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Characters / Sturmtruppen

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Ze main cast from Sturmtruppen.

Private Otto/Franz/Fritz/Heinz

The anonymous, interchangeable soldiers of the battalion and usually main victims of the officers, the unseen enemy and sometimes of their own troops. Sometimes a meaningful nickname is add to the name, usually to Heinz.

  • Bayonet Ya: The infamous "Air-Headed" Franz, major cause of pierced eyes and ripped ears in the Battalion.
  • Big Eater: "Glutton" Franz, known for raiding the kitchen during night time. When the lunch became alive and went on a rampage, "Glutton" Franz was the one who defeated it, by eating a cauldron worth of lunch that had previously eaten a cross and at least another soldier with all the uniform, had been pissed on (they had no holy water) and was armed with a makeshift flamethrower.
  • Butt-Monkey: All of them, some more than others.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: Usually Private Heinz. Or rather, a Private Heinz.
  • Deadpan Snarker: They often get a chance to snark at people.
  • Demonic Possession: "Possessed Fritz", after his unlucky sojourn in the dreaded post 666.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: In a strip, a fierce charge is suddenly stopped when the soldiers come across a naked woman in a ruined house.
  • Dumb Muscle: "Gorilla" Franz, who's probably the only different-looking soldier.
  • The Ingenue: Poor Private Otto, who tries to win the love of the local prostitute with flowers and chocolates.
  • The Jinx: The dreaded Jonah Franz, from the former-Fourth Battalion. Shown to be able to cause small quakes and disasters just by thinking of a person.
  • Mooks
  • You All Look Familiar: They look identical, except for the possible helmet variations.

The Sergeant

Old and sadistic non-commissioned officer of the Battalion, whose main purpose is to make the life of the other soldiers (and especially the newbies) unbearable, and is universally hated by the soldiers. He's a long lasting feud with the Military Cook and his dreadful food. However he's also the victim and target of the two veterans of the 27th Battalion.

  • 0% Approval Rating: All the soldiers in the battalion wants to fry him alive, but they're divided between using boiling oil or kerosene.
  • Ambition Is Evil: Shortly before being apparently promoted to officer, the first sergeant shows he wants to become general eventually. Another sergeant just wants to become an officer, but was actually content with his job until he spotted the lieutenant being himself right after a soldier asked him when he'd get promoted.
  • Boob-Based Gag: Male example: While trying to solve the above-mentioned weight problems he was put in a tiny corset which squeezed all the fat upwards, resulting in a huge, bouncing bosom which soon become the main source of humor in the following strips. According to Bonvi, it was an homage to a female friend of his.
  • Big Eater/Extreme Omnivore: He's known for eating a lot, and once mistook a poisonous rattlesnake in his soup for an eel, and promptly ate it.
  • But Not Too Foreign: The two sergeants with known names are Herod Muller and Giuseppe, hinting the former has Croat or Polish blood and the latter is of Italian ancestry (the German version of their given names would have been Herodes and Joseph).
  • The Brute
  • Drill Sergeant Nasty: Especially with the newbies. He'll make true men out of them, or make them die trying!.
  • Fat Bastard: And his huge weight problems briefly become a trouble in a story arc.
  • Had to Be Sharp: The sergeants are invariably veterans from the previous war, and two (Herod Muller and Giuseppe) are hinted to not be fully Arians, leading to them having to get tough to survive and becoming sergeants.
  • Immodest Orgasm: When the new recruits are coming, ready for being tortured, he's shown trembling, growling, foaming and waving fingers. At the same time.
    Private Franz:"I belief he's about to hafe an orgasm!"
  • Legacy Character: There's actually multiple sergeants, the first clear change happening when strip 232 has him beating up his own mother and being explicitely identified as the new sergeant. The only functional difference among them is that the first(?) sergeant worships the Catch-22 Dilemma (and forces the soldiers to kneel in prayer at a stone where the catch had been written on) and wanted to eventually become a general, while a later one would be happy to stay a sergeant if it wasn't for the Second Lieutenant being an officer and didn't know of the catch until a soldier tried to get discharged on insanity grounds and the doctor invoked it. Most of them are unnamed, but one is identified as Herod Muller and a late one as Giuseppe.
  • Only Sane Man: Whenever he's paired with the Second Lieutenant, something that happens rather too often for his liking.
  • The Pig-Pen: One sergeant didn't know why there's water in the bath tub and what's the purpose of soap. His attendants are forced to use sandpaper and acids just to carve throught the outer layers and when they're done with that, Is revealed that he lose something like 6 pounds of dirt.
  • Sergeant Rock: Once the battle start they become true leaders, using their vast combat experience to help the troop win the day or at least come out alive. Slightly diminished by their willingness to use the bodies of fallen soldiers as human shields and improvised catwalks over barbed wire, but if it helps the rest of the troop come out alive...
  • Stout Strength
  • Unfriendly Fire: A few sergeants have been murdered by their soldiers at the first chance, with one escaping said fate when a soldier put a rattlesnake in his mess kit and the Sergeant mistook it for an eel, ate it, and asked for more (said soldier and his friends later hired Musolesi to assassinate him).
  • Veteran Instructor: He's the most experienced soldier of the battalion, and always assigned to train the New Meat. Surprisingly enough, he's very good in spite of his sadism, once making a soldier out of someone literally too stupid to wear his boots with the points forward.
  • Volleying Insults: With the Cook.

