Bite your tongue! I just got a chill like someone was steppin' on my grave! 
- — Slim Stryker
G.I. Combat #204 is an issue of the series G.I. Combat (Volume 1) with a cover date of November, 1977.
Synopsis for Haunted Tank: "A Winter in Hell"
It is December 15th, 1944. The Haunted Tank rumbles out of the Bastogne in Belgium, which is occupied by General Anthony McAuliffe's 101st Airborne troops, who shiver in the zero weather and dank blanket of fog. Behind them, a squadron of six Sherman tanks follow. Lt. Jeb Stuart is talking with the ghost of his ancestor, General J.E.B. Stuart, and is thrilled to be on a mission with so much firepower and armor behind them. The General wars Jeb, that while a whole army can start a battle, only one man may be left to fire the last shot. Jeb's not worried, as he is using a captured map that tells them exactly where the enemy is lying low and which targets to hit. They're first objective is Hill 14, just 25 miles east of the Bastogne. But when they arrive at the coordinates, they find only flat land. No Hill 14. Suddenly the snow turns crimson with exploding shells as the enemy attacks. The squadron has rolled right into an ambush! Uncharacteristically, Jeb orders Slim to high-tail it out of there and towards the woods. They make a few swift turns, and then find themselves directly behind the enemy's lines. The Germans are taken by surprise, and the Haunted Tank easily destroys the German's cannons attacking their tanks. Jeb tries to radio back to H.Q., but their signal is jammed.
Behind enemy lines, at General Von Rundstedt's staff headquarters, the enemy's high command make their next plans to stop the Allied forces. General Von Rundstedt knows that Bastogne is the key to control of the area, and orders his Panzers and Infantry to move in and force the Americans back into the sea.
Meanwhile, Jeb realizes that the Haunted Tank is now all alone, and decides to continue on with the mission. They're next objective is to take the bridge at Coordinates M03-791. Slim brings the tank forward, and they roll out. The Germans, in the meantime, and hitting the American forces hard, smashing their way through the 101st Airborne and creating a wedge through the Allied lines. The next day, the Haunted Tank reach the coordinates on the map, but can find no bridge there. Jeb begins to suspect the map is a trick. They are fired upon by anti-tank guns perched atop the cliffside, and are unable to get a clean shot at them. Jeb tells Rick to aim lower, directly at the cliff. He fires, hitting the rock and sending the entire cliffside, and the German guns, tumbling down into the valley. Jeb tries to radio H.Q. again, but with no success.
The Germans are now relentlessly and mercilessly batter Bastogne with shells and gunfire. So far, the 101st Airborne has been able to hold them back, but for how much longer? Under a flag of truce during a lull in the fighting, German officers meet with General McAuliffe and ask for his surrender. His only answer... "Nuts"! At German Headquarters, General Von Rundstedt orders his men to turn Bastogne into a slaughterhouse.
Meanwhile, Jeb continues to try and raise H.Q. on the radio. Their signal is still being jammed, and without new orders they must continue on with the present mission and follow the suspicious map. They're next target is marked as the crossroads at coordinates 227-580. They roll out in that direction. For a long time, the Haunted Tank blunders around in the mist and snow, until they finally reach the coordinates. They find no crossroads, only an old cemetery. Jeb is fed up, and now certain that the map is a phony he orders Slim to turn the tank around head back towards Bastogne. They travel back down miles and miles of road, into the Bulge. As they are passing a lake, Jeb notices some strange piping sticking out from the water. He suddenly realizes that it's a trap, and orders Rick to blast into the lake! Underneath the water, German Tiger tanks, equipped with snorkels, waiting to pounce on the town. One German tank is destroyed, but the other Panzers begin to rise out from the waters to attack. The Haunted Tank tries to get away, but shutters to a sudden stop, out of gas. The four are now helpless against the enemy. But then, the fog begins to lift and the sun appears from behind the clouds. With the weather improving, the American planes are able to hit the skies, just in time to drop supplies to the needing Infantry below. Re-equipped and with spirits high, the 101st Airborne renews their efforts and begins to beat back at the enemy. The Germans are defeated and the area is now in the hands of the Allies. As the Airborne move in to help the stalled little tank, one soldier asks Jeb where he'd been. Jeb replies, "To hell and back"!
