...And Not a Drop to Drink

A few weeks ago, we took a look at the first of the two stories featured in The Rat Patrol #3 (May 1967).  That was an entertaining and well-plotted story, so I thought it would be fun to review the other tale as well.

The Rat Patrol is a normally a mobile unit, using their two jeeps to mount surprise hit-and-run raids on the Germans, then get out of Dodge as quickly as possible. But in "...And Not a Drop to Drink," (writer unknown; Jose Delbo is the artist) has them ordered to form a static defense at an oasis. They are expected to hold the oasis so that the water is available when a major Allied attack is launched in two days.

When given the mission, Troy had bragged that his four men were as good as an army, but they are going to have to hold the oasis against a lot of German soldiers who are supported by a tank. So, when the Germans approach, the first task is to get rid of that tank.

An anti-tank mine is buried nearby, then Troy and Hitch use their jeep to lure the tank onto the mine.

That still leaves the Germans. It's here that we might expect an all-out battle scene. And, since Jose Delbo has been giving us some pretty nifty-looking action scenes throughout the issue, an all-out battle scene would have been a welcome addition to the story.

But the writer goes in a different, equally interesting direction, possibly lifted from the 1943 Bogart movie Sahara. The Gerrmans are mad with thirst. Desperate for water, they toss their guns away and charge into the oasis, where they are easily taken prisoner.

Troy has a brief tussle with the German general to capture him and that pretty much wraps up their mission. There's an interesting bit of dialogue at the end, though. Tully muses about how "This sure ain't much of a war," remarking about how its easy to fight a relatively faceless enemy, but seeing the Germans up close has uncomfortably reminded him of their humanity.  It's a nice moment and is effectively presented.

So that wraps up our visit with the Rat Patrol. Next week, we get a reminder that when you take one cool thing (say--Tarzan) and mix it with another cool thing (say--pirates), you pretty much always get a exceptionally cool story.