The 27th Armoured Battalion (of Discipline)

The thoughest and hardest soldiers of all the Battalion, they're the only guys who can force the Sergeant to crawl around and squirm in fear. Is implied that the only person they ever respected was the Drunken Captain.

  • Big Damn Heroes: Twice they solve a situation to the advantage of other troopers:
    • When the Sergeant was screwing Private Otto's "girlfriend"-actually the battalion's whore-and, given he had paid to spend the whole night with her, forced him to hold his pants, the 27th stumbled on the scene, slapped silly the one trooper that was finding the situation hilarious, and gave the Sergeant the lesson of his life, hinting that if he ever came there again they'd slit his throat.
    • The Drunk Captain had been succeeded by a Glory Hound that would have got the battalion decimated in a suicide attack to have a promotion to major when the 27th showed up to pay respect to their old commander... And as they were there tricked his successor to go into a minefield.
  • Establishing Character Moment: Their first two strips:
    • The first strip during a violent shelling has two soldiers wondering if the two newly arrived reinforcements are greenhorns unable to deal with the hard life of the frontlines-and the two of the 27th (still unseen) remarking it was nice to finally get some relaxation in the rear.
    • In the second strip one of the troopers tries and have them serve their sentinel shifts... And the two just laugh. They later threatens to slit the throat of the soldier when he threatened to report them.
  • Had to Be Sharp: They often mention the Legreis Correction Center and how hard things were there, including how they took a year out of their sentences for every fifteen bombs they defused. One had been sentenced to 125 years, and the other for life.
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: They help Private Otto with his "romantic relationship" and save the battalion from being thrown into a suicide attack, though they mainly did it to screw over the Sergeant and punish the captain that had offended their old commander the Drunk Captain.
  • Perma-Stubble: Unlike other soldiers.
  • Smoking Is Cool: Almost all the time they're shown smoking from a cigarette. It doesn't help that they light them up by scratching their matches against flying shells or other soldiers' helmets.
  • Trading Bars for Stripes: They come from a penal battalion, and from the Legreis Detention Center before that.
  • Unfriendly Fire: They made very clear to the sergeant they'd never have "accidents" with their guns that would result in shooting him in the back... Not with witnesses around. They later told him that the area where private Otto's "girlfriend" lived was plenty of dark alleys where someone could slit his throat without witnesses.

The Second Lieutenant

A clumsy and ditzy officer who achieved his rank thanks to nepotism. The Lieutenant is young and inept, and usually volunteers for dangerous or difficult tasks which will eventually end up as an Epic Fail.