Appearing in Haunted Tank: "A Winter in Hell"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- General Gerd von Rundstedt
- German Staff officers
- German Infantry soldiers
Other Characters:
- Major General Anthony C. McAuliffe
- American Infantry "101st Airborne" soldiers
Locations:
- Bastogne, France
Items:
- Captured German map
- German dagger
- German 88 mm anti-aircraft gun
- American M1 bazooka
Vehicles:
- The Haunted Tank
- German Sd.Kfz. 7 Half-track
- German Panzerbefehlswagen Tiger Ausf. B heavy tank
- American Douglas C-47 Skytrain
Synopsis for Battle Sky: "The Black and the Baron"
Two young men, each of different lifestyles and both growing up in a different part of the world, forced to come face to face in a war blazing over occupied Italy in a grim duel to the death.
Marty Baldwin, a young black kid from Brooklyn, always liked speed, and as a kid rode his bike as fast as he could down the city sidewalks to escape the blistering midsummer heat. Baron Wilhelm Francis, a young German kid, liked to ride his horse along the cool slopes of the Bavarian Alps near his ancestral castle. Marty had another love, one of flying, and would sit on the rooftop of his tenement watching the flocks of birds overhead. The Baron shared the love of flying, and would learn to ride the wind with his father who had served with Von Richthofen in World War One. Ten years later, the world finds itself engulfed in the midst of World War Two, and both boys, now men, have enlisted to do their part in the war effort. Marty has joined the first all-negro fighter squadron, the Tuskegee Airmen. Wilhelm has joined the Luftwaffe Fighter Squadron, making his family and father proud. In his P-38, Marty downs one enemy plane after another, swiftly making a name for himself as a crack pilot and fighter. In his Messerschmitt, the Baron's kill number continues to rise, earning the respect from his fellow pilots in the air. It was destined that the two would eventually meet.
One day, as the American ace roved the skies over Italy, he came face to face with the Baron. The two fight a fierce air battle, with Marty rolling out of the Baron's sights shot after shot. Lt. Marty Baldwin took his P-38 and looped it, hanging upside down and then around until he was behind the Baron's Messerschmitt. The two planes fire at one another, and then the wing of the P-38 is clipped off, forcing Marty to bail out. The Baron isn't much better, as Marty's gunfire had ruptured his oil line, setting his plane on fire and forcing the Baron to jump as well. However, the Baron's parachute catches fire, and he begins to tumble to the ground towards his death. Marty can't allow his enemy to die in that way, and manages to grab ahold of his line as he's falling past, saving the man's life. The touch down on the ground, but the landing is anything but soft and Marty breaks his ankle. The Baron gets up, grateful for the man saving his life. He is shocked, however, to find that his savior is black. Marty raises his pistol, taking the Baron prisoner. The Baron just smiles. He knows that Marty is hurt, and he raises his pistol as well to take him prisoner. Then, to the American's surprise, the Baron throws his pistol away. He explains that Marty is helpless, just as helpless as he was when he was falling to his death. He offers to help the man back to an Allied hospital, where he will surrender himself as a prisoner of war. The baron warns him, though, that he plans on escaping his prison camp to fight and fly again. Marty hopes he does, and that they never have to meet again in the middle of a battle.
Appearing in Battle Sky: "The Black and the Baron"
Featured Characters:
- Marty Baldwin
- Baron Wilhelm Francis Von Schlesnes
Other Characters:
- Baron Wilhelm's father (Mentioned only)
- American "All-Negro Squadron" pilots
- German "Luftwaffe" pilots
Locations:
Items:
- Parachute
Vehicles:
- American Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter aircraft
- German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft
Synopsis for O.S.S.: "A Film For The Führer"
In German-occupied Yugoslavia, the famous German film director Colonel Heinrich Ufa makes his greatest film for the Fuhrer. He is fanatic about realism in his films, using real film, real actors... and real bullets with real S.S. troops to make the streets run red with real blood. Those who tried to flee the set are incinerated in a wall of fire, just some Ufa can get close-ups. Only children too young to speak were spared his film horrors. The director vows that when his film is finished and developed, it will be sent to all occupied countries, to teach them of the death that awaits them if they help the resistance against the Nazis.
