True Comics #76

Walt "Turk" Broda spent a decade honing his craft as a goaltender before reaching the peak of his profession, and by age thirty-four he'd become the insuperable netminder for the Toronto Maple Leafs during their 1947-48 championship season. From his childhood days as the smallest player on a pond in Brandon, Manitoba, to his current mastery between the pipes, Broda's journey shows how dedication and steady improvement can transform a slow starter into one of hockey's finest.

When an American sailor named Joe Bradish joins a merchant vessel in 1698, he seizes his chance to turn pirate—commandeering the ship, raiding across the world, and amassing a fortune in gold and jewels. As his crew scatters and law enforcement closes in, Bradish buries portions of his hoard near Montauk Point and Block Island, marking their locations on a map he guards carefully. Nearly 250 years later, treasure hunters still search for Bradish's lost riches, following the legend of a pirate captain whose marked map has never surfaced.

When a package of valuable jewels vanishes from a Railway Express shipment, FBI Special Agent Steve Saunders must retrace the delivery route, hoping to find the one witness who holds the key—a red-haired boy seen in the area. With help from a resourceful Junior G-Man named Hank and the observant boy Chuck, Saunders pieces together clues from schoolyards and apartment buildings to track down the stolen goods. A straightforward case of crime and community detective work that shows the FBI at work in 1949.

Moifaa, a prized New Zealand race horse, faces the ultimate test of survival when a devastating storm at sea forces him overboard during his voyage to England for the 1904 British Grand National Steeplechase. After an incredible fifty-mile swim that leaves him exhausted on a barren island, the stallion is discovered by fishermen and eventually makes his way back to his owner Spencer Gollan, who scrambles to get the battered horse into racing condition in just four days. This is the true story of one of turf history's most extraordinary comebacks.

When the prized Flamingo Diamond vanishes from a collector's home during a dinner party, Detective Robbins finds himself face-to-face with three suspects—all close friends who knew exactly where the gem was kept. With an inside job looking more likely by the minute, the detective must sift through the claims of Mr. and Mrs. Bridges and Stell Rogers to crack the case.

Stranded on a polar ice field during a 1948 Arctic expedition, Charles J. Hubbard of the U.S. Weather Bureau finds himself with an unexpected opportunity to solve a decades-old mystery. A sudden hunch leads him to search the remote cairns where explorer Robert E. Peary reportedly left messages after his 1906 expedition—and what he discovers could finally vindicate Peary's historic claim.

This educational feature traces how the Army, Navy, and Air Force united under a single Department of National Defense, using the D-Day invasion as a dramatic example of coordinated military teamwork in action. The story follows the historic 1944 assault on Normandy and then shows how that same spirit of coordination carries forward into peacetime exercises like the 1948 CAMID war games, where cadets and midshipmen train together across all branches. It's a straightforward civics lesson wrapped in wartime heroics—showing readers why unified defense serves the nation's strength.