  • Butt-Monkey: Noone ever respects him.
  • Boisterous Bruiser: He tries to be one without much success. For example, during a strip when they're preparing an assault on a bunker he seems willing and ready to assault said bunker with a pick.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: His idea for a better rifle? Same rifle as before, now cannon-sized.
  • The Ditz: Uh yeah...
  • Eek, a Mouse!!: "Don't you know zey can climb up your leg!?"
  • General Failure: Ok, Second Lieutenant Failure, but still...
  • The Ingenue: He seems to have no clue on sex. When Helga shows him an erotic comic he mistakes the people having sex for some kind of wrestlers and a woman performing oral sex for cannibalism.
  • Man on Fire: During the above mentioned bunker miniarc, he tries to destroy the enemy bunker with a fire bomb package, but they end up backfiring...
  • Nepotism: When a furious captain asked him to give one reason to not dishonorably discharge him, he mentioned that his dad is a feldmarshall.
  • Rank Up: Promoted off-page to full lieutenant, much to the chagrin of the captain when he needed a second lieutenant.
  • Self-Deprecation: Bonvi has once claimed the second lieutenant is inspired by his own experience as a drafted second lieutenant, and in particular that one time when he reacted to Yugoslav peasants trying to move the border signs by invading Yugoslavia with a tank platoon.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: He's not what he claims to be.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The soldiers openly wonder how he can survive his own idiocy.
    • An early incarnation of the lieutenant did not survive his own stupidity, as he quickly managed to get fragged.

The Military Cook

The infamous cook of the battalion, known for his horrible food. He's often bickering and exchanging pranks with the Sergeant.

  • Brutal Honesty: Even he admit that he would never eat his own food.
    • Once he was asked what there was in the lunch, and he declared it was infected with cholera. One soldier believed he was joking and ate it. It was not a joke.
  • The Dog Bites Back: He's usually at the mercy of the antics of both officers, sergeants, and even refular soldiers... But he's also the guy feeding everyone, and at times he strikes back. It's even implied he cooks badly on purpose after dirty laundry water was preferred to his meals...
  • I Am a Humanitarian: Choose the fattest soldier as his disciple and ends up cooking him for the Officer's Meal.
    • It wasn't for the Officer's Meal, it was a special lunch for the soldiers celebrating his 25th year in the army. And when the disciple caught on it (while already in the cauldron) and ran away, the soldiers were disgusted by the cook... Until they were told that the disciple was the ONLY lunch available for the day. Then they started searching for him.
  • Lethal Chef: From his deadly cauldron came out things like: dried pea soup (there's no water), frozen solid soup (during winter), soup made from motor oil and boiled tires, salad made from tree leaves, dirty laundry water (which was actually well received), corpses, living ferocious spaghetti, cholera, a concoction that turns soldiers into hairy monsters, a live (wild) goat and a blob-like abomination that fed on soldiers.
    • At least once, the motor oil had been added by the Sergeant as part of his feud with the cook. The soldiers didn't see the difference until the Sergeant, who was saying the lunch looked like being made of motor oil, was asked the oil can back.
  • The Resenter: Implied: in his earliest appearances he didn't cook that bad, but then the first story arc where he had an important role has him rant how all his efforts to prepare good meals for the troop had just been made meaningless by the soldiers liking the dirty laundry water, and from then on he becomes a Lethal Chef.
  • Signature Headgear: He always wears a chef's hat over his head rather than his helmet. In one strip an officer has him punished for not wearing the helmet like everyone else... And the cook answered by serving the officer the cooked chef's hat, prompting the latter to forget about the punishment.

The Military Medic

A Major and medic who studied as a veterinarian, but since animals refused to be treated by him he was assigned to the closest human category: soldiers. The Medic is a quack doctor and a charlatan, often obsessed with things like vampires and the potion of invisibility.

  • Afraid of Blood: That's why he has to wear a blindfold while operating.
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander: When he becomes obsessed with an speculated Vampire infestation, or when he becomes obsessed again with the invisibility elixir or when he mistakes a mud covered soldier who was Buried Alive for a zombie.
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: He's a late addition to the cast, and before him there were two doctors: the quirky and never seen Doktor Von Barnard and the unnamed hospital director who had to suffer the anger caused by his antics and generally practice normal cures for the troopers.
  • Invisibility: His greatest and most memorable quirk, which ends up with him going around naked for the camp, and since he had the highest rank, he had the right to believe himself invisible as he wished.
  • Large Ham: When revealing the identity of his greatest medical idol. Aka: Van Helsing the Vampire Slayer (complete with background lightning).
  • Mad Scientist: He believes to have discovered the Invisibility Elixir without going mad. He actually went mad without discovering the Invisibility Elixir.
  • Naked People Are Funny: When he believes himself to be invisible. It backfires once when a soldier, pretending to not see him, performs a Groin Attack with a cigarette.
  • Never Bareheaded: He always keeps a hat on.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: His greatest success was curing the hiccup of the Colonel.