In O.S.S. Headquarters in London, Control has gotten his hands on a copy of the terrible film, and has brought his special agents "Mitchell" and "Vera" in for a job. Mitchell had been a Hollywood film director before the war, but hasn't directed one in six years, having spent their time making Army training films for the Allies. Control offers him the chance to direct one more big film, but with two caveats - Vera must serve as "back-up" on the camera, and that the only person to see his film with be the Fuhrer himself, Hitler!
Within hours, a B-17 flies over enemy-occupied Yugoslavia, dropping four figures out by parachute. The four, Mitchell, Vera, Jim, and Nick, land safely, and head up the back roads to a farmhouse that holds Colonel Ufa and his camera crew. They quietly subdue the German guards along the perimeter. Mitchell crawls his way up to the farmhouse and throws a grenade through the window. It explodes! The four burst into the farmhouse on a raid, only to find it completely empty. They've been tricked, and Ufa and his crew are not there. As dawn approaches, the team find a farmer and his wagon heading up the road and stop him. The farmer tells them that he knows of Ufa and his film crew, and that they are aboard a train nearby. Mitchell convinces the farmer to take them there. Along the way, they are stopped by a German checkpoint, but Mitchell and his crew quickly take out the soldiers and they continue at top speed towards the train. The train is moving fast, coming up to a tunnel. The group head to the other side of the tunnel, hoping to catch and board the train as it exits. They wait patiently, but the train never leaves the tunnel. Mitchell realizes that Ufa must only travel by night, and parks inside the tunnel to avoid the Allied planes.
Inside the hidden train, Colonel Ufa is informed that his film has been developed and is now ready. Ufa is overjoyed, and hopes to be awarded an Iron Cross by Hitler for his magnificent film work. As the hours pass, the guards atop the hidden train notice smoke coming towards them on the horizon. They realize it's another train on the tracks, and orders the engineer to radio the train to stop. When it doesn't. The German train starts up again and takes off out the other side of the tunnel to avoid a collision. On board the other train, Mitchell and his group prepare for an attack, while the old farmer, once a train conductor in his youth, speeds forward towards the German train. The German guards begin to fire on the crazy train speeding closer to them. Mitchell and his men get ready with explosives as soon as they are in range, but suddenly they come apon a fork in the track, and the German train splits off in a different direction than they! Mitchell orders Nick to radio Air Command and have them send a plane after it. Vera cradles Jim in her arms, caught by a bullet, as he dies. Soon, in response to the radio appeal, an Allied P-47 appears out of the sky. It is hit, and it hurls itself down right onto the tracks in front of the German train, forcing it to stop in order to clear the tracks of debris. While most of the German soldiers are busy, Mitchell and Nick storm their position, firing all barrels at the unsuspecting enemy while Vera films it all with her camera. Ufa and all his men are killed, and now Mitchell has his film and can exchange it for the one Ufa was sending back to Berlin.
Later, at Nazi Headquarters in Berlin, Hitler has gathered his top brass to view the surprise sent to him from the great Heinrich Ufa, unknowing what he is about to view. In London, Mitchell and Vera are about to see a new movie in a theater. They invite Nick, but he says he's had enough of moviemaking and is returning to the peace and quit of the O.S.S.!
