Combat Casey #31
No More Ammo!
Combat Casey and Penny Pennington are on bazooka patrol and use one of their last two rockets to incapacitate a tank then use rifle fire to send the enemy soldiers inside fleeing. Taking the tank, Combat and Penny find that it is inoperable and the only supplies inside are two Chinese crash helmets.
Soon enemy troops return to kill Combat and Penny and their commanding officer orders his own bazooka soldiers to blow up the tank. However Combat and Penny are able to destroy the bazooka troops with their last rocket. Refusing to get tank reinforcements the commanding officer orders his men to begin firing at the tank, but the bullets have little effect on the tanks armor, other than pinning Combat and Penny inside. Still the commanding officer orders his men to continue attacking. When guns and grenades fail to work and supply trucks arrive, the commanding officer orders one of the trucks to push the tank off a cliff. At that very moment just below the cliff the Chinese tanks are heading toward the battlefield across a bridge when suddenly the damaged tank comes crashing down on them, destroying the bridge and sending all the tanks falling into the river below.
Combat and Penny manage to escape unharmed thanks to the crash helmets left in the tank and manage to swim away to safety. Meanwhile, the commanding officer of the Chinese soldiers is shot by his own men for his failure.
Recurring Characters
Combat Casey
Penny Pennington
Captured by the Enemy!
After setting up camp on an atoll along the Pacific, Dog Company is attacked in the middle of the night by Imperial Japanese forces. Combat Casey tells his pal Penny Pennington to wake Captain Rocke, but they find that the Captain has been captured by the enemy. After the enemy troops flee, a pair soon return under the banner of a white flag and offer an ultimatum to the American soldiers of Dog Company: surrender in the next six hours or never see Captain Rocke again.
Sending away the messengers the troops of Dog Company begin weighing their options and decide to capture the Japanese's commanding officer in order to force a trade. Sneaking out to the enemy camp, Combat and the others find the commander sleeping on a cot and silently capture him. Going as messengers, Combat and Penny make the exchange offer but are shocked when the Japanese Major refuses to comply telling them that they can keep his superior officer so that he can take command of the troops.
Going back to their camp, Combat and Penny tells the others this. This angers the Japanese colonel so much that he offers to help the Americans defeat his own troops as a lessen to the usurper. Leading them through a secret cave entrance to the enemy base, Combat and the others spring a surprise attack and rescue Captain Stone. Seeing that the colonel has been helping their enemy, the Japanese forces become divided between those loyal to the colonel and those loyal to the major and a fight between the two factions break out while the Americans joyfully watch the slug fest.
Recurring Characters
Combat Casey
Penny Pennington
Captain Rocke
A G.I. Named Georgie
Among the members of Dog Company the most memorable among them to Penny Pennington is a soldier named Georgie who despite being an adult still believes in Santa Claus. With Christmas only days away he begins tabulating a list of things his fellow soldiers want from Santa for Christmas, however the Sarge -- a real spoil sport -- refuses to play along with Georgie's belief in Santa. However Georgie presses on this matter on the Sarge even under enemy fire.
Eventually, the Sarge relents and tells Georgie that he wants a life-sized cut out of a pin-up girl for Christmas so the child-like soldier leaves him alone. Georgie then goes to Captain Rocke and asks him what he wants for Christmas and the Captain informs him that an enemy soldier as a prisoner to learn what they are up to would be his ideal gift. The next morning the soldiers wake up to a Christmas miracle: Penny got the Christmas tree he asked for, the Sarge the pin-up girl cut out, and cake and candy for other soldiers. If this is not enough of a surprise, they are interrupted by a Communist soldier who comes in surrender telling Captain Rocke that he somehow felt compelled to surrender after coming to the conclusion that communism is wrong. Surprised by getting all they asked for Christmas, the troops of Dog Company start to reconsider Georgie's belief in Santa.
Recurring Characters
Penny Pennington
Captain Rocke
Tricked into a Trap!
Clashing with Communist forces, the troops of Dog Company are forced to pull back as they are out numbered. Seeing the enemy withdraw, the commander of Communist forces orders some of his troops to cut ahead and destroy a bridge that the Americans are about to back over, trapping them and leaving them at the mercy of his troops.
Captain Rocke has a similar plan, ordering Combat Casey and Penny Pennington to detonate the bridge after they cross over in order to trap enemy soldiers on the other side of the river. Sure enough when Combat and Penny arrive they catch the Chinese soldiers rigging the explosives and knock them out, then they rig the bombs to go off after their fellow troops are able to cross, destroying the bridge and stopping the enemy from approaching.
Furious at this failure, but not giving up, the commander of the communist troops orders his men to build a dam to drain the river so that they can cross over and resume their attack. However, Penny's quick eye spots the lowering water levels of the river and correctly deduces what the enemy is up to.
When the river is finally drained, the enemy soldiers begin crossing over that night, however by this time the members of Dog Company have travelled to the dam and used explosives to destroy it causing a massive torrent of water to rush down the empty river bed and sweep the enemy soldiers away.
Recurring Characters
Combat Casey
Penny Pennington
Captain Rocke