Sgt. Barney McKlosky and his two Signal Corps men have to lay a telephone line cross-country from the company HQ to an outpost. Saunders' squad is assigned to provide protection and assist in laying the wire. Prior to the war, McKlosky was a linesman in Wyoming who broke his leg in a fall and nearly died because his co-worker did not come back with help. Since that incident, McKlosky trusts no one and holds everyone in contempt. While laying line across a bridge on the way to the outpost, McKlosky and Littlejohn drop a roll of wire in the river. Although both men ...
During a heavy firefight and facing overwhelming numbers the Allies are being beaten back. One of the German's shot during the firefight detonates a grenade behind the Sarge who is deafened by the blast. Alone and lost Sgt. Saunders tries to make his way back to American lines. Unable to hear anything, he is almost shot by a German patrol, but manages to get away. He finds a small dog that becomes attached to him and acts as his ears until it is killed by a German that surprises them. Saunders manages to take the German prisoner and tries to use him to guide back to ...
Lt. Hanley, Caje, Kirby, and Pvt. Banning are sent behind German lines to find an American intelligence officer, Capt. Thorpe, who has important intelligence to get back to American G2. A German spy masquerades as a downed American flyer, Lt. Asher, with the intention of infiltrating and destroying the local French underground. He bails out of his American Mustang, but instead of getting picked up by the French underground, he is met by Hanley and his men. Asher initially feigns a sprained ankle and wants to wait for the French instead of going with Hanley. Then he ...
Saunders' squad is sent behind enemy lines to find and destroy a German radar installation. Sgt. Rawlings, a radar specialist, is sent along to learn all he can about the German radar before it is destroyed, and a French resistance fighter, Marchand, is also sent along to guide them. From the time they leave their lines, they are under constant surveillance by the Germans, and Rawlings is killed on the way there. Little do they know that Marchand is really a German officer who has killed the real Marchand and has taken his place with the intent of taking Saunders to a...
Privates Vinnick (Sal Mineo) and Burke (Tom Skerritt) have been together since basic training and are now assigned to Lt. Hanley's platoon. Vinnick is a city bred street wise guy who is almost fearless in battle. Burke, on the other hand, is timid and is quickly paralyzed by fear in battle. Vinnick's contempt for Burke is obvious, and they share a mutual dislike for each other. The episode opens with a firefight where Burke and Vinnick are supposed to cross some open ground to join the squad. Burke is frozen in fear, but Vinnick pushes him out and across to the squad....
A cowardly deserter slaps some dirt on his suspiciously-clean uniform and joins Saunders' squad, whose wrath and distrust he proceeds to earn by repeatedly disregarding orders.
Lt. Hanley acquires intelligence which could save hundreds of lives, but his plane is shot down speeding back to HQ. The bridge Hanley re-conned is much more heavily defended than U.S. Army Intelligence suspected. The old single engine monoplane will be tough to repair, especially with Brannigan the pilot, a daredevil stunt flyer, having a busted leg. But the odds of Hanley slicing through 20 miles of Boche occupied countryside alone on foot are bad too.
This two part Combat! episode is the quintessential story of the futility of war as viewed through the eyes of surviving infantrymen. An American division of troops is making an assault all along their lines. At the platoon level, Lt. Hanley is ordered to take a strategic hill that overlooks a needed road, and the hill is protected by two concrete bunkers with German machine guns and infantry in each bunker. Saunders gets hit in his thigh in the first assault on the bunkers while several other GIs are killed. Hanley asks for artillery support, but his company ...
An American tank arrives and knocks out one of the bunkers, but the tank is taken out by German infantry using a rocket launcher. Again the GIs are beaten down the hill - losing more men to the hill. Hanley is again ordered to take the hill even though his men are both physically and mentally beaten by what has been an impossible assignment. Finally offered large mortar support, Hanley knows the mortars cannot penetrate the remaining bunker, but they can provide smoke cover. His plan is to send two men with a rocket launcher up the hill under cover of smoke to the ...
A failed night mission leaves Hanley wounded in the shoulder, and the rest of his squad dead...except for Private Wilder, a nervous young replacement, who is now trapped in a bog and ready to signal their German pursuers for help. It's up to the lieutenant to free him before Wilder drowns, or panics.