Appearing in O.S.S.: "A Film For The Führer"
Featured Characters:
- Agent "Mitchell"
- Agent "Vera"
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Colonel Oberst Heinrich Ufa (Dies)
- Herr Hauptmann (Dies)
- German Infantry soldiers
Other Characters:
- Warner Brothers (Mentioned only)
- Jim (Dies)
- Adolf Hitler
- Yugoslav citizens
Locations:
- German-occupied Yugoslavia
- London, England
- Hollywood, California (Mentioned only)
- Berlin, Germany
Items:
- Oscar (Mentioned only)
- Film camera
- M1 grenades
Vehicles:
- American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber
- American Republic P-47 Thunderbolt fighter aircraft
- German passenger train
Synopsis for Haunted Tank: "A Slow War - A Quick Death"
As the American invasion fleet's guns and planes hammer the Japanese-held island in the South Pacific, the leader of the Japanese forces, Commander Ito Kawa, watches the battle from within the safety of a cave drilled deep into the mountainside. He is confident that the Americans will never penetrate their defenses. However, he hadn't predicted the arrival of the Haunted Tank...
On board one of the American LSTs heading to shore, the crew of the Haunted Tank prepare to embark on one of their most dangerous missions yet. They are the advanced force, to see if it's possible to land tanks ashore and create a wedge for the infantry to attack. They crew don't have high hopes, feeling like lambs to the slaughter. The ghost of General J.E.B. Stuart appears to Jeb, offering a very mysterious message - if his crew can get past the surprise that awaits them, one that will chill their very hearts, they will win the day. The message worries Jeb, but his thoughts are distracted by the captain of the LCM who tells Jeb that they can't get any closer to shore and will have to continue the rest of the way on the LCMs. Knowing that the only way to get the Haunted Tank to shore is to help the Infantry establish a beachhead, he offers the services of his crew for the attack. They embark on the LCM with the rest of the Infantry, but on their way to shore, their boat is struck by a shell which flips it over. Jeb and his men are unharmed, but the same can't be said for many of the men that were with them. They are able to wade the rest of the way to shore under heavy fire. Jeb rallies his men up, and they make a rush to the beach. Surprising the Japanese soldiers ashore, they, one by one Jeb and his men destroy machine gun nests and pillboxes along their way. They return to the beach to meet up with the other LSTs, but find their own, the one that holds the Haunted Tank, on fire. They quickly wade the water until they reach it, and Slim climbs on board and steers it clear just as the LST explodes in a huge fireball and destroys the other tanks and crews inside!
Now safely on dry ground, the Haunted Tank convoys the Infantry into the dense jungle. As they lumber through the musty gloom of the jungle slope, they are fired upon by enemy snipers. The snipers are picking off the American soldiers, but no one can get a clean shot at them. Slim steers the tank into a nearby palm tree, knocking the sniper out and down onto the ground. While the Infantry mop up the rest of the snipers, the Haunted Tank continues on. It continues to grind its way up onto the cliff, but is stopped in its tracks when two Japanese Chi-Ha tanks appear it its way. The Haunted Tank immediately fires, destroying the first tank, but the second begins to make a banzai charge directly at them. Jeb orders Slim to ram them, and they knock the enemy tank off the path and down the edge of the cliff!
The Haunted Tank lumbers on. They finally reach the summit of the cliff, and find the cave where the Japanese have stashed they guns and are heading their operation. Jeb orders Rick to prepare to fire and destroy the mouth of the cave, but then he quickly stops when he spots a native woman carrying her baby come running out of the cave. To Jeb's horror, she leaps off the side of the cliff to their deaths. Then right after, two kids jump off, falling to certain doom. Jeb realizes that the Japanese are using civilians, forcing them into service to man their guns and act as hostages. There's no way they can attack while there are civilians inside. Jeb orders all of them to climb out of the Haunted Tank, and with arms held up they slowly walk forward to show that they are no threat. The Japanese open fire anyways, hitting both Rick and Slim and wounding them. Rick tells Gus to pick up Slim while he picks up Rick, and they continue to move towards the enemy hoping to convince them they're no danger. The Japanese threaten to kill them all, but the native islanders realize what the four are trying to do and rush out of the cave to surround and protect them. With the natives out of harm's way, Jeb quickly throws a grenade into the mouth of the cave, setting off a chain reaction that destroys the weapons and men inside.
