Issue(s): Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos annual #2
Cover Date: 1966
Title: "A day of thunder!"
Credits:
Roy Thomas - Writer
Dick Ayers - Penciler
John Tartaglione - Inker

Review/plot:
The cover says:

We had to do it! (Or you'd never have spoken to us again!) At last.. the most requested Howler saga of all!!

This was... D-Day.

Tying in a story with a real historical event is a risky proposal, but it's not one that Marvel and especially this series ever shied away from. There is the chronological aspect, of course, which we've already seen is impossible to reconcile (although i am sticking with the idea that this is the real D-Day and not, say, Tunisian D-Day or something). And then there's the fact that you have a group of super-heroes (and let's face it, Fury and the Howlers are super by real life standards) who by the nature of the comic are going to be the heroes of the story...

...which either trivializes the efforts of the real people who contributed and leaves the protagonists mumbling about the "real heroes" at the end of the story...

...or invents a balancing super-villain force to negate the heroes' presence.
This story goes the former way (as opposed to, say, the Invaders, which generally goes the latter route).

The story has the Commandos clearing the way for D-Day, sneaking on shore in their typical non-lethal way (even lariating and tranquilizing a dog rather than shooting it)...

...and then engaging in some Inglourious Basterds worthy shenanigans (sorry for making the same analogy i used in my review of issue #1, but it helps to use that over-the-top story as a reference point; if i assume these comics are deliberately ridiculous i can enjoy them more) to lure all the top ranking Germans in the area to a banquet in order to disrupt the chain of command.

Then they blow up the Luftwaffe.

They're briefly captured, but Hitler's fanaticism prevents the Colonel in charge of the capture from interrogating the prisoners and learning about D-Day.

The Commandos manage to escape and make it back to the front-line of the invading forces.

And Fury is the first soldier to get up the nerve to storm the beachfront.

From there it's several pages of all-out wartime action. Thomas and Ayers deliver exactly what you'd want out of an annual like this.

Quality Rating: C+

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - The Howlers at D-Day

Chronological Placement Considerations: D-Day (June 6th 1944). Since i don't intend to try to line up this story with other Sgt. Fury stories based on historical references (see the Comments section on issue #1 for more on that), i'm looking at placement based on internal references (like the reference to issue #21 below). I don't have most of the later Sgt. Fury stories, but the MCP places this between issues #72-73, meaning there's an incredible amount of action happening before D-Day. A quick cheat peek at those issues doesn't reveal any immediate reason for that placement, but i'll honor it. Another question is the placement of D-Day relative to the Invaders series and other significant Golden Age events, like the death of Captain America. I'm assuming somewhere, in some flashback panel, there's a scene with at least Cap, if not all the Invaders, running up the beaches of Normandy, so i'm placing this before Cap's death. Any additional help or thoughts would be appreciated; prior to getting into the Sgt. Fury series in detail i never really thought beyond the broad strokes of WWII for placement.

References:

• The Commandos run into a French resistance fighter they met previously in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #21.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? Y

My Reprint: N/A