Well, technically, it ran 40 issues; but, it looks like it was reprints after issue #26.  That's not uncommon for a series from Dell/Gold Key/Western.  Even long ones, like Turok, reprinted a lot of material

I decided to start back with Captain Savage and I read #11 today. It continues into Sgt. Fury #64, so I read that too.

And the Raiders suffer their first casualty as Baker gets it in the back of the head from a Japanese sniper. Baker was the one who always threw in some dialogue (often in a thought balloon) about how he'd rather be back in Los Angeles where he was a school teacher. It was his only distinguishing trait. Well miss him. I bet the kids back in Los Angeles will miss him too.

(I half-expected some dialogue where one of the other Raiders says something like "Lousy Japanese! They got Baker! Which one was Baker? Was he the teacher from Los Angeles or was he the hillbilly? Well, in either case, well kill some more Japanese for Baker!")

The Raiders and the Howlers are teaming up to get Dr. Reiker, a nuclear physicist with the secret of the atom bomb, away from a castle that is somehow built on a Pacific island. Dr. Reiker went willingly because ... well, I'll get to that. It's pretty dumb.

But in the course of the adventure, they infiltrate the castle and find the nuclear lab and guess what? ... Dr. Reiker is a cute blonde with short hair. She's joined up with the Japanese because she has had it with Western capitalism and she believes the peace-loving Japanese will use the secrets of atomic power for peaceful purposes.

Um. OK. It seems like a bit of an attack on pacifism. But oh is it dumb.

Fortunately the Japanese tell her she is dumb for thinking that and now that she has served her purpose, they are going to kill her along with all these Raiders and Howlers and Whatnots.

But they all escape.

A few days later, Fury sees in Stars and Stripes that Dr. Reiker has committed suicide.

The art's nice. Ayers inked by Syd Shores in Captain Savage. And Ayers inked by John Severin in Sgt. Fury.

I know I make fun of the Captain Savage comic book a lot, but it's actually a lot of fun some of the time. And #13 was actually a pretty good issue! More than a little silly ... but in a good way!

Written by Arnold Drake, who will be writing the next few issues as well. Syd Shores is still the inker, but now Don Heck (who also did the cover) in on pencils.

It's kind of crazy. The Battlefield Raiders are helping the Italian partisans to secure a castle that's full of Italian historical treasures, including a number of historical weapons of war, like a WW I biplane, a tank from the same era, a catapult, some explosives from Garibaldi's time, etc. And then they have to hold the castle until the American invasion force can reach them. But the weather has grounded the Army Air Corps! And the Nazis are attacking! So what do they do?

The story is titled "The Junk-Heap Juggernauts" and that means they must use these ancient weapons against the Nazis! Silly silly silly as hell, but very inventive and vastly entertaining.

I'm really hoping the rest of the Arnold Drake issues are as good.

That Captain Savage 13 immediately made me think of this:

Syd Shores was the primary artist on Captain America, after Simon & Kirby left.

I'm really enjoying these Arnold Drake/Don Heck/Syd Shores issues of Captain Savage. #15 gets extra points because the setting in Vietnam! I can't recall ever seeing a movie or comic book or anything about Vietnam in World War II.

Probably because it didn't involve America or Britain (directly).  It was pretty much Ho Ch Minh and his guerrillas, against the Japanese and Vichy, with possible support from the OSS.  Then, it became Ho Chi Minh vs the French and Ho Chi Minh against the south and the US and its allies (including Australia, New Zealand, and the Republic of South Korea).  Ho ended up 3-0.