At the start of WW2, the United States did not have an active foreign intelligence service. Instead, it had a hodge podge system of independent organizations, who conducted their own intelligence gather. The US Army and the US Navy both maintained their own intelligence divisions, focusing on their particular areas. The US Army had extensive knowledge of Latin America and Europe, while the Navy pretty much had a monopoly, on the Pacific, including the designs of the Empire of Japan. The State Department did its own intelligence work, via its embassies and the FBI handled counter-intelligence and even espionage, in Latin America. In fact, J Edgar Hoover wanted the whole thing, but the War Department fought him on this.
Meanwhile, an interconnected group of private industrialists and financiers had their own intelligence networks, around the globe, to keep track of political and economic events that might affect their investments. One of the key movers and shakers within this private world was William J. Donovan....
Donovan was born on January 1, 1883, in Buffalo, NY. His parents were American-born children of Irish immigrants and devout Catholics. His educations was through Catholic institutions, until he decided to expand his education beyond Catholic dogma and transferred to Columbia University. He went to Columbia Law School, where one of his classmates was Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He went into law practice, but also helped form a New York National Guard cavalry unit, which took part in Gen Pershings efforts to stop Pancho Villa's cross border raids. He then served in the 69th Infantry Regiment, The Fighting 69th, famed as an Irish regiment. They became the 165th Infantry and were attached to the 42nd Rainbow Division, under command of Douglas MacArthur. Donovan led his troops during WW1, earning the Croix de Guerre, the Distinguished Cross, and, eventually, the Medal of Honor. He, at first, refused to accept the Croix de Guerre, because a Jewish soldier, who took part in the rescue, for which the medal was being awarded, was ignored. When the situation was rectified, he accepted the award. After the war, with the lobbying of Father Francis Duffy, he was awarded the Medal of Honor, but, at the ceremony, Donovan refused to keep it and said it belonged "to the boys who are not here, the boys who are resting under the white crosses in France or in the cemeteries of New York, also to the boys who were lucky enough to come through."
He returned to his legal work and was appointed as a US Attorney, for the Western District of New York. He was a noted crime fighter and strictly enforced prohibition laws, despite death threats and attempts on his life. Calvin Coolidge appointed his law professor, Harlan Stone, as Attorney general and made Donovan his assistant. Later, Herbert Hoover promised to make him Attorney General, if he won the 1928 election, but reneged on the promise. During these days, Donovan was widely travelled and met with prominent leaders in Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany and was even allowed to see the Ethiopian front, by Mussolini. He advised that the Italian Army was well equipped and likely to win in the conflict, which they did. He advised Jewish clients to leave both countries as war loomed and helped aid them in escaping. His intelligences were on behalf of private clients, but were shared with the US government.
In 1941, at the urging of William J Stephenson, aka Intrepid, the British liason to the United States, for security matters (who also ran propaganda operations to sway American public opinion to the Allied cause), President Franklin Roosevelt asked Donovan to draft a memo to establish a single foreign intelligence service. From this memo, Donovan was appointed to head the new Office of Strategic Services. He then recruited the best and the brightest, from primarily Ivy League schools and built up intelligence networks, operating from neutral countries, such as Spain, Switzerland, Sweden and Turkey. The Swedish network uncovered much information about the Nazi atomic program and other strategic weapons. The Turkish network delivered volumes of information, but was infiltrated by a double agent and the network, known as Dogwood, was considered unreliable and shut down. The OSS developed contacts in occupied territories and aided resistance unit, in conjunction with the British MI-6 and Special Operations Executive. The OSS trained agents at Camp X, in Ontario, under SOE staff, for work behind enemy lines. They developed the Jedbug teams, who would be parachuted or otherwise inserted into occupied territory and link up with, train, and direct guerrilla and resistance activities, including the gathering of military intelligence. In Burma, they recruited Kachin tribesmen to wage a guerrilla war against the Japanese, along with the SOE and special forces groups, like the Chindits and Merril's Marauders.
