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No.4339

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HE FIRST WORLD WAR PLACED A MASSIVE STRAIN ON THE RUSSIAN MASSES, SOLDIERS AND CIVILIANS BOTH. IN OCTOBER 1917 THE SIMMERING RESENTMENT ERUPTED INTO REVOLUTION, WITH THE BOLSHEVIK PARTY SEIZING CONTROL OF THE STATE. ONE OF THEIR FIRST ACTS WAS TO PULL RUSSIA OUT OF THE WAR, MUCH TO THE DISMAY OF THE WESTERN ALLIES. RIVAL FACTIONS SUCH AS THE WHITES — SUPPORTERS OF THE OLD TSARIST REGIME — WERE QUICK TO REACT, RESULTING IN A BITTER, BRUTAL CIVIL WAR. ALL POWER TO THE SOVIETS!

THEY’LL KILL US ALL!

STORY FERG HANDLEY ART MIKE WHITE COVER MIKE WHITE

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4 BEFORE THAT, DURING WORLD WAR ONE, A CZECHOSLOVAK LEGION HAD BEEN CREATED

BY THE RUSSIANS. MADE OF PRISONERS-OF-WAR AND ETHNIC CZECHS FROM WITHIN THE EMPIRE, IT SAW MUCH ACTION IN BATTLES AGAINST THE GERMANS AND AUSTRIANS. NOT A STEP BACKWARDS, MEN. OPEN FIRE!

AFTER THE REVOLUTION IT WAS AGREED THAT THE LEGION WOULD TRAVEL TO FRANCE TO FIGHT ON AGAINST GERMANY. THE ONLY OPEN ROUTE WAS THROUGH SIBERIA AND ON TO AMERICA BUT, AS CIVIL WAR INTENSIFIED, THE CZECHS CAME UNDER ATTACK FROM BOLSHEVIKS AND OTHER FORCES AS THEY MOVED EAST. IN 1918 ALLIED TROOPS, INCLUDING BRITISH AND AMERICANS, WERE SENT TO INTERVENE IN THE RUSSIAN CIVIL WAR. BY 1920 — WITH THE BOLSHEVIKS CLOSE TO VICTORY — FULL-SCALE EVACUATIONS WERE TAKING PLACE IN THE SIBERIAN PORT OF VLADIVOSTOK. ROTTEN, MISERABLE COUNTRY…WE’RE WELL OFF OUT OF IT, HARRY.

TOO FLAMING RIGHT, MATE.

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BY LATE SEPTEMBER, THOUGH THE BRITISH HAD BEEN SAFELY EVACUATED, THERE WERE STILL BANDS OF CZECHS TO BE TAKEN OFF. ON A COLD, GREY MORNING, A ROYAL NAVY TRANSPORT — H.M.S. HERA — ARRIVED IN THE PORT, GIVING HER OFFICERS THEIR FIRST SIGHT OF SIBERIA. WELL, IT LOOKS PEACEFUL ENOUGH. THINGS ARE STILL PRETTY HECTIC ELSEWHERE, I HEAR.

ABSOLUTELY. THE BOLSHEVIKS STRUCK A DEAL ALLOWING THE EVACUATIONS, BUT THEIR IRREGULARS DON’T SEEM TO CARE ABOUT THAT.

THE POST-WAR SETTLEMENT IN EUROPE HAD SEEN THE CREATION OF AN INDEPENDENT CZECHOSLOVAK STATE. THAT WAS THE LEGION’S DESTINATION, BUT RENEGADE MILITIA GROUPS — INCLUDING BOTH REDS AND WHITES — WERE STILL HARRYING THE STRAGGLERS. NOT REALLY YOUR CUP OF TEA, IS IT, CLEMENCE?

HE’S RIGHT, SIR. NO DISRESPECT BUT YOU DO PREFER AN EVEN KEEL.

THE LIEUTENANT — WILL CLEMENCE — COULDN’T REALLY ARGUE, FOR HE WAS A DILIGENT TYPE, WHO LIKED TO SEE THINGS DONE BY THE BOOK AND DISLIKED ANY SORT OF DISORDER. RIGHT NOW ALL HE REALLY WANTED WAS TO RETURN TO ENGLAND. I’VE BEEN OUT EAST FOR THREE YEARS. THAT’S A LONG TIME TO BE AWAY FROM HOME. ESPECIALLY AFTER WHAT’S HAPPENED.

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6 WILL’S FATHER, A PARSON, RAN A SMALL ORPHANAGE IN EAST ANGLIA. IN 1917 THE BUILDING WAS HIT BY A ZEPPELIN BOMB AND WAS BADLY DAMAGED. IT’S A MESS, ALL RIGHT. STILL, NOBODY GOT KILLED, THAT’S THE MAIN THING.

INDEED, OFFICER. BUT I DON’T KNOW HOW WE’LL AFFORD THE REPAIRS.

FUNDS WERE LOW AND WILL KNEW FROM HIS FATHER’S LETTERS THAT THE INSTITUTE WAS LIKELY TO BECOME DEFUNCT. WHEN THIS CURRENT MISSION WAS OVER, THE HERA AND HER CREW WOULD BE RETURNING TO ENGLAND, WHERE HE’D FINALLY GET SOME LEAVE. MIND YOU, THERE’S NOT A LOT I CAN DO TO HELP FATHER OUT. APART FROM MORAL SUPPORT, THAT IS.

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Explosive ACTION from a BRITISH CLASSIC!

Featuring the adventures of Alf Tupper, flight sergeant Matt Braddock and the world’s strongest man Morgyn the Mighty.

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PUBLISHING OCTOBER 2010 ISBN 978-1-85375-800-3 s £16.99 w w w. p r i o n b o o k s . c o . u k

Ava ila ble from all g ood b ooksh ops & online retailers The Victor ®© DC Thomson & Co. Ltd. 2010

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Royal Navy Lieutenant

Will Clemence was looking forward to some muchneeded home leave after three years service in Russia.

However Will, who always did things by the book, somehow found himself on an unexpected, dangerous mission alongside a civilian.

Jack Lampard was a maverick American journalist — who it seemed never did anything by the book!

Would Will survive this

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