Off shore, on the American battlecruisers waiting to send their boats ashore, one sailor spots the signal to proceed with the landing. The officer, looking through his binoculars, is confused by the signal flag. Atop the cliff, Jeb is waving his Confederate flag high in the air for the ships to all see. When the ghost of General Stuart appears, Jeb tell him that the Confederates won this battle!
Appearing in Haunted Tank: "A Slow War - A Quick Death"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Commander Kawa
- Japanese Infantry soldiers
Other Characters:
- American Infantry captain
- American Infantry soldiers
- South Pacific Native Islanders
Locations:
- Unnamed island, Pacific Ocean
Items:
- M1 Grenade
Vehicles:
- The Haunted Tank
- American battlecruiser
- American LST Tank Landing ship
- Japanese Mitsubishi A6M "Zero" fighter aircraft
- Japanese Type 97 Chi-Ha medium tank
Synopsis for Women at War: "Blind Date With a Bomb"
British WAAF (Woman's Army Auxiliary Force) Sgt. Midge Leigh arrives at a park near the Thames in London to meet American Demolitions Expert Lt. Vic Anson on a blind date set up by Midge's friend. As they exchange pleasantries, an explosion rocks a nearby street as a V-2 rocket hits its target. Lt. Anson rushes towards the chaos, and Sgt. Leigh follows close behind. Another V-2 hits another street , destroying buildings and killing innocent civilians. Lt. Anson spots a group of Air Raid Wardens trying to free some trapped victims, and runs over to help. He tells Midge to stay back where it's safe, but she follows wanting to help. As Vic helps an elderly man out from underneath the rubble, Midge pulls a young girl out of the wreckage. The girl is dead. She begins to cry, but Vic grabs her just in time as a squadron of German planes begin strafing the area to pick off any survivors.
Once the raid is over, Vic and Midge pick up the pieces and try to enjoy each other's company again. As they are walking down the road, Vic spots a section that has been roped off and walks over. The soldiers around tell him that they've found an unexploded bomb that had crashed through a house and lodged itself in the cellar. They have no idea if there are people trapped inside, so Vic decides to see if there's anything he can do to disarm it. He orders Midge to stay behind before climbing down into the rubble. Unfortunately, the only opening leading into the cellar is too small for him to fit through. He can see the bomb inside, a thousand pounder, and to his horror he also spots a small child lying pinned down next to it. As he frantically tries to fit through the hole, he then spots a figure climbing into the cellar from the other side. The figure makes it to the bomb. Vic tells the person not to try and free the boy, as any movement could set off the bomb. It needs to be dismantled and disarmed, and he'll give the person the instructions to do it. The person does everything they are told, and successfully difuses the bomb. However, the Germans have booby-trapped it, adding a second explosive to go off if the first one is disconnected. He tells the person to cut the wire on the right, the one closest to them. The figure pulls out a pair of nail clippers, and then uses them to cut a wire. Grabbing the boy, the figure moves into the light to reveal that it was Midge! She hands him the boy before climbing out.
Now with everything safe, Midge explains that she always carries clippers and other cosmetics items in her gas mask bag and used them to clip the wire on the left. Vic pauses, realizing that the Germans must have reversed the wires to trick anyone trying to defuse it. He smiles, telling her that he's glad she made a mistake and clipped the wrong wire. Fixing her lipstick, she tells him that she did do what he told her... to clip the wire closest to her. It's just so happens that she's left handed!
Appearing in Women at War: "Blind Date With a Bomb"
Featured Characters:
- Sergeant Midge Leigh
- Lieutenant Vic Anson
Antagonists:
- German pilots
Other Characters:
- British civilians
- British Home Guard soldiers
- British Demolitions warden
Locations:
Items:
- V-2 rocket
- Toy doll
- German SC 1000 high explosive demolition bomb
- Nail clippers
Vehicles:
- British AEC Regent III RT bus
- British fire truck
- German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft
Synopsis for O.S.S.: "Death Above-- Death Below"
The dreaded German battlecruiser Koln has been wrecking havoc in the North Sea for months now, lying waste to the British efforts along the Norwegian coast. At O.S.S. Headquarters in London, the Head of Naval Operations briefs his agent, a Lt. Heston, on the assignment. His mission is simple- sink the Koln! He's been given three other agents specializing in underwater operations to complete the job, but so far the Koln has defied bombers, surface vessels, and subs. Can four men do the job?