At the tail end of the war, they coordinated Operation Paperclip, which located and extracted Nazi scientists, working in strategic projects, and brought them to the US, to continue their research, including figures like Werner Von Braun, who helped develop the US rocketry program and the early days of the Space Program.
After the war, the OSS was disbanded and other took over, until the National Security Act of 1947 led to the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency. The leader of the CIA, Allen Dulles, had been an OSS agent, under Donovan, running the Swiss networks.
During the war, the OSS research groups developed all kinds of spy devices and equipment, from Beano impact grenades, to "Coal Joe," lumps of hollowed out iron ore, filled with explosives and coated with coal dust, which were added to coal storages, to sabotage coal-fired furnaces and engines, such as on steam trains. They developed cigarettes, laced with cannaboid, from Indian hemp, which were given to prisoners to make them more agreeable and talkative. They developed noise-suppressed weapons for assassination and to remove sentries, portable radio communication sets and a wicked little fighting tool that needs to be inserted into a comic book....
The left end ball is a metal weight, which can be smashed into vulnerable body parts, like joints, above the ear and the temple, similar to Modesty Blaise's kosho/yawara stick. The other end it a spring-loaded steel spike, which can be used for stabbing, like an ice pick. It also has a reel of wire, with a ring attachment, for a garrote, which is more effective than Donald Grant's watch, in From Russia With Love. How this never made it into a Bond film is beyond me.
Given the secretive nature of the OSS, they haven't turned up much, in comic books, despite being prominent in a couple of movies, including 13 Rue Madeleine, with James Cagney, OSS, with Alan Lad, and Cloak and Dagger, with Gary Cooper, as well as a tv series, in 1957. That was, until 1976, with GI Combat #192.
That issue featured a new back-up feature, OSS, which appeared sporadically, through issue #245.
That debut featured a story, by Bart Regan and art by Ric Estrada. The recurring character was Control, the spymaster who ran European operations, from London....
Currently, he is awaiting reports on Operation Firebrand, where Czech agent Victor Lazlo and two others have been parachuted into Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. The team finds themselves caught in searchlights, as they descend and Lazlo's two comrades are gunned down. Lazlo makes it safely to the ground and goes for his cyanide capsule, so that he will not be taken alive, but the Germans move to swiftly and stop him before he can pop it into his mouth. He is arrested and taken away in a staff car, where he learns they were betrayed by a Nazi-sympathizer. He is taken to gestapo headquarters, in Prague, which has a red cross on it to make the Allies believe it is a hospital and avoid bombing it. he is searched and interrogated and he reveals that he returned to Czechoslovakia to avenge the death of his Jewish wife, in the gas chambers.
He is hauled away for further interrogation. He doesn't talk and they decide to hang him, as a spy and he is taken to a gallows in back of the building. he looks to the skies and the steady drone of engines can be heard, as British Lancaster bombers appear overhead and drop their loads on the "hospital".....
The building is obliterated and all in the surroundings are killed, including Lazlo. We see a small electronic device that has fallen out of a head wound. We then flash back to before, as a homing transmitter is imbedded below the surface of the ski, to direct the bombers to Gestapo HQ. Lazlo was intended as a sacrifice to lead the planes to the Gestapo.
The plot is relatively simple, yet the twist is a nice touch, though beyond the means of 1940s technology. Still, it does illustrate the cutthroat nature of wartime espionage and sabotage. The easiest way to locate Gestapo HQ is get a man inside and the easiest way to do that is to set up an agent to be captured. Lazlo sacrifices himself to get his revenge. That is not exactly a fictional account. many recruits in the OSS and SOE, from occupied countries, had lost loved ones and sought to get revenge on the Germans and many were willing to sacrifice to accomplish this. Time and time again, resistance fighters sacrificed themselves to carry out acts of sabotage and assassination, against the Nazis, including the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the main architect of the Holocaust. Whole villages would be murdered in retaliation, yet people continued to fight to be free. When Col Aaron Bank, a veteran of the OSS Jedburg teams, working with the Resistance, in France, created the table of organization for the US Army Special Forces, the motto chosen was
De Opresso Liber, which translates as "to free or liberate the oppressed." The agent's name, Victor Lazlo, is taken from the character played by Paul Henreid, in Casablanca, who is a resistance fighter, wanted by the Germans. Henreid has a tremendous scene where, in response to German officers bullying refugees in Rick's Cafe Americain with their songs, orders the house orchestra to strike up La Marseillaise, the French National Anthem, which has been outlawed. rick nods to the leader and they strike up the anthem, which is picked up by all in the cafe....
