gathering praise and critics alike for its gritty tales that covered the whole theatre of war. Lasting thirteen years, most of the 18 stories in this collection focus on World War II, but they demonstrate the global nature of the conflict with tales set in France, Germany, and Europe, as well as the Desert, and across to Russia and Japan.

Within these pages, all the armed forces are represented with characters from the Army (D-Day Dawson, fighting on borrowed time with a bullet lodged near his heart); to the RAF (Johnny Red, who’s hot-heated fighting skills are out to use by the Russians) and the Royal Marines (The Bootneck Boy, a pint-sized orphan proving he can fight as well as an man)

However, where the comic’s reputation grew was in its a troop of non-traditional heroes, who frequently subverted expectations. Who are the good guys, who are the baddies? There are shades of grey on both sides that make for more interesting reading. Hellman of Hammer Force and Panzer G-Man find enemies amongst their German tank divisions as they maintain their own moral codes. Likewise amongst the allies are the unorthodox actions in Sicily of Major Easy (a synthesis of Clint Eastwood’s popular anti-heroes), Joe Two Beans, a reluctant native American whose silence also hides his distain for White men’s past deeds, and the weasly profiteering of Crazy Keller.

Another innovation of these harder-edged stories is the experimenting with different narrative techniques. The General Dies At Dawn counts down with each episode accounting another hour towards a condemned German general’s dawn death by firing squad fro treason, whilst Hold Hill 109 covers six-days over six weeks of a siege to hold a strategic position against the Afrika Korps. However, the classic strip, Charley’s War is written as a series of letter home from the Front, It’s the only tale on this collection that’s set in the First World War and the meticulous research of both script and artwork depicting the mortal brutality, comradeship and humour of the trenches have elevated it to being rightly regarded as not just one of the great British war strips but an award-winning comic strip in any genre.

With contributions from writers and artists known form their 2000AD work, such as Rogue Trooper’s creative team Gerry Finley-Day, whose experience with the Territorial Army brought an authenticity to his characters, and Cam Kennedy; and Carlos Esqerra (definitive artist of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog), this collection is just a taster of the full bullet-riddled glory of Battle and still proof that they can still excite like any wartime novel or film and fight back against nostalgia with all guns blazing.