Grumble Jones December Scenario GJ154 The Iron Crossroads

 

Here we are at last to the final Grumble Jones scenario for 2025. I always feel a little nostalgic when the final scenario drops. Every year has been different. Some years have really ok to good scenarios and some years lack the pzazz that I try to achieve with at least a couple of the year's offerings. This year, I decided to bookend the scenarios with Sgt. Rock themed offerings. Naturally, they are not intended to be taken too seriously. They are inspired by arguably one of the best war comics ever printed. I was a huge GI Combat fan as a kid. The Haunted Tank was an absolute favorite and I had more of those than I did Sgt. Rocks. Comics were 20 -25 cents back then and GI Combat would often put out a huge $1.00 edition. I kept my comic stack in my elementary school locker and would drag them down to lunch in the cafeteria. My buddies and I would read each other's comics and trade every now and then. We read Sgt. Fury, Blitzkrieg, The Unknown Soldier, Weird War, The Losers, Sgt. Rock and of course GI Combat. And I'm sure that I have left some out. We had so much to choose from back then.

As a southern boy, I was all over the JEB Stuart, Confederate connection. And of course...it was s Stuart Tank after all. But even then, I could sense that the Stuart tank shouldn't be surviving in all these encounters with Panthers and Tigers. It helped of course to have the ghost of JEB Stuart helping you out of a bind now and then.

I used to have the issue when they made their Frankenstein tank from a bunch of knocked out German and American tanks and tank destroyers. I believe their gun was an 88mm with a panther style chassis with T-34 bogeys and a Walker Bulldog like turret...(not sure Walker Bulldog was actually a WW2 tank). Of course suspending belief was the starting point...since you had the whole Confederate Ghost thing going on. Those were great days...12 years old sitting in the cafeteria reading comics. Life was good...

Following the January "Bloody Rag" scenario, some readers voiced their excitement over a repeat Sgt. Rock and the infamous Iron Major was mentioned as a potential antagonist. 

The Iron Major in DC Comics is a recurring German army officer and one of Sgt. Rock's primary adversaries during World War II. His name (revealed as Franz in some stories) is derived from his unyielding will and a distinctive prosthetic hand made of solid iron. 

The character's history is rooted in the brutal Eastern Front of World War II: As a Major in Marshal Paulus' 6th Army, his right hand suffered severe frostbite and subsequent gangrene during a retreat across the frozen Don River. After the necessary amputation, he had his missing hand replaced with a solid iron prosthesis as a symbol of strength and rigid adherence to a harsh moral code. His men began calling him the "Iron Major" due to both the prosthetic and his iron will.

Stalag 9 Commandant: Deemed unfit for front-line combat, he was made commandant of Stalag 9, an ancient castle converted into a prisoner-of-war camp, where he first encountered Sgt. Frank Rock. 

The Iron Major and Sgt. Rock clashed several times throughout the war. The Major became one of Sgt. Rock's most significant recurring foes, a Nazi counterpart to the American hero, representing a classic dynamic of good versus evil in war comics.

Rock was the first prisoner to escape the seemingly impenetrable Stalag 9, leading to an intense pursuit and battle in the "Forest of Forgotten Skulls," where the Major was believed killed by an exploding land mine. The Major survived and continued to cross paths with Rock. He reportedly viewed Rock as a worthy opponent and once even prevented a sniper from killing Rock, preferring to face him personally.

In one canonical storyline, the conflict ended in 1945 when Rock tracked the Major to Argentina, where he had fled with stolen Nazi atomic secrets. The Iron Major chose death over capture, pulling a Luger on Rock, who then shot him dead. His soul later appeared in limbo, along with other deceased DC villains, attempting to escape back to Earth. 

And now, here in the hallowed halls of Grumble Jones...the Iron Major and Sgt. Rock will face once again in a battle for the ages...THE IRON CROSSROADS.

Thanks for sticking with Grumble Jones this year and allowing me to continue to put out these basement quality scenarios. They give me a lot of joy to produce. 48 years ago...I was a 12 year old living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of NE Tennessee and SW Virginia. A year later at 13...I'd be living in St. Louis and opening up my first Squad Leader box...

Fall from Lee Highway - Bristol, VA circa 1969. Used to pick blackberries up the driveway along the fence with my mother and brother as we walked up to the highway to wait for the mailman and watch trucks going up and down Interstate 81. My Shire...

And my last visit to the mountains - November 2003. I was working for Siemens in Johnson City, TN and Roan Mountain was about 30 minutes from the plant. We had a Canadian visiting from Future Electronics (Frank at left). My boss told us to take the two Future folks up to the top of Roan Mountain (around 5500 ft.) Frank's partner took this shot of Frank, another Siemens co-worker and myself. We enjoyed the view of God's Country. How many times in your career does your boss tell you to go up into the mountains!?! Nothing like the Blue Ridge...

As always, these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.

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All Grumble Jones scenarios are available from the ASL Archive website. 

               (Just search on Grumble Jones)