Inspired by Captain America #32 (2000), I wrote a letter to the Comics Buyer's Guide which was printed in #1362. In it, I traced Captain America's involvement in World War II solely through what was revealed in the comics themselves. What follows is an edited version of that letter.
Using The Adventures of Captain America limited series as a starting point, I discovered a convenient gap in #2 in which to insert the original Simon/Kirby stories of the '40s, as well as the Lee/Kirby re-tellingsfrom Tales of Suspense #63-65. It is interesting (to me, anyway) to note that each of these eras has its own retelling of Cap's first meeting with the Red Skull, each of which conflicts with the other two, but I am working under the assumption that not all stories happened exactly when they were published, and that certain details may have been changed ("for matters of national security").
After the conclusion of TAoCA limited series, Captain America, in his "secret identity" of Army Private Steve Rogers, shipped out with his unit from Camp Lehighand is stationed in England. It is this point at which the adventures portrayed in Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #13, Tales of Suspense #66-71 and Captain America #256 (flashback) take place. Maintaining a secret identity as an army private was ill-conceived, problematical at best, and eventually abandoned.
In any case, it was "late summer 1941" when Cap arrived in Madripoor (without Bucky) as revealed in X-Men #268. Eventually, he made his way back to the states (with Bucky) in time to foil a plot to murder FDR (as revealed in newsreel footage in Captain America #281) on Novemebr 22, 1941.
On December 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, on December 22 the Invaders are formed by FDR, and on December 26 & 27 Cap received the memory implants that were to cause considerable confusion later on. The Invaders series pretty much covers the events from then through the middle of 1942. There have been a few other Invaders stories published since that series' cancellation that have [picked up from that point, but I like to think of the Roy Thomas Invaders series as being more or less sacrosanct and speculate that the Invaders drifted apart shortly after after the end of their own series.
There is something of a gap in Cap's story after 1942, but I like to think that he was utilized as more of the "super-soldier" he was intended to be as opposed to the "super-hero" he had been so far. A flashback sequence from Captain America #262 shows him in battle (sans Bucky or Invaders), fighting alongside infantrymen against the Red Skull in 1943, and in Captain America #250 a character says, "You saved my platoon a lot of gried at Anzio" (January 22, 1944).
I can find no comic book "evidence" that places Cap at Normandy on D-Day (June 6, 1944), but he's right there fighting alongside the Allies when Paris was liberated from the Nazis in August (Tales of Suspense #77). Although bucky was not present for that adventure, he and Cap were together again later that same year for "one of the last missions we completed... before I... lost Bucky!" as revealed by Cap in a tale he narrated to Nick Fury in Captain America #109. This brings me up to the comic which inspired this research and placed Cap at the Battle of the Bulge (December 16, 1944), at which Bucky was also present.
On March 4, 1945 the Allies invades Germany, and Cap was at the forefront when the Nazi deathcamp Diebenwald was liberated (Captain America #237). At some point, Cap's final WWII confrontatin with the Red skull occurred, as related in flashback in Tales of Suspense #72 and expounded upon in Tales of Suspense #79. As the Skull put it, "How well I remember our last encounter, during the final days of Berlin, when the sky was thick with Allied bombers."
On April 18, Captain America faced Baron Zemo for the last time (flashback, Avengers #4) and, depending on which version you believe, Adolf Hitler either committed suicide or was incinerated by the Human Torch on the 30th of that month. May 6, the day Germany surrendered, was also the day the surviving Invaders found out about the supposed deaths of Cap America and Bucky. The next day, they met with Harry Truman in Washington, D.C., who revealed the replacement Captain America and Bucky (William Naslund and Fred Davis, respectively) and also added Miss America and the Whizzer to the ranks of the Invaders (What If...? #4). They day after that, May 8, the day declared by President Truman to be V-E Day, the new team of Invaders was revealed to the world.
The atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945; three days later, a second was dropped on Nagasaki as well. Japan agreed to surrenderon August 15. The day Japan officially surrendered, V-J Day (September 2) was the day Truman rechristened the team "The All-Winners Squad." William Naslund (formerly the Spirit of '76) served as the first replacement Captain America in All-Winners #19, and Jeff Mace (formerly the Patriot) took over in All-Winners #21; What If...? #4 reveals "The Forgotten Case of the All-Winners Squad" and why there was no All-Winners #20. (I can also tell you who (retroactively speaking) served as Captain America in USA and All-Select and every issue of Captain America Comics, but that's another letter for another time.
This overview leaves many questions unanswered (what circunstances led Cap to abandon his cover as an Army private? What happened to cause the Invaders to drift apart (if, indeed, they did) in 1942? What prompted the U.S. Government to utilize Captain America as a literal super-soldier? Where was Bucky during this period? What led the two to be reunited as a team? What was Cap doing in Madripoor in 1941?), but there have been many continuity implants during the intervening 27 years since I compiled this research, some of which I have not read.