Those tears in the female singers eyes are real. She and the other actors and extras in the scene were mostly refugees, from occupied Europe. It is a tremendously moving scene, as they sing their defiance to the German, as the lyrics call on all Frenchmen to rise up against the invaders attacking France and spill their blood on the ground.
Estrada's art is a bit on the loose side, though his storytelling is good and he would stick with the feature, through its life. Again and again we see Control send off agents on their missions. In the next story, an agent is injected with a serum that simulates death and then fired out of a torpedo tube (which would kill him, if the serum wasn't already fantasy) and his body is among debris and an oil slick to convince the Germans that they have sunk the submarine. The body washes ashore, carrying documents, with battle plans for the coming Allied invasion of France. The plans indicate a landing, at Normandy and orders are made to shift focus. However, the body disappears and the Germans learn it was a trick to divert them and they return their attention to a perceived landing at the Pas de Calais, a more direct route. On June 6, 1944, the Allies land at Normandy and establish a beachhead, from which they expand out, across France, driving the Germans out. The ruse worked by tricking the Germans with the actual landing site, to convince them that it is a feint and Calais is definitely the real target, in a double bluff. The agent is then seen with the Resistance, telling them the landing will come at Normandy and they prepare support operations.
In actuality, there were various deception operations to convince the Germans that the Allies would land at the Pas de Calais, including phony camps and inflatable tanks, designed to delude the Germans in the numbers of invasion troops and to make them think that Calais was the target, based on where the phony camps were located. Fake invasion plans were placed in German hands to reinforce this and General Patton made appearances in England, leading the Germans to believe he was heading the invasion, instead of General Bradley, after his disgrace, in Sicily. Patton was then placed in charge of the Third Army, which followed the invasion and then broke through German lines and started racing across France, headed for the German borders, before supply issues and Operation Market Garden brought a halt to his advance.
The next issue features the story of agent, codename Rolande, a woman, carrying out Operation Butcher. She leads a group of maquis in an attack on a train, carrying SS Standartenfuhrer (Colonel) Kurtz. They prepare to blow a bridge, but the train has air cover, in the form of a Stuka, which spots and attacks the saboteurs. One of the maquis detonates the explosives too early and Kurtz' car is safely on the other side and the survivors disperse. We then see her, disguised as a maid, at a chateau, bringing champagne to Kurtz and his party. he suspects poison and makes her drink it, but she is fine. He tells her to leave the bottle. She asks if he wants her to open the second and he tells her to leave the corkscrew and get out. He then brags to his men as he uncorks the second bottle, setting off explosives, which kill the men and Kurtz.
Another mission finds an OSS frogman team try to infiltrate the anchorage for the German battleship Leipzig. The approach is guarded by an electrified submarine net, which kills one of the swimmers. The survivor is aided by a dolphin, who ends up showing him a gap under the net and he is able to swim past and plant mines on the battleship and detonate them, sinking the vessel. In reality, the british used X-Class submarines to plant explosives underneath the Tirpitz, in Norway, crippling the ship and keeping it out of action, until British bombers located it and sank it.
Issue #199 has an interesting story. RAF squadron leader Hugh Foster is shot down, over occupied territory. He is identified by the symbol of winged boots, on his Spitfire. He has artificial legs and they are destroyed in the crash. Foster's fame as the Legless Ace is well known. he is to be taken to berlin, on a special SS train, where he will be interrogated. Foster demands that they radio London to air drop replacement metal legs and the officer in charge actually complies with the request and a communique is sent to London....
