It... It's the General! The Ghost no one but Jeb sees! An' we thought he was flippin'! Slim! Rick! It's Jeb's General! 
- — Gus Gray
G.I. Combat #192 is an issue of the series G.I. Combat (Volume 1) with a cover date of July, 1976.
Synopsis for Haunted Tank: "The General Has Two Faces"
At headquarters, Lt. Jeb Stuart and his crew of the Haunted Tank and being briefed for their next mission. The Captain informs them that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, also known as the "Desert Fox", has been spotted in their sector. The Haunted Tank's mission: to find and kill the Desert Fox! If the Captain sent a group of planes or tanks out to target him, Rommel would just vanish again and they would lose their chance to get him. But a single recon tank might just be able to find him and nail him.
The Haunted Tank sets out immediately on their mission. They prowl through the nearby forests, trying to sniff out their quarry. The reach the ravine on the edge of their sector, and begin to cross the bridge. Before they can reach the other side, a pair of German planes spot them and dive in to attack. Jeb is hit in the arm and head by the initial hurricane of bullets, and he is pulled inside the tank unconscious by Rick and Gus. Someone has to lead atop, and Gus is the only one that can be spared. He climbs out of the hatch and takes his place atop the turret, manning the machine gun. He fires relentlessly at the approaching planes overhead. Rick elevates the cannon and fires a shell at the enemy. It hits the first plane, causing it to begin spiraling and collide with the second. The two planes burst into flames, and begin to fall towards the bridge like a ton of bricks. Gus yells for Slim to reverse and get off the bridge. The Haunted Tank makes it back on solid ground just as the two planes slam into the bridge, knocking down the entire middle section when the tank had been standing just seconds before. Gus looks up to see the ghost of General J.E.B. Stuart appear before him. The ghost tells Gus that they may have escaped the frying pan, but the fire's still ahead of them. Gus is shocked to see the ghost, his first time, and screams for the others to come atop and look. Rick climbs out of the hatch, but by then the ghost has disappeared. Rick thinks that now Gus is starting to crack under the pressure. Gus shakes it off, and starts to think that maybe he just imagined it all. The General appears once again, and uses his ghostly powers to cause the Haunted Tank to throw a tread. With the tank out of commission, they'll have to go the rest of the way on foot. Filling their knapsacks with ammo, the crew begins their hike through the forest. Rick takes the point, with Slim and Gus helping carry the wounded Jeb from behind. Night begins to fall, and they find a safe area to stop for the night and sleep. Rick agrees to take the first watch, but it's not long before exhaustion overtakes him and he falls asleep as well.
Gus is awoken by someone brushing a flower across his face. He opens his eyes, to find a beautiful and young blonde woman standing over him smiling. It is now morning, and the crew of the Haunted Tank discover that a group of young teenage girls have found them sleeping in the woods. A dark haired and older woman, Baroness Von Maltz, orders the girls to help the injured Jeb to his feet and follow her. The four men are led by the girls through the woods and into a vast clearing deep in the Black Forest of Germany, where they find an enormous castle. Baroness Von Maltz tells Jeb that she is the head of a school for teenage girls, and has been taking care of the young women since the death of her father and brother. One girl, named Helga, is furious at the other girls for allowing Americans, the enemy, to be brought back to the school, and reminds the Baroness that it was Americans who killed her family. The Baroness orders the other girls to take Helga and lock her in her room until she's ready to apologize for her behavior to their guests. She then apologizes to Jeb, and tells him that her family were killed on the Russian front, and that all she wants is an end to the war.
Lt. Stuart shares a rare intimate moment with the Baroness.
Jeb, Gus, Rick, and Slim and brought into the castle and made to feel welcome. As they enter, Jeb notices the castle armory, which is fully stocked with weapons both ancient and modern. Rick and Slim are brought to the dining room, where the girls enjoy fixing them a great meal, while Marlene, the blonde girl, escorts Gus out into the garden to show him the flowers she has been growing. Meanwhile, the Baroness has taken it upon herself to look after Jeb and his wounds. She helps him undress and get into bed, and tells him how lonely it's been without any men around the castle. The two share an intimate kiss. Later that evening, in another part of the castle, a key slowly opens a door and Helga slips out of her room and runs out of the castle. Early next morning, Rick is standing atop one of the walls when he spots Panzer tanks approaching from the woods. Through his binoculars he can see Rommel himself commanding the leading tank, and with him is Helga! Rick yells down to Slim to tell the others, while he stays atop and open fires at the enemy with his machine gun. Jeb warns the Baroness to keep the girls under cover in the cellar, while Jeb and Gus raid the castle armory for anything they can use. Outside, explosions slam against the walls of the castle. Rick watches as Jeb and Gus exit carrying wooden crossbows, and wonders how they're going to fight of Panzer tanks with that. Jeb orders them to load the crossbows with sticks of dynamite, and lighting the fuses they fire at the approaching enemy tanks. Rommel is surprised by the dynamite flying through the air, and his tanks are destroyed in the massive explosions around them! Rommel's tank is undamaged, and he continues his approach. Below, just as Rommel's tank begins to cross the drawbridge, a mysterious hand releases the mechanism that causes the drawbridge to begin raising up. The Panzer topples over the edge of the bridge and into the water. Rushing down Jeb and the girls find the Baroness crumpled on the ground near the drawbridge door. Jeb picks up her lifeless body, riddled with bullets. He realizes that it must have been she who freed Helga and allowed her to escape, but what could have changed her mind and made her save them?
