G.I. Combat #177 is an issue of the series G.I. Combat (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 1975.
Synopsis for Haunted Tank: "The Tank That Missed D-Day"
June 5th, 1944. The Haunted Tank rolls down England's peaceful lanes towards the sea, having just been unloaded at a nearby airfield. They are late for their departure in one of the biggest operations the Allied forces have ever pulled off, and Slim has the pedal to the metal trying to get to the docks in time. As they are barreling down the roads, the ghost of General J.E.B. Stuart appears before them. He gives Jeb a cryptic warning, that they will be facing the supreme test for his tank and its crew. He tells him that war is unique, some men are chosen, others passed over, but that the God of Battles works in strange ways. Jeb is puzzled, and begins to think his ancestor has lost his confidence in them. A few miles ahead, far out of sight of the Haunted Tank, General Stuart's ghost appears again at a crossroads, and whips up a wind strong enough to spin the road sign. When the Haunted Tank reaches the crossroads, they unknowingly turn and head the wrong way.
By the time Jeb realizes they've been going the wrong way, it is too late. As they pull up into the village and the shores of the English Channel, they can see the planes and ships of the Invasion heading away in the distance. They are too late! On one of the piers, a squad of M.P.'s spot the tank, and order Jeb to park it and consider him and his crew under arrest for desertion. Jeb tries to explain, and Gus tells the M.P.'s that they were flown in special for the invasion. Jeb hopes that maybe the General can help them, but then he spots an opportunity in the form of a barge owned by an old Dutchman named Captain Jaans. Jeb pleads with the Dutchman to take them and their tank across the Channel. Jaans agrees to help, since it would mean helping fight against the Germans who invaded his country. When the M.P.'s aren't looking, Jeb and the others climb back aboard the Haunted Tank and drive it onto the barge, which immediately sets sail into the Channel before the police can stop it. They're finally heading towards the war. Nothing's going to stop them now!
During their journey, a quick storm appears, turning the water gray with angry whitecaps. Jeb is baffled by the freak weather, until he spots the General's ghost riding his phantom horse around them and conjuring the gale. But they have worse things to worry about, when a German sub spots them and fires a torpedo in their direction. Because of the choppy water, the torpedo misses. Jeb and his crew quickly jump aboard their tank and swing the turret around. Another torpedo is fired, and misses again. The Haunted Tank fires, and the U-Boat is destroyed. The storm then quiets down, and the ghost disappears once again.
As they approach the French coast, Jeb spots through his binoculars two Panzer tanks shelling a small village along the shore. Within the village, a company of American troops are pinned down from the attack. Jeb asks Captain Jaans to land the barge there at the village so they can help, but he tells them that the waters are too shallow and it's impossible. Jeb orders him to do it. As they approach the shore, they can hear the barge scraping the bottom, but just then a ghostly hand appears and lifts them from the waters, throwing the barge against the stone pier and knocking the Haunted Tank off and onto dry land! The barge is destroyed and Captain Jaans vanished, but the Haunted Tank is now on land and able to help. Jeb orders Slim to move them forward into the village. The Infantry soldiers are stunned in disbelief that a tank has appears to help them like a miracle, and they now have a chance at survival. Slim drives the Haunted Tank through the village into the front, moving up a sand dune and right into the crossfire of the two Panzers. Jeb is determined to show the General that he was wrong to think they are not ready for the battle, and the others are beginning to think that their lieutenant has finally cracked under pressure. The Haunted Tank reaches the summit of the dune, and then tumbles down the other side just as the two Panzers turn their turrets and fire. The shots miss the falling Stuart tank, and hit one another, destroying both Panzers by their own crossfire! Jeb and his crew pull themselves free of their overturned tank, but now worry that they may be out of the action for D-day permanently. To their surprise, Captain Jaans appears, along with whole group of villagers, and using ropes they brought help to turn the Haunted Tank back right side up. Jeb apologizes for destroying the captain's barge, but Jaans tells him that he's returning to Holland to help fight the Germans with his own people.
Jeb now understands what the General was trying to tell him before. Some men are chosen for special deeds, and he and his crew were fated to miss the D-Day action, in order to rendezvous here and help these soldiers who now march to their ultimate victory.