An hour before dawn, off a fjord along the Norwegian coast, a boat arrives with the four men aboard. Carrying high explosives, the four frogmen have one hour to complete their mission and return. Before they can even dive into the water, the PT boat is attacked and destroyed by a German patrol boat. Only Lt. Heston survives, and swimming underwater he waits until the German boat is overhead. He then attaches an adhesive plastic bomb underneath the ship's keel and sets the charge to go off exactly at 6:00am, forty-five minutes from now. He watches as the boat approaches a mine field, the nets opening up to allow it to pass. Realizing his mistake, he tries desperately to pry the explosives off the side of the ship before he is trapped in the chain reaction. He finally manages to pull it off, but has lost time with only twenty minutes left before it goes off.
Then he spots his target, the battlecruiser Koln, meeting alongside the patrol boat. Lt. Heston swims underneath the Koln and attaches the explosives to its hull. Be he's still has the problem of the minefield, and how to get out and away. He spots the patrol boat floating away to begins its rounds again, and decides to follow it. The mine field's nets open up once again to let the boat out, and Lt' Heston takes his opportunity to slip out unnoticed. His air supply now exhausted, he surfaces. He has only minutes to get out of the blast range, or the concussion will kill him. Suddenly, he is spotted by the patrol boat, who begin to fire at him. He dives just at the last moment, and releases a mine that he had grabbed before he left the field. The boat runs into the mine, exploding it and destroying the vessel in a fiery explosion. As he swims away to safety in the fjord, the explosives on the Koln ignite, destroying the battlecruiser and completing his mission. He knows that from now on, every time he looks at a wristwatch he'll remember the sixty minutes of hell where death was all around.
Appearing in O.S.S.: "Death Above-- Death Below"
Featured Characters:
- Lieutenant Heston
Supporting Characters:
- Office of Strategic Services
- O.S.S. Head of Naval Operations
Antagonists:
- German naval seamen
Other Characters:
- O.S.S. Special Agents Frogmen (All die)
Locations:
Items:
- Watch
- Plastic explosives
- Underwater mines
Vehicles:
- British Avro Lancaster heavy bomber
- German battlecruiser "Koln"
- British PT light personnel boat
- German patrol boat
Synopsis for Haunted Tank: "A Tank From the Dead!"
The ghostly guardian of the Haunted Tank, General J.E.B. Stuart, watches over the scene of a great battle. The Haunted Tank has been defeated, and the Germans are moving in to take their prisoners. Inside the tank, Slim, Gus, Rick, and Jeb lie unconscious. A film of death glazes over their eyes.
Ten hours earlier, at Tank Squadron H.Q., Jeb is briefed on his new mission. Intelligence reports show that the Nazis have perfected a super-explosive, code named "Inferno", and their plans are to load it into the warhead of ICBM missiles and fire them across the Atlantic to devastate the United States. Their mission is to sneak in quietly and steal a sample of the new explosive. But there's a catch. They must allow the Germans to capture the Haunted Tank, and the crew inside! As Jeb and the others start off on their seemingly suicide mission, the ghost of Jeb's ancestor appears to him, and reminds him of the story of the Trojan Horse. It can be done.