Control oversees the the work of gathering replacement legs and sends a reply via the BBC and the legs are air dropped and delivered to Foster. Foster brushes off soldiers who try to help him on the train and he is led to an SS officer, Otto Strasser. He demands to be allowed some sleep, before interrogation and wants the guards out, before he kicks them out. the officer laughs and removes the men and Foster goes to sleep. Later, the guards summon Strasser, as Foster is gone, leaving his legs behind....
He meets up with the maquis, who were sent coded messages by Control. The tin legs contained explosives, which destroyed the train and Strasser with it.
Issue 203 is from when GI Combat became a Dollar Comic and features a tale of an OSS agent and a female maquis, who are married and operate their resistance cell, together. They are separated in an attack and the woman, Jeane, is arrested by the Gestapo, while Reed, the American, is badly injured. Reed is evacuated to England and Control sees him at the hospital and Reed tells him that Jeanne's capture gives them a chance to destroy the files on the Resistance, at Gestapo HQ
The Germans are radioed by Reed, who asks to exchange himself for his wife and it is agreed, but he has been double-crossed, as she has been poisoned and dies in his arms. He is taken to gestapo HQ and shot as a spy, detonating a micro-explosive implanted in his body, which is powerful enough to destroy Gestapo HQ and the files.
Um, yeah.....
The next issue features a German director, who films the slaughter of a village, as punishment for resistance activities. The Nazis intend to distribute it through occupied territory, as a warning to the population. Control details a pair of former Hollywood types to make their own film and they and an OSS agent, who acts as camerman, infiltrate Yugoslavia and attempt to kill the German and replace his film. They ultimately succeed, at the cost of the OSS man and their film is screened for Hitler, believing it is the German film, showing the German director, Heinrich UFA's death. UFA, was the name of the leading German film studio, which was purchased and ownership transferred to the Nazi Party, in 1933. They produced such films as Fritz Lang's Dr Mabuse and Metropolis, Von Sternberg's The Blue Angel and Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, the famed Nazi propaganda film, featuring the Nuremberg Rallies.
Some of this is inspired by truth and some of it is typical comic book fantasy.
The feature gets its own stage, in the final issue published (though a follow up issue was planned) of DC's Showcase.
The story is by Robert Kanigher and he and Murry Boltinoff claim creation of the OSS Feature, though Bart Regan wrote the earliest stories. Ric Estrada again provides the art, after ER Cruz had been handling it, in GI Combat.
In a concentration camp, near Staszow, the germans threaten to execute a number of prisoners, unless the head of the Polish resistance, codename Arthur, is revealed. A defiant man yells for Arthur to remain silent and the prisoners are gunned down. In London, Control approaches Polish circus performers about undertaking a mission to liberate Arthur and get him out, before he is discovered. They agree.....
The circus performers are inserted into Poland and put on a show, near the camp and the commandant attends. While he is distracted, one of the acrobats vaults the perimeter fence into the camp. His pole hits the fence and sets off the electric fence and alarms. He hurls a grenade to take out a guard tower. The prisoners riot in the confusion and the acrobat gets Arthur and a man who tried to stop the shootings by pretending to be Arthur, out of the camp. They plan to cross the Carpathian Mountains and link up with the Czech underground, but the Nazis are in pursuit. The circus strongman hops out of the truck to delay them and lifts a boulder and is shot dead; but, it falls to the road below, blocking the path of the pursuers. They get past and the clown/juggler jumps out to distract them and is shot dead. They reach a dead end, at a chasm, but the aerialists use vines to swing across. When they make it, the man who was brought out with Arthur is revealed to be a German agent, planted into the camp. He kills the male aerialist, as he leaps upon him, and they fall into the chasm, to their deaths. The female and Arthur survive.
The editorial page contains a biography of WillIam J Donovan, then another story follows, with art by Bill Draut. This focuses on Control, and his wife, as agents in Marseilles. A sabotage mission goes wrong and Control and wife Diana are captured, separately. The Gestapo chief threatens to kill Diana, if the guerrilla leaders are not named and activities detailed and Control feigns that he doesn't know Diana or the info. She is gunned down....