The Captain

The grumpy and mostly serious captain of the Battalion, though there are several captains, arguably he's the sanest character in the comic. Like all the higher officer he's tall and lean with hawkish nose and eyes obscured by the cap's visor.

  • Affably Evil: It's easy to forget that aside for the Drunken Captain the various captains only actually care for their careers, and are willing to get the entire battalion addicted to drugs if it means preventing a mutiny without looking bad in front of the higher-ups by actually addressing the causes of the malcontent.
  • Best Served Cold: All captains suffered the idiocy of the second lieutenant without being able to properly punish him, and at one point even having to see him promoted to full lieutenant, due the fool being the son of a feldmarshall. Then one day he was told an inspection was coming and he had to assign the inspecting officer a second lieutenant as assistant, and as they couldn't just point out they didn't have a second lieutenant anymore and make the high command look like fools the captain had the fictional officer added to the roster and made the lieutenant responsible for anything he did, forcing him to run himself ragged to do his own job and that of the non-existing officer. It ends up with the fictional officer being promoted... And the captain reassigning the lieutenant's tent to the newly promoted officer, throwing him out until Helga offers to share her tent.
  • General Ripper: In his early incarnations and some of the latter.
  • Lean and Mean: Unlike the bulky soldiers and the Sergeant, the Captain is slimmer and taller.
  • Legacy Character: There's multiple captains succeeding themselves without ado. They're for the most part identical in personality, with only the Drunken Captain standing out.
  • Only Sane Man: Most of the time, they act as the straight men to the strip's current events.
  • Picky Eater: He's willing to eat the same lunch as the soldiers. Provided that said lunch include a series of snobbish and high-class delicacies.
  • Pragmatic Evil: The captains (usually) act as the voice of reason and (usually) keep the troop in good health... Because this way it's more likely their career will progress.
  • Reasonable Authority Figure: Not that there's much choice, mind you...
  • Unfriendly Fire: One early Captain is implied having been shot by his soldiers thanks to a creative interpretation of his "orders" (he was leading them to an attack and shouted "If I advance follow me! If I go back shoot me!" and then arrived on the edge of a cliff, with his soldiers looking at him with grinning faces), and another was tricked into a minefield by the 27th Armored Battalion (of Discipline).

The Colonel

A even higher ranked officer, identical to the Captain except for the different coat and uniform. Unlike the Captain, Colonel/s are much like one shot characters that appears rarely and usually from outside.

The General

The highest ranked officer in the army, as the Colonel above he's usually shown as an outsider. So far, two main "generals" are shown: One looks like the typical officer and tries to assist to the "Extermination" of the Jewish prisoner, the other is an old and senile veteran who visits the troops a couple of times.

  • Clothes Make the Superman: Shown when the old general is hospitalized: as soon as his uniform is removed everyone treats him like a worthless senile geezer and ignore him. However he gains all his prestige and power back as soon as he put the uniform back.
  • Dirty Old Man: The old general is revealed to be one when he becomes enamored with the Sergeant's boobs, to the point that he forces him to run in front of him, grope him and eventually take him home when he finally leaves.
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Courtesy of the Sergeant's boobs, complete with a streak of puns.
    Captain: "Ehm, General, ze troops are here..."
    General: "Ja, ja, magnificent boobs ehm, troops, really magnificent..."
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: The Extermination General decides to hide behind the extermination wall in order to avoid straying bullets. Said walls drops on him after being shot.
  • Humiliation Conga: The Old General when he gets hospitalized and loses his uniform.

The Drunken Captain

An old and badass officer always seen with some liquor on his person, he makes a brief appearence in a strip and eventually dies some times later. The Drunken Captain can be seen as an Author Avatar of Bonvi.

