“This may seem, at first sight, to be an unusual exhibit to choose, but it has a lot to say about military history from a popular culture perspective.
Using this knife, British commandos inflicted heavy blows to the heart of the Nazi machine during the second world war. German forces never knew when the commandos were going to strike and take out scores of their soldiers before disappearing into the night.
The psychological effect it had on the Nazis was matched only by the positive effect it had on morale back in Britain. Later adopted as the badge and insignia of the commandos, the double-edge knife was the perfect weapon; deadly when used for stabbing or throwing over distances. It became a symbol of pride.
It features in our exhibition because the publisher DC Thomson also chose it as the symbol of the Commando comic. It has been proudly displayed on the cover for the entire 50-year history of the comic and we are showing the real thing alongside artwork, illustrations and items from the museum’s collection of equipment, uniforms and personal artefacts of the first commandos and their missions.
It’s a chance to look at this weapon from a symbolic perspective rather than merely seeing it as a piece of metal used for killing.
The comic is still going strong today and is still telling the same kinds of stories. Indeed, the original brief and artistic style haven’t changed at all.
Its readership peaked back in the 1970s and 1980s before falling away a little with the advent of pay TV and video games, which younger generations could probably relate to a little better.
I think it has managed to survive because other comics flirted with new formats that didn’t catch on. One comic tried to tie-in with Action Man toys, diluting its original content in the process.
The Commando comic is very popular among old soldiers and serving forces alike. We have a picture of squaddies in Afghanistan avidly reading a copy.
There’s a very active secondhand market and we’ve been trying to get our hands on a pristine version of the very first issue as the DC Thomson copy has holes punched through it to enable it to be placed in a binder.
The comic sold for a penny in 1961, but prices now go up to £900.There are collectors out there with all 4,500 issues. They all presumably have sheds, spare rooms and understanding wives.
My own interest in this stuff stems from a long family military history both in Australia and among my British ancestors. When I was doing an archaeology course in Sydney I worked on the excavation of the Dawes Point fortress close to where the opera house is now.
History brought me to the UK to find out where we all came from; that and the typical Australian thing of doing Europe, of course.”
Robert Fleming is the curator of fine and decorative art at the National Army Museum
Draw your Weapons: the Art of Commando Comics runs at the National Army Museum, London, until 29 April 2012
Using this knife, British commandos inflicted heavy blows to the heart of the Nazi machine during the second world war. German forces never knew when the commandos were going to strike and take out scores of their soldiers before disappearing into the night.
The psychological effect it had on the Nazis was matched only by the positive effect it had on morale back in Britain. Later adopted as the badge and insignia of the commandos, the double-edge knife was the perfect weapon; deadly when used for stabbing or throwing over distances. It became a symbol of pride.
It features in our exhibition because the publisher DC Thomson also chose it as the symbol of the Commando comic. It has been proudly displayed on the cover for the entire 50-year history of the comic and we are showing the real thing alongside artwork, illustrations and items from the museum’s collection of equipment, uniforms and personal artefacts of the first commandos and their missions.
It’s a chance to look at this weapon from a symbolic perspective rather than merely seeing it as a piece of metal used for killing.
The comic is still going strong today and is still telling the same kinds of stories. Indeed, the original brief and artistic style haven’t changed at all.
Its readership peaked back in the 1970s and 1980s before falling away a little with the advent of pay TV and video games, which younger generations could probably relate to a little better.
I think it has managed to survive because other comics flirted with new formats that didn’t catch on. One comic tried to tie-in with Action Man toys, diluting its original content in the process.
The Commando comic is very popular among old soldiers and serving forces alike. We have a picture of squaddies in Afghanistan avidly reading a copy.
There’s a very active secondhand market and we’ve been trying to get our hands on a pristine version of the very first issue as the DC Thomson copy has holes punched through it to enable it to be placed in a binder.
The comic sold for a penny in 1961, but prices now go up to £900.There are collectors out there with all 4,500 issues. They all presumably have sheds, spare rooms and understanding wives.
My own interest in this stuff stems from a long family military history both in Australia and among my British ancestors. When I was doing an archaeology course in Sydney I worked on the excavation of the Dawes Point fortress close to where the opera house is now.
History brought me to the UK to find out where we all came from; that and the typical Australian thing of doing Europe, of course.”
Robert Fleming is the curator of fine and decorative art at the National Army Museum
Draw your Weapons: the Art of Commando Comics runs at the National Army Museum, London, until 29 April 2012