Control escapes and returns to England, where he is placed in charge of running agents across Europe.
The last story is a ludicrous tale of Control approaching a dolphin trainer to use his animals to plant mines on a German pocket battleship, in Norway. They succeed and sink it, but it is the weakest story of the three.
The last story published, in issue #245 of GI Combat, features the story of a Japanese-American agent, a ninja (it's 1982, everyone is a ninja) sent to kill Emperor Hirohito. He infiltrates Japan and waits outside the Emperor's garden, assembling a weapon to assassinate him; but, he is unable to kill the emperor. The tale is told at his court martial and he is sentenced to a lifetime of hard labor. He goes to commit seppuku )Kannigher says Har-kiri, which is wrong), but Control stops him, at the last minute, as MacArthur has ordered the Emperor to be left untouched, to aid the Allies in controlling Japan, during the occupation.
It's not a particularly great story, but it isn't horrible, either. It's just silly fantasy that has zip to do with OSS activities and more of Kanigher's flights of fantasy, meant to show the internal conflict of Kana, who is Japanese by birth and American by allegiance. It isn't Kanigher's best.
Kanigher did write some of the series in GI Combat, but not all of it and things get repetitive as the stories progress. They attack more German pocket battleships than were ever built and engage in some ridiculous sabotage, with boobytrapped riding boots and such, with explosives that are more powerful than satchel charges used by Army engineers, to blow concrete walls and bridges.
Very little of the series reflected actual OSS operations and Control is always shown, putting pins on a map to represent his agents, while everyone thinks he is the cold, detached spymaster, sending agents to their deaths. Much of the characterization is borrowed from Enemy Ace, where everyone thinks Von Hammer is a cold killer of the skies, but he is affected by the deaths he causes and finds himself alienated from human company, spending his time in the woods, with a wolf. We see little actual spy work and mostly sabotage, which the OSS did coordinate, as did the SOE. Very little about running networks or gathering intelligence on Nazi troop movements or strategic weapons programs. A lot of the plots seem to be taken from action films of the 60s and early 70s, as much as anything. The Hugh Foster story is somewhat inspired by British flier Douglas Bader, who crushed his legs in a crash and wore artificial limbs. He volunteered again, for the RAF and flew during WW2 and was shot down, but escaped several times, before being placed in Colditz. There was also a piece about him in Treasure Chest of Fun and Fact, Volume 23, #15. I used to have a stack of those comics and that story was in one of the ones I had. I also read the GI Combat #199, with the Foster story and thought it seemed familiar.
Control was later revived, post-Crisis, as the leader of Argent, the secret group that fought against super criminals, in post-War America, before disappearing. It is mainly background detail, in The Suicide Squad, as they are formed at the same time as Task Force X, the original Suicide Squad. Later, the Squad uncovers what happened to Control and Argent.
As these things go, there are some good stories here, but they all run about 6 pages, so not a lot of development happens in the story. Even the Showcase stories aren't that long and the plots are kind of thin. It seems little thought was ever given to the feature, hence the repetitive nature of the stories. Not quite the classic of Sam Glanzman's USS Stevens stories or Enemy Ace and they lack the hook of something like Gravedigger. However, it was the late 70s, when war comics were all but dead and soon would be, by the time of the last story. They tend to be overshadowed by the lead feature, The Haunted Tank, with its superior art, by Glanzman.
It's hard to say I recommend these stories; but, they aren't a bad thing to sample. Really, the war comics tended to be things you sampled, because a steady diet of stories got so repetitive, even with the classics, like Sgt Rock and Enemy Ace. That is kind of why Kirby was a bit of fresh air, when he was doing The Losers, in Our Fighting Forces, to fill out his contract with DC. He used his personal experiences to flesh out the stories, in a way that writers like Robert Kanigher never could.
Next, some spy spoof material, as we meet The Man From RIVERDALE and Agents Betty & Veronica.