As they begin to enter enemy territory, the Haunted Tank is spotted from the air by a patrolling German plane. Jeb hopes that the plane will take them out and allow them to be captured, but Rick fires the cannon and destroys the plane. Jeb scolds Rick, but the man defends his actions with just wanting to stay alive. Unknown to them, however, the crash and explosion of the plane does not go unnoticed, as a Panzer commander orders his patrol towards the Haunted Tank's position. Inside the Haunted Tank, a struggle ensues, as Jeb and Gus try to hold back Rick from the trigger. Jeb explains that the only way they can succeed with their mission is to taken captive, and he wants the Germans to believe that they have been knocked unconscious in the attack. Jeb pulls a hypodermic needle from his pocket and injects himself. Before falling into unconsciousness, he tells the others to do the same, and for the last to get rid of the hypo so it's not found. When the Germans arrive, they find the four crew members lying slumped over their stations. Believing them to be dead, the Panzer Commander orders his men to hook up and tow the Sherman back to their headquarters, crew and all.
Two hours later, Jeb regains consciousness. He is able to arose the others, still sitting in their positions inside the Haunted Tank. Outside, the Panzer Commander turns around just in time to see a grenade hurling towards him. It explodes, destroying the Panzer underneath him and killing everyone inside. Jeb and the others climb back into the Sherman and head northeast. Some time later, they ditch the Sherman in the woods and continue on foot. Entering a clearing, they spot a monastery sitting at the top of the gentle hill. The place is quiet with no one in sight, and Jeb and the others begin to think that maybe their intelligence is wrong. As they slowly approach the front door of the monastery, three monks emerge to greet them. Jeb lifts his machine gun and shoots all three of the monks dead. As the three monks fall, their S.S. uniforms are revealed underneath their robes. Jeb explains that he noticed their boots as they walked towards them. They race inside the monastery to find it full of Germans and their equipment. The four shoot everyone in sight, then grab the canister marked "Inferno" and high tail it out of there.
Returning to the Haunted Tank, they quickly turn it around to head back to more friendly lines, but they are pursued by two Tiger tanks. Over the radio, Jeb and the others gets a warning from H.Q. - the slightest jab or bump could detonate Inferno! With no options left to them, they continue to keep speed in front of the chasing Tigers. They hit a bump, and the Inferno canister slips out of Jeb's hand and bounces down to the ground. Jeb orders Slim to give it all the speed they've got. The canister lands on the ground and is ran over by one of the Tiger tanks. The second the Tiger's tread crunches down onto the canister, it explodes creating a tremendous explosion that destroys both Tigers. The Haunted Tank barely escapes the blast.
Arriving back at H.Q., Jeb and the others are satisfied to have made it back safe, despite being empty-handed. Their relief is short-lived, when the Colonel tells them to stand by while they think of a new plan for the Haunted Tank to return and get a new sample!
Appearing in Haunted Tank: "A Tank From the Dead!"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- German pilot (Dies)
- German Panzer commander
- German Artillery soldiers
- German Infantry soldiers
Other Characters:
- American Artillery colonel
Locations:
Items:
- Intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM)
- M1 grenade
- Super-explosive "Inferno"
Vehicles:
- The Haunted Tank
- German Panzerkampfwagen IV
- German Panzerbefehlswagen Tiger Ausf. B heavy tank
- German Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6/R2 fighter plane
Notes
- Between stories one and two is a 2-page "All About Tanks" entry for tanks that can be adapted for many different environments and uses, such as engine stacks to adapt a tank for use underwater, "Scorpion" chains or Exploder disks to find and detonate mines, and wedge-like cutters for moving through the thick hedge of Normandy in France.
- Between stories four and five is a 1-page "Famous Fighting Outfits: The 45th (Thunderbird) Infantry Division". Having seen combat in Sicily, Salerno, and Anzio, the 45th Thunderbirds participated in its fourth amphibious assault landing during Operation Dragoon on August 15, 1944, at St. Maxime, in Southern France before capturing the heights of the Chaines de Mar and meeting with the 1st Special Service Force.
- Between stories six and seven in a 1-page "Battle Brain Teasers" game, featuring a maze, a word game (where you must find 10 words using only the letters from the word HAUNTED, and matching game (Where you have to find the two matching guns out of six).
Trivia
- In the three Haunted Tank stories, Lt. Stuart and his crew are using an M4A1 Sherman tank (as correctly identified by J.F. Koelsch in the letters column).
See Also