From the Cavalcade Of America series comes Peter Graves as Major Thomas Howie, beloved platoon leader in the invading US Army in France gets a choice assignment to be the spearhead to take the key town of St. Lo in Normandy. It's only a couple of weeks after D-Day and his superiors Morris Ankrum and Frank Gerstle need the town taken as it is a crossroads nexus.
Graves is a popular commander and his men do whatever it takes. So when he's killed in the assignment, they make it their business to see the vow is kept that he still is the first one into St. Lo.
The story was taken from D-Day's number one chronicler, war correspondent Cornelius Ryan whose authoritative work was the basis for Darryl Zanuck's The Longest Day.
The Longest Day was the big picture of the Normandy invasion. But war is also made up of a lot of individual stories of heroism and comradeship such as the one we see here. Ryan's story will moisten a few eyes and holds up well today.
Graves is a popular commander and his men do whatever it takes. So when he's killed in the assignment, they make it their business to see the vow is kept that he still is the first one into St. Lo.
The story was taken from D-Day's number one chronicler, war correspondent Cornelius Ryan whose authoritative work was the basis for Darryl Zanuck's The Longest Day.
The Longest Day was the big picture of the Normandy invasion. But war is also made up of a lot of individual stories of heroism and comradeship such as the one we see here. Ryan's story will moisten a few eyes and holds up well today.
