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Three GIs - a pilot, a soldier and a sailor - tell their World War II combat stories.

Detailed summary for "Blind Night-Fighter"

A. Bonny, a USAAF fighter pilot, takes to the skies when the sun sets - when other pilots call it a night.

He successfully destroys one Nazi fighter plane, only to be picked up by another. Under fire, he tries to evade the other pilot and get into a position to return fire. Relying on his instrument panel, he manages to destroy the second fighter.

A third plane appears and opens fire. While Bonny's aircraft is still flying, his instrument panel is destroyed. Flying blind, Bonny nearly crashes into a windmill before he pulls himself out of a dive which he thought was a climb. He realizes he was flying upside-down, and corrects his plane. He tries to spot his attacker using the light of the moon, which runs behind the clouds. Fighting panic, Bonny again sees the windmill he nearly crashed into before. He opens fire on the mill, setting its cloth arms on fire and giving him the light he needs to spot his attacker and return fire, destroying the Nazi aircraft.

Appearing in "Blind Night-Fighter"

  • Action Pilot

Memorable quotes in "Blind Night-Fighter"

  • None yet.

Other notes

Errors in "Blind Night-Fighter"

  • The markings on Bonny's wings indicate he is USAF (United States Air Force), but the Air Force wasn't created until 1947. The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF), however, operated in Europe starting in the summer of 1944.[1]

Items of note in "Blind Night-Fighter"

Real-world references in "Blind Night-Fighter"

  • No references.

Detailed summary for "Cliff Hanger"

Billy Douglas teased his friend Vic in school for being weak. When they went through basic, he kept it up. Having Vic around eased the guys' minds. Their assault boat was probably the only one heading for Normandy with guys in it laughing - laughing at Vic.

When they get to the beach, they can't climb the cliff because of fire from above. After being laughed at by his schoolmates, his comrades-in-arms, and now the enemy, Vic has had enough. He climbs the cliff and uses a grenade to make the laughing stop. None of the other GIs laugh at him any more, but now there's no one around to ease the tension.

Appearing in "Cliff Hanger"

  • Action Soldier

Memorable quotes in "Cliff Hanger"

  • None yet.

Other notes

Errors in "Cliff Hanger"

  • No errors known.

Items of note in "Cliff Hanger"

  • Vic mentions that the action took place on beach "Easy Orange." On D-Day, Omaha Beach was divided into ten beaches, code-named (from west to east): Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog Green, Dog White, Dog Red, Easy Green, Easy Red, Fox Green and Fox Red. If Vic's "Easy Orange" is assumed to actually be "Easy Red," then that would make Vic part of E or G Company, 2nd Batallion of the 16th Regiment or E Company, 2nd Batallion of the 116th Regiment. Elements of those three companies came together to climb the bluffs at Easy Red between 07:30 and 08:30 on D-Day.

Real-world references in "Cliff Hanger"

  • No references.

Detailed summary for "The Clean Sweep"

A Japanese submarine, the Maru, sinks an American sub, the U.S.S. Tarpon, leaving one survivor on a raft with a broom.

The sailor had brought the broom on board as a symbol that the crew was going to have a clean sweep - having every torpedo connect with an enemy vessel.

Now adrift, the sailor contemplates tossing the broom overboard, but changes his mind when he realizes it is his only defense against a shark attack. Drifting to an island, the sailor spots the Maru. Using explosive charges found on enemy beach defenses and attaching them to the broom, the sailor throws the Tarpon's last "torpedo" into the Maru's conning tower, destroying the Japanese submarine. Not long after, an American PT boat chugs into the sub base with the sailor and (what's left of) the clean sweep.

Appearing in "The Clean Sweep"

  • Action Sailor

Memorable quotes in "The Clean Sweep"

  • None yet.

Other notes

Errors in "The Clean Sweep"

  • No errors known.
  • No special items of note.

Real-world references in "The Clean Sweep"

  • While there was a U.S.S. Tarpon that served in the Pacific theater, it survived the war. There was no Japanese submarine called the Maru, per se. However, maru is a common suffix of Japanese ship names.

Footnotes and References

Included was a text-only article about "nameless heroes" of WWII and (of course) a full-page ad for Hasbro's titular toy.

  1. Pape, Garry R. and Ronald C. Harrison. Queen of the Midnight Skies: The Story of America’s Air Force Night Fighters, p. 208. West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer, 1992. ISBN 978-0-88740-415-3.


[[Category:DC Comics issues]]

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