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Saunders' squad is checking out a winery when a squadron of Germans enter carrying a badly wounded Lt. Hanley. Saunders and his men stay hidden until they can find a way to rescue Hanley.

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.

Saunders is imprisoned in a German compound where an enemy soldier is posing as a GI.

A very large German railroad artillery gun is causing havoc with the American advance. When not firing, it is moved by rail from one secluded cave to another, and no one has been able to spot the gun so it can be targeted and eliminated. Artillery Lt. William Benton and Sgt. Stoner are sent to link up with Sgt. Saunders' squad which will serve as an escort to establish a forward observation post to find the German gun and report its location for targeting. When alone with Saunders' men, Sgt. Stoner is quick to tell everyone that Benton is the son of the famous Lt. General Benton and has been kept safely in the rear and allowed no combat experience. He belittles Lt. Benton by calling him Billy the Kid, and he lets everyone know he expects Benton to fail in this mission. Saunders does not like Stoner disparaging Benton, but even he questions Benton about all the extra equipment he is taking with them. Benton simply tells him it is needed and to get moving. When they get to the area where they intend to observe, Benton has the men set up the equipment in what seems to them a very strange manner, but Benton is a lot more capable than anyone knows. When they are spotted and shelled in their first position, Benton loses the use of his eyes, but they move to his second position where they are able to find the gun, complete the mission, and find out that Billy is no kid.

The squad is anxious to open Littlejohn's birthday cake he received from home, but Littlejohn refuses since his mother has a note attached telling him not to open the package until his birthday which is a day away. They are sent on a mission to tap into a German phone line to gather information, and Pvt. Cantrell is sent along because he speaks German. Cantrell, due to be rotated out of action and placed on leave, is sore and does nothing but constantly complain on the patrol. While Cantrell worries about surviving the mission to go on leave, Littlejohn's attention is focused on keeping his birthday cake safe for one day until his birthday. He leaves his cake back at a bridge, and while sneaking away to get it, he encounters a German patrol. Chasing after Littlejohn, the squad gets into a firefight with the Germans. They kill all the Germans, but Cantrell is wounded and has to be carried back to their lines on a makeshift litter. On the way back, they encounter another, much larger, German patrol and have to leave Cantrell in a hide while they draw the Germans away. In their evasion, they cross a bridge over a river to elude the Germans, and they are now on one side of the river while Cantrell is on the other. Littlejohn swims the river to bring the wounded Cantrell back to the squad, and they manage to make it back with the intelligence they collected. Cantrell is sent off to enjoy his leave in a hospital, but not before having a sample of the birthday cake which by this time has been crumbled in its box.

The squad angers a Frenchman when they destroy machinery at his quarry.

Private Eddie Cain has somehow finagled his way to be assigned to Kirby's squad, and he immediately gloms onto his old buddy, "Wild Man" Kirby, and begins making demands of him. Cain believes his brother, Tony, and Kirby were best of friends and that Tony was killed in their old hometown while saving Kirby's life. Accordingly, Cain also believes Kirby owes him a great personal debt in the form of Kirby's attention and protection. The cocky Cain immediately provokes the hostility of the rest of the squad, and Kirby has to continually make excuses for him. Cain keeps taking foolish actions, and he is unable to come to grips with his shortcomings until Kirby finally tells him the truth about how his brother Tony was killed back home.

Chaos ensues as the Germans make a breakthrough, and all rear-echelon troops are ordered to get their