Squeeze in, you monkey ... and what made you think you could fly? 
Military Comics #14 is an issue of the series Military Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of December, 1942.
Synopsis for Blackhawk: "Tondeleyo"
Appearing in Blackhawk: "Tondeleyo"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Hans Oberst, top Nazi air ace (Single appearance; dies)
- Von Gurst, new commanding officer (Single appearance; dies)
- Tondeleyo (Single appearance; dies)
Locations:
- Berlin
- Nazi Airdrome in northern France
- Blackhawk Island
Vehicles:
- six Blackhawk Grumman fighter-bombers (two are destroyed)
- three hundred Messerschmitt BF-109s (some are shot down)
- squadron of 4-engine Junkers bombers (most or all are shot down)
Synopsis for Sniper: "The Sinister Dr. Holtz"
Appearing in Sniper: "The Sinister Dr. Holtz"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Dr. Heinrich Holtz
- his troops
Locations:
- Paris, France
- Sniper's secret base in the Eiffel Tower (First appearance)
- Germany
Synopsis for Blue Tracer: "Mission To Yugoslavia"
At the personal request of F.D.R., Wild Bill Dunn and Boomerang Jones take the Blue Tracer to Yugoslavia, where they help General Mikhailovitch's Chetnik guerrillas against the Nazi occupation forces. Dunn outflanks the Nazis by gaining a great deal of altitude then crash-diving and tunneling thru one of the Balkan Mountains. The Chetniks follow, thru the new tunnel, with fixed bayonets, and they take few if any prisoners when they get there.
Appearing in Blue Tracer: "Mission To Yugoslavia"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- President Roosevelt (Cameo)
- General Mikhailovitch
- his Chetnik guerrillas
Locations:
Vehicles:
- Blue Tracer
- many German warplanes (some destroyed)
Synopsis for Phantom Clipper: "Fifty Million Foes"
The Yankee Clippers undertake the rescue of a P.O.W. who has important knowledge about the minefields surrounding Lake Island. Meanwhile Major Harrows, the prisoner in question, escapes on his own, from Nichi Nichi prison camp, in Japan.
In the harbor at Nichi Nichi, the Phantom Clipper exchanges gunfire with a Japanese shore battery, then slips into a position behind some sand bars, where the enemy ships can't cross. A Yankee Clipper landing party gets ashore, finds Major Harrows, help him to break out all of his men (the captured garrison of Lake Island), and escape.
Appearing in Phantom Clipper: "Fifty Million Foes"
Featured Characters:
- Yankee Clippers:
- Lieutenant "Tiger" Shark, USN
- Captain Seth Parker, formerly Perkins (has a peg leg)
- Hook, First Mate (has a hook)
- Erik, Engineer
- Sea Biscuit, Bosun
- Jewaldri, Cook
- Little Billy, Recruit
Antagonists:
Other Characters:
- Admiral Nevens, Commander of the Far Eastern Fleet
- Major Harrows
- Captain McIntosh (Dies)
Locations:
- Pacific Ocean
- Lake Island
- Japan
- Nichi Nichi, prison camp
Vehicles:
Synopsis for Private Dogtag: "The World's Dumbest Soldier"
Appearing in Private Dogtag: "The World's Dumbest Soldier"
Featured Characters:
- Private Dogtag (First appearance)
Synopsis for Shot and Shell: "The Chumps and the Chetniks"
Appearing in Shot and Shell: "The Chumps and the Chetniks"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Chetniks
Villains:
Other Characters:
Locations:
Synopsis for Secret War News: "Life-Line to the East"
(nonfiction account of Allied long-range bomber, transport, and cargo pilots, early 1942)
Appearing in Secret War News: "Life-Line to the East"
Characters:
- Lieutenant Jackson, pilot
- Wiggins, bombardier
- Shorty Ryan, pilot
Antagonists:
Locations:
- Eastern U.S. Coastal Atlantic Ocean
- Puerto Rico
- East Coast of South America
- West Coast of Africa
- Alexandria, Egypt
- Tobruk, Libya
- Mediterranean Sea
- Calcutta, India
- Himalayas
- Kunming, China
Vehicles:
- new Consolidated B-24 Liberator bombers (one destroyed)
- Axis supply ships and troop transports (one destroyed)
- Italian warships (some damaged)
- German Messerschmitt 109-Fs (one destroyed)
Synopsis for Pacific Patrol: "Destroying the Destroyers"
In the Aleutian Islands, a U.S. submarine sinks three Japanese destroyers.
Appearing in Pacific Patrol: "Destroying the Destroyers"
Characters:
Date:
- July 4th, 1942
Antagonists:
Locations:
Vehicles:
- U.S. submarine
- three Japanese destroyers (Destroyed)
Notes
- Published by Comic Magazines, Inc.
- Blackhawk: "Tondeleyo" is partially reprinted in The Blackhawk Archives, Volume One.
- The proper Grumman XF5F Skyrockets will be back next issue. This issue continues the use of the single-rudder modified version, with the in-line engines.
- Tondeleyo will be mentioned, by Olaf, in Military Comics #19, but will not be back. We never learn what she was up to, how she arrived on Blackhawk Island, nor why she destroyed Hans Oberst before going after the Blackhawks.
- The Luftwaffe definitely know the location of Blackhawk Island, and were able to parachute-deliver a written message there, followed later by a squadron of heavy bombers.
- Chop Chop disobediently pilots one of the Blackhawk fighter-bombers, for the first time. He gets shot down. It's worth remembering that he originally showed up, in Jugoslavia, piloting a home-built airplane.[1]
- Blackhawk deliberately crashes his fighter-bomber into a heavy bomber. Over the course of his long combat career, Blackhawk survived at least twenty-two aircraft crashes.[2] Six of these crashes were deliberate.[3] Being a Blackhawk is dangerous.
- Blue Tracer
- Franklin Roosevelt actually looks like himself, for a change.
- First issue for Private Dogtag, by Bart Tumey. Private Dogtag is in no way related to Dogtag.
- Secret War News
- "This is an actual story based upon inside facts gathered from U.S.N. Information Bureaus."
- The Hero Stamp feature returns, profiling Ensign Donald Francis Mason, who sank two enemy submarines in early 1942.
- The Sniper no longer narrates his own stories.
- This issue introduces the Sniper's secret base, in the Eiffel Tower.
- Also featured in this issue of Military Comics was:
- "Bill Hatch -- Hero" (text story)
Trivia
- "Tondelayo" (not "Tondeleyo" as in this comic) was the name of an African temptress in the 1942 film White Cargo. In his book History of Comics, Jim Steranko claimed that Blackhawk writer William Woolfolk admitted to ripping off the plot of the film for this issue's story.
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)
Links and References
- ↑ Military Comics #3
- ↑ Military Comics #1 (3 in one story), Military Comics #4 (2 in one story), Military Comics #6, Military Comics #13, Military Comics #14, Military Comics #19, Military Comics #33, Blackhawk #9, Military Comics #39, Modern Comics #61, Modern Comics #83, Modern Comics #91, Blackhawk #64 (2, in two stories), Blackhawk #70, Blackhawk #80, Blackhawk #81, Blackhawk #83, & Blackhawk #88
- ↑ Military Comics #1, Military Comics #14, Modern Comics #61, Modern Comics #83, Modern Comics #91, Blackhawk #83
Look at how sad this is making Batman. You did this.