Replies
CAPTAIN AMERICA COMICS (2009):
Within a framing sequence set in "1942, somewhere above Europe," on a mission concerning the "Sleepers," Bucky reminisces about a story Cap told him of an adventure he's had before he took the "super soldier serum." As such, the main story is outside the scope of this discussion. I consider it apocryphal, but it's a pretty good story otherwise. this one-shot also includes a reprint of "Death Loads the Bases!" from Captain America Comics #7 (1941).
I don't think anyone else has said this, but here is my "hindsight is 20-20" contribution. If, when writing Avengers #4, Stan had placed the story of Bucky's "death" at the hands of Baron Zemo after the last previously published Captain America issue, it would have tied everything together without inventing additional characters to wear the costume.
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE INVADERS - "Bahama Triangle"
The story begin on March 18, 1941, less than 24 hours after Steve Rogers went into action as Captain America for the first time. I almost didn't include it for being "out of scope," but it's really too good not to. The war was raging in Europe even if America had not yet become involved, and although Captain America does not appear as a soldier, he does appear as a sailor. This "pre-Invaders' story works better than the eventually-retconned Rampaging Hulk continuity. Steve Rogers and Jim Hammond meet, and the Sub-Mariner appears. Assigned to safeguard President Roosevelt during a fishing trip in the Bahamas, the newly commissioned Captain America endures his baptism under fire - while a German U-boat carrying Baron Zemo heads for the island chain's capital. His mission: to kidnap England's once-king, the Duke of Windsor, and sit him on the throne of a defeated Britain. By Roy Thomas and Jerry Ordway.
Roy Thomas had to move the the three Pre-Invaders just right to preserve Giant-Size Invaders #1 even though Cap and the Torch met in Young Allies #1.
Speaking of Giant-Size Invaders...
GIANT-SIZE INVADERS #2 (2005):
Giant-Size Invaders #2 reprints Invaders #1-2 as well as three stories from All-Winners Comics #1-2, but it leads with an all-new, 16-page story, by Roy Thomas and Lee Weeks which occurs on June 19, 1942. The the four-issue Invaders mini-series from 1993 began on June 22, 1942, so no new ground is covered here, but I thought the new story, whihc hd not been written when I did my initial research in 1999, was worth mentioning here because of the artwork alone. Unlike Captain America and the Invaders (which had a great story and great art), the new story from Giant-Size Invaders #2 (which features FDR and Winston Churchill out for "A Drive in the Country") wasn't all that good.
CAPTAIN AMERICA & NAMOR #635.1:
Captain America & Namor #635.1 takes place in France in 1942 (at some point after June 22, I am guessing). It's funny but, so far as we know, the Invaders operated as a group for only about six months. Captain America is operating as a soldier at this point, and runs into Namor by happenstance. A clandestine society known as the Thule Society has stolen a powerful weapon of Atlantean origin, and Cap helps the Sub-Mariner get it back.
INVADERS #10:
Flashback: Italy, 1943. The Invaders are still operating as a team, at least occasionally. After a recent push, Spitfire has flown Bucky back to Brooklyn for a couple of days, leaving Captain America and Namor behind. Namor invaites Cap to Atlantis, which he visits for the first time. [EDIT: Not really; see below.]
I love when there are actual dates, and you include them, Jeff! Because, like with the JSA, I'n cobbling together a working timeline.
Naturally, I'm re-reading Richard Mantle's magnificent Invaders thread for clues.
Thanks, Cap, but some of those dates are either contradictory or outright wrong. Case in point: The Twelve #1, which places Captain America spearheading the invasion of Berlin on April 25, 1945. At this point, I am simply recording the dates as presented with the intention of sorting them all out later, but I will make an exception in this case. Captain America could not have been in Berlin on April 25 because What If...? #4 establishes that he was killed on April 18. What's more, William Naslund did not assume the role until May 7 (or 8, publicly). Captain America and Bucky appear in only one panel each of The Twelve #1, and it is my contention that those panels are merely symbolic.
THE TWELVE: SPEARHEAD:
In the Twelve: Speadhead, Captain America leads a group of super-powered operatives on a raid of an underground rocket factory based at Kohnstein, Germany. the date is unspecified, but it must have been before the flashbacks shown in Tales of Suspense #72/79 because the Red Skull is still alive. Spearhead itself shows a later scene of Captain America and Bucky's disappearance, and the issue ends with "The Twelve" (sans the other heroes depicted in The Twelve #1) invading Berlin on April 25. It also mentions that the Human Torch is on another "little assignment" (i.e., taking out Hitler), which he completed on April 30 (according to What If...? #4). Here is the chronology of events as I see it:
CAPTAIN AMERICA (2004) #5:
This flashback issue places the Invaders at the Russian front in early November, 1942.
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