Later, after the crew have walked all the way back to their headquarters, Jeb reports to the Captain that they lost their tank but were able to kill Rommel, with a little help from a friend. The Captain orders him inside his office, where he shows Jeb recently received photos showing Rommel in Berlin being decorated personally by Hitler himself. It was a ruse all the time. They've been chasing a fake Rommel, a double!
Appearing in Haunted Tank: "The General Has Two Faces"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
Antagonists:
- Field Marshall Erwin Rommel (Revealed to be an imposter)
- German Artillery soldiers
- German pilots (Both die)
Other Characters:
- American Artillery captain
- Von Maltz Schloss School of Girls
- Baroness Von Maltz (Dies)
- Marlene
- Leni
- Ilse
- Helga
- Unnamed German schoolgirls
Locations:
Items:
- Crossbow
- TNT Dynamite
Vehicles:
- The Haunted Tank
- German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighter aircraft
- German Panzerkampfwagen IV tank
Synopsis for OSS: "Target for Tonight -- Me"
At the secret headquarters of the Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S. for short) in heavily bombed London, the head of the O.S.S., code-named "Control", is busy sticking pins into a wall map marking the location of his agents. He receives a visitor, a British officer, who asks him if the thought of those pins representing the men, women, and children that he's sent on missions to risk capture or even death give him nightmares at night. Control can't afford to indulge this personal thoughts. At this very present time, he has sent some of his best operatives, led by agent "Victor Lazlo", into German occupied Czechoslovakia to infiltrate Gestapo Headquarters. The mission... Code Named: Firebrand!
At that very moment, Victor Lazlo and two other agents are being dropped by parachute near the city of Prague to begin their mission. Before they are even allowed to land, the two operatives are shot by waiting Gestapo troops. One Lazlo lands safely onto the ground, and is immediately taken prisoner. He tries to swallow a D-Pill, which would allow him to commit suicide quickly and painlessly in less than thirty seconds, but Gestapo Major Hauptmann slaps it out of his hand. The Major picks it up and crushes it between his two fingers. They then load Lazlo into a car and take him away.
At Gestapo Headquarters in Prague, which has been camouflaged as a hospital to avoid Allied aerial bombing, Victor Lazlo is strip searched for hidden bombs and weapons. When they find nothing on his person, they allow him to redress and sit. Major Hauptmann is curious about his new prisoner, and correctly guesses that Lazlo is originally from Czechoslovakia. Lazlo tells him that he is, and that Hauptmann personally ordered his wife to a concentration camp, and then the gas oven. He is there to avenge her death, and the deaths of countless others on Hauptmann's hands. Major Hauptmann just smiles, and begins to play Mozart on a piano as he orders Lazlo to be taken from the room and interrogated about his mission. They get nothing from Lazlo, and Hauptmann orders him to be taken outside tot he courtyard to be hung as an enemy of the Reich. As the noose is being placed around his neck, Lazlo warns that he will be avenged, and that the secret army will rise and destroy Hauptmann and his Gestapo. The Major laughs, he knows the identities of all of the Underground in Prague, and tomorrow they will be rounded up and executed. Then, from above, RAF bombers appears in the sky. Major Hauptmann isn't worried, believing they are protected by the hospital camouflage. Then, the bombs begin to drop right on top of them. As the building explodes around them, Victor Lazlo laughs. He finally has his vengeance.
Back in London at O.S.S. Headquarters, Control pulls the pin representing Lazlo out of the map. He informs the British officer that Victor Lazlo had a miniature transmitter surgically planted beneath the base of his scalp before he left for his mission. The whole thing had been planned, his discovery, his capture, and his death... in order to locate and destroy the secret Gestapo headquarters.
Appearing in OSS: "Target for Tonight -- Me"
Featured Characters:
- Agent "Victor Lazlo" (Dies)
Supporting Characters:
- Office of Strategic Services (O.S.S) (First appearance)
- Control (First appearance)
Antagonists:
- Nazi Gestapo Major Hauptmann (Dies)
- Nazi Gestapo officers (All die)
- German Infantry soldiers
Other Characters:
- British Infantry major
- British pilots
- British surgeons (Flashback only)
Locations:
Items:
- Parachutes
- D-Pills
- Miniature transmitter
Vehicles:
- British Douglas C-47 Skytrain plane
- German Mercedes-Benz staff car
- British Bristol Beaufort bomber plane
Notes
- Page 23 features a public service announcement for the National Center for Juvenile Justice, featuring Superman. A group of kids are bored and decide to crash a party going on at their classmate carol's house. Superman stops them, and informs them that it wouldn't be nice to crash the party, and that if they weren't invited they would be breaking the law by trespassing. The kids decide against it. Art by Curt Swan.
Trivia
- The second story, "Target For Tonight -- Me", features the first appearance of the Office of Strategic Services "O.S.S." and their leader, known only as Control. They would become a regular feature throughout the remaining run of G.I. Combat, as well as appearing in the final issue of Showcase.
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)