It's difficult to believe that Ghandi's responsible for this. 
- — Blackhawk
Military Comics #15 is an issue of the series Military Comics (Volume 1) with a cover date of January, 1943.
Synopsis for Blackhawk: "Men Who Never Came Back"
Appearing in Blackhawk: "Men Who Never Came Back"
Narrators:
- Three Witches of Khanipan
- two snaggledy old hags, and one mysterious young Japanese spy
Featured Characters:
- Blackhawk Squadron
- Andre
- Blackhawk
- Chop Chop
- Chuck
- Hendrickson
- Olaf
- Stanislaus
- Zeg (Final appearance)
Antagonists:
- Colonel Vooshu (captured)
- Japanese assassin (Dies)
- Japanese soldiers (many die)
Other Characters:
- American Consul (Unnamed) (Dies)
- Major MacDonough
- Scottish Lost Battalion
- Private Pickens (Dies)
- Scottish Lost Battalion
Locations:
Vehicles:
- six Blackhawk Grumman XF5F Skyrockets
Synopsis for The Sniper: "Gootenspiltch the Clown"
Appearing in The Sniper: "Gootenspiltch the Clown"
Featured Characters:
Antagonists:
- Gootenspilch (Apparent Death)
- Baron Kruger (wears a monocle)
Locations:
Synopsis for Blue Tracer: "The Nazis Who Rose From the Dead"
On the Eastern Front an infantry battle takes a horrible turn as dead German soldiers start getting back up and lurching back into the fray. The Blue Tracer flies onto the scene and gives a lot of them the steamroller treatment, but they get back up after that, too, and stumps of broken arms and legs begin to grow again. Dunn and Jones grab one zombie prisoner and leave the field. In a Soviet laboratory, doctors examine this specimen, and work day and night to unravel the secret of these unstoppable soldiers. Soon they have a theory: these troops have been treated electrically to speed the regenerative action in all the cells of their bodies, causing instant re-growth of limbs and organs. "A radio electric compound is directed to them on a radio beam."
Russian radio men figure out the location of the transmitting station, and there goes the Blue Tracer. It flies thru a swarm of Messerschmitts then it dives right onto the broadcasting facility, smashing it flat. All up and down the Eastern Front, undead Nazi soldiers fall down and stay down. The Red Army regains a great deal of lost territory.
Appearing in Blue Tracer: "The Nazis Who Rose From the Dead"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Adolf Hitler
- electrically-treated Nazi troops
- Dr. Schwein
Other Characters:
- Russian Doctors
Locations:
Vehicles:
- Blue Tracer
- German warplanes (some are destroyed)
Synopsis for Phantom Clipper: "The Pirate Prince of Plunder"
A Nazi submarine, disguised as an antique pirate ship, wreaks havoc among the many cargo ships crossing the Atlantic. This vessel is disguised as the infamous "Jolly Roger" of the legendary Captain Henry Morgan, the ghost of whom this sub's commander pretends to be.
Lieutenant "Tiger" Shark joins a civilian sea crew taking an oil tanker across the ocean, and on the first night out, it encounters the Jolly Roger. Pirates swarm aboard, and the fight goes badly for the tanker crew, until the Phantom Clipper heaves onto the scene. Soon the Yankee Clippers are swinging aboard both vessels, and the fight changes directions. The pirates flee to their own vessel, cast off, sail into a fog bank, and vanish. The tanker returns to its loading port and the surviving crew all quit, and spread a lot of frightening eyewitness accounts around, of the Jolly Roger's appearance, and especially its disappearance!
Soon no seamen are willing to sail out of this port, and a great deal of cargo is idled. Tiger Shark, and part of the crew of the Phantom Clipper, all sign up to sail on one freighter and head east. Again the Jolly Roger looms out of the night, and cripples the freighter with a torpedo. Tiger Shark dives overboard and swims to the enemy craft, and sneaks aboard. Meanwhile a nearby Chinese-looking junk sheds its disguise, and is revealed as the Phantom Clipper. This gunfight goes like the last one did, and the Roger is forced to withdraw. On the deserted main deck, Tiger Shark notes that it is running too fast for a sailing ship, but he soon finds a hatch leading belowdecks to the main hull of the sub. There he encounters Henry Morgan, beats him in a fistfight, grabs his handgun, and takes command of the sub, ordering the crew to surface. The Phantom Clipper heaves alongside and the Jolly Rogers crew, who turn out to be Nazis, are marched aboard it. Then the Jolly Roger is sent to the bottom of the ocean.
Word of this victory gets around, and soon the sailors of that port city are eager to return to work.
Appearing in Phantom Clipper: "The Pirate Prince of Plunder"
Featured Characters:
- Yankee Clippers:
- Lieutenant "Tiger" Shark, USN
- Fred (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Henry Morgan
- Jolly Roger pirate crew
- Sailor Burke, 2nd-toughest man on the waterfront
Locations:
- unnamed East Coast U.S. port city
- unnamed waterfront cafe
- Atlantic Ocean
Vehicles:
- Phantom Clipper, a Q-Ship
- The Jolly Roger (pirate submarine version of the Phantom Clipper) (Destroyed)
- U.S. oil tanker
- U.S. freighter
Synopsis for Private Dogtag: "The Nazi Farm Invasion"
Appearing in Private Dogtag: "The Nazi Farm Invasion"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Adolf Hitler (Cameo)
Synopsis for Shot & Shell: "Homeward Bound--Almost"
Appearing in Shot & Shell: "Homeward Bound--Almost"
Featured Characters:
Synopsis for Secret War News: "P.T. Boat Raids Mulami"
(nonfiction account of a secret retrieval mission, early 1942)
Appearing in Secret War News: "P.T. Boat Raids Mulami"
Characters:
- Lieut. Dave Owens
- Crew: Johnny (Dies), others
Antagonists:
- Japanese Military
- soldiers (some die)
Other Characters:
- U.S. agent
Locations:
- Pacific Ocean
- port of Mulami
- New Guinea
Vehicles:
- US P.T. Boat (damaged)
- Japanese freighters
- Japanese P.T. Boat
- Japanese destroyer (Destroyed)
- Japanese cruiser (damaged)
Synopsis for Atlantic Patrol: "Civil Air Patrol"
(nonfiction account of the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Army Air Force)
Appearing in Atlantic Patrol: "Civil Air Patrol"
Characters:
Antagonists:
Locations:
Vehicles:
- U.S. unarmed observation plane
- U.S. medium-range bomber
Notes
- Atlantic Patrol:
- Wikipedia: "Two submarines were reportedly destroyed by CAP aircraft, but later research found there was no basis for this claim."
- Blackhawk: "Men Who Never Came Back" was partially reprinted in The Blackhawk Archives, Volume One.
- Starting this issue the Blackhawks are once again flying in actual Grumman XF5F Skyrockets.
- Phantom Clipper
- None of the Yankee Clippers is named in this story, except "Fred" who hasn't appeared here until now. The recently-introduced comic-relief cook Jewaldri is either absent or unnamed.
- Secret War News
- "This is an actual story based upon inside facts gathered from U.S.N. Information Bureaus."
- Maybe so, but Google/Wikipedia don't find a port called "Mulami" or a "LT Dave Owens" so maybe not.
- The Sniper no longer narrates his own stories.
- Also featured in this issue of Military Comics were:
- Johnny Doughboy, by Bernard Dibble
- "Avalanche" (text 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
Look at how sad this is making Batman. You did this.