  • The Alcoholic: So much that when he's mortally wounded his blood emits alcoholic fumes that cover the whole camp.
  • Badass Boast: "I'll crush you all like wasps!!" said to the enemy's shower of bullets all around him while standing still on the trench's border and facing them.
  • Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Always drunk, eating only the olive in his cocktail, and an awesome officer that could swat a machine gun's bullets from air and in one occasion single-handedly saved the battalion from being annihilated by an enemy attack.
    • His cocktail is strong enough that a single cocktail glass of it can be used as a Molotov Cocktail... As he demonstrated on an enemy tank. It's also hinted that his constant inhebriation is part of the reason of his awesomeness, as he was so drunk to allucinate enemy bullets were wasps during the machine gun stunt.
  • Exact Words: Apparently, he only has one martini per meal. It's never stated that it has to be his meal though.
  • A Father to His Men: Greatly cared for his soldiers, casually risking his life to protect them. In one strip he even helps a sentinel from beyond the grave.
  • Go Out with a Smile: The strip showing his demise has a row of morose-looking, genuinely sad soldiers surrounding him, helmets in hand... while he's rather cheerful about his impending death and jokes with them.
    "Why the long faces? Cheer up, you get to keep my stash of booze!"
  • Killed Off for Real: Sadly he was Too Cool to Live.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: When he's shot in the chest he's more worried about the safety of his alcohol flask than his health.
    "Thank God! It's just blood!"

  • Noodle Incident: According to the guys of the 27th Battalion, he was their Colonel but lost his rank because "he was a bit naughty".

Sergeant Olga, Caporal Helga and Private Tilda

The only female soldiers and officer introduced in the comic and the camp. Olga is a large, squat woman who falls for the Sergeant, Helga falls for the Lieutenant and Tilda (the most attractive of the trio) for a poetic soldier, but none of them has much success.

  • Alliterative Name
  • Blood Knight: Shown to be more than willing to go out and murder the enemy, even volunteering to stay at the head of an offensive just to have a better chance to kill someone.
  • More Deadly Than the Male: They're far more competent than any other trooper other than the 27th Armored Battalion (of Discipline) and maybe the Sergeant, and a trio of Blood Knights.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Tilda, so much that all the soldiers of the battalion faint the instant they see her.

Private Humbert

A caveman-like soldier who was left alone and forgotten for 5 years in the outpost number 8. He's a weird and disgusting man apparently made of hair who also possess a great strength.

Proud Ally Galeazzo Musolesi of San Giovanni in Persiceto

The buffonish and proud fascist soldier who joined the troops on the front lines. He's a cowardly and dishonest man who's always trying to making a profit from the military life and trying to seek glory with easy, totally safe missions. His name is a clear parody of both Mussolini's and Galeazzo Ciano's names, and comes from a prank letter wrote by Bonvi.

The Ally of the Rising Sun

A Japanese soldier who joined the Battalion. He's constantly arguing with Musolesi. He's based on various Japanese stereotypes, like the mania for self-sacrifice and photos.

The SS Execution Squad

An execution squad, complete with Captain and a stoic jewish prisoner who should be exterminated. Not that they have much success.

  • Black Comedy: Probably the best example is when the Jewish prisoner falls ill and is recovered.
    Prisoner: "I don't want to die like this!! I have an execution waiting for me!!"
  • Hiccup Hijinks: A miniarc has the Captain affecte by hiccups and unable to order the "Fire". The soldier and the prisoner tries to cure him with a variety of methods, including sudden scares, painting the Captain's face black before suddenly showing him a mirror, making him angry (with the prisoner telling him that his parents' names were Rebecca and David). They finally cure him... with a written order from the Fuhrer himself.
  • Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: The soldiers are unable to hit the prisoners, even if they're pressing the guns right at his stomach.
  • Kick the Dog: When the Squad finally manages to find a perfect wall and everything seems allright...
    Captain: "What do you mean with General Retreat!?"
  • Pet the Dog: Eventually the Jew becomes affectionate to the captain, to the point that he even keep him company when he's hospitalized and help him getting his sanity back. The opposite happens when the prisoner fall ill and is hospitalized, and the Captain look after him.
  • The Stoic: The jewish prisoner. He doesn't seem too fazed at the idea of being killed.
  • Suffer the Slings: At one point, the jewish prisoner uses a slingshot to sneak-shot the Captain in the back of the head when he's about to order "Fire!", blaming it on stress.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Literally, as the poor captain eventually has a nervous breakdown and is hospitalized.

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