Combat Casey #16 — Nick Peron

Sep 7

Sep 7 Combat Casey #16

Combat Casey

Despite the cease-fire in Korea, Combat Casey and Penny Pennington find themselves prisoners of war in North Korea. At the prison camp, they are tied to stakes by a commanding officer, who demands that they confess to trying to smuggle chemical weapons into the North. The pair refuse to talk and try to fight back, but are knocked out.

When they come around, they find themselves in a large pit filled with rats. They begin to try and dig out before the rodents become bold enough to attack them. Eventually, their tunnel hits water and they are pulled out into the Imjin River. When they swim to the surface, they find a series of Korean ships with Chinese soldiers inside. They board one of the ships and easily subdue the crew. Searching the crates on board, they find jet plane parts and realize that the enemy is trying to ship weapons and parts to guerrilla soldiers that are still active in the South.

They use the parts to make improvised flaming spears and lob them at the other ships, setting the sails on fire and burning everyone onboard alive. After destroying their own ship, Combat and Penny swim back to base to report to Captain Stone.

Recurring Characters

Combat Casey
Penny Pennington
Captain Stone

Combat Casey

April 23, 1943, Combat Casey and Penny Pennington are in Tunisia battling Nazi forces as part of the 9th Infantry Red, White and Blue Division. Ambushed by Nazi soldiers in the jungle the pair makes short work of them. However they are outnumbered and seek to find cover when they run into a woman who offers to help them flee with a jeep she has parked nearby. Combat and Penny provide cover fire until they can reach the jeep and drive away.

Following the girl's directions Combat and Penny suddenly realize that they are heading toward the Nazi controlled town of Bizerte. Before they can turn the jeep around the girl pulls out a gun and reveals that she is a Nazi agent named Gertrude. She takes them prisoner and turns the two Americans over to her commanding officer. The two are taken to a radio studio where Gertrude orders them to tell the American forces to stand down or they will be killed. Combat however tells the soldiers to keep on fighting and to never give up. Furious at Gertrude's failure, her commanding officer shoots her. However the Americans suddenly attack and the commanding officer is crushed under falling debris.

Fighting through Nazi soldiers, Combat and Penny pick up Gertrude's body and head back to the jeep, but she has been playing possum and tries to flee the scene. Instead she ends up ramming into a Nazi supply truck causing an explosion that kills her. The two Americans find Gertrude in the wreckage, just barely alive. She tells them the position of a Nazi supply ship before she dies. After, Combat radios its position and American forces blow it up. For her help in winning the battle, Combat and Penny bury Gertrude in a marked grave.

Recurring Characters

Combat Casey
Penny Pennington

Continuity Notes

This is the first story to feature Combat Casey and Penny Pennington fighting together in World War II, refuting War Combat #5 which suggests that they first met during the Korean War.

In the Line of Duty

Penny Pennington is shocked to see Betty Corey, his old childhood sweetheart is on the base. She gives him a kiss, but it is interrupted by the arrival of Sargent Pulaski. Betty tries to explain to Pulaski that she knows Penny from her youth, but Pulaski tells her that he is on strict orders from her father the Colonel to make sure that none of the soldiers on base make a move on her. When Betty tries to convince Pulaski that her father will have a different opinion of Penny, Penny interjects by reminding her that her father never approved of him and leaves.

When Colonel Corey arrives he orders Pulaski to show Betty around the base and reminds him to keep good care of her. Showing her the woods behind the base, Pulaski tries to romance Betty when suddenly they are ambushed by Chinese soldiers and taken prisoner. Not far away, Penny is picking flowers for Betty when he sees Betty and Pulaski appearing to sit together romantically, and tosses the flowers away and heads back to base. However he soon sees that they are actually prisoners of Chinese gorilla soldiers.

Finding Betty's purse, Penny comes up with a means of incapacitating the Chinese soldier with the contents, rescuing both Betty and Sargent Pulaski with the greatest of ease. Betty rewards Penny for his bravery with a kiss.