Appearing in Haunted Tank: "The Tank That Missed D-Day"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- German naval seamen
- German Infantry soldiers
Other Characters:
- American MPs
- British fisherman
- Captain Jaans
- American Infantry soldiers
- French villagers
Locations:
Items:
- German torpedo
- Rope
Vehicles:
- The Haunted Tank
- American Willys MB Jeep
- American Douglas C-47 military transport planes
- American battleships
- Steam-powered barge boat (Destroyed)
- German U-boat submarine (Destroyed)
- German Panzerkampfwagen IV tanks (Destroyed)
Synopsis for "The Avenging Wind"
Two young boys, each growing up in a different part of the world. One, an American boy from Kansas, dreams of looping in the skies as a pilot like his heroes Eddie Rickenbacker and Baron Von Richthofen. The second, a boy from the fields outside Kyoto, Japan, wishes to dance in the sky like the kites he flies. Both share a dream of soaring towards the stars. Both are heading towards a destiny that will bring their lives together in the flaming skies of war.
Years later, aboard an aircraft carrier steaming towards Okinawa, the American, now a pilot for the Navy, sits in the cockpit of his Hellcat waiting for the signal to take off. Not too far away, on an airfield in Tokyo, the Japanese youth, now a grown man as well, stands with his fellow pilots in an ancient samurai ceremony, giving a toast to their victory. He enters his Zero plane and takes off into the sky, born to be an avenging wind. As the early morning approaches, the American was ordered into the air with the rest of his Hellcat squadron, as the Zeros arrive. The battle begins! The clouds are stained crimson from the bleeding pilots and aircraft. The American is overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of his enemy, then he targets a single Zero to focus just as a second Zero swoops in on his tail. The Japanese pilot moves his Zero in behind the American Hellcat, ready for his first kill of the day. The American pilot doesn't falter, staying on the tail of the Zero in front of him as it begins its dive towards the aircraft carrier, He fires, and the Zero is destroyed. He then wrenches his battered Hellcat into a screaming reversal and looks around to come behind the Zero that has been tailing him. He fires, and hits the Zero. The Japanese pilot admires his enemy, as the bullets rip through his plane and set it ablaze. With one last desperate attempt for honor, the Japanese pilot sets his plane spiraling down towards the aircraft carrier in an attempt to send it to the bottom of the sea and fulfill his destiny. The American pilot sees this, and with only a second to act, slams his own plane into the descending Zero! Trailing a plume of black smoke behind them like a tail, the interlocked American and Japanese planes whirl down into the sea.
Two young men, both once boys entangled in an endless circle of the invisible threads of time. As two lives meet their fates during World War II, two more boys are dreaming back in their home countries. One boy, high atop a New York tenement. Another, in the rice paddies near Hanoi in Vietnam. Both dream of flight. Both trapped in destiny's cruel net.
Appearing in "The Avenging Wind"
Featured Characters:
- American Fighter pilot
- Japanese Fighter pilot
Antagonists:
- Japanese pilots
Other Characters:
- American pilots
- Frank Rickenbacker (Mentioned only)
- Eddie Rickenbacker (Mentioned only)
- Baron Manfred von Richthofen (Mentioned only)
Locations:
- Kansas
- Japan
- Okinawa, Pacific Ocean
Items:
- German Bi-plane crop duster toy
- Kite
Vehicles:
- American Aircraft carrier
- American Grumman F6F Hellcat fighter aircraft
- Japanese Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter plane
Notes
- This month's "Let's Make Tracks" letter column features an autobiography of writer Bob Haney. In it, Haney tells of his time in the Navy, where he served across the South Pacific from Pearl Harbor, to Eniwetok and the Phillippines, before being assigned to mine-sweeping duty off Japan after the war. He states that the inspiration for this issue's story came from his vacation in France and the D-Day beaches in the summer of 1973.
Trivia
- Starting with this issue, the G.I. COMBAT series became a monthly magazine.
See Also
Recommended Reading
- World War II Recommended Reading
- Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (Volume 1)
- Adventures in the Rifle Brigade (Volume 2)
- All-American Men of War (Volume 1)
- All-Out War (Volume 1)
- Blackhawk (Volume 1)
- Blitzkrieg (Volume 1)
- Capt. Storm (Volume 1)
- Four-Star Battle Tales (Volume 1)
- G.I. Combat (Volume 1)
- Men of War (Volume 1)
- Military Comics (Volume 1)
- Our Army at War (Volume 1)
- Our Fighting Forces (Volume 1)
- Sgt. Rock (Volume 1)
- Sgt. Rock (Volume 2)
- Star-Spangled War Stories (Volume 1)
- Unknown Soldier (Volume 1)
- Weird War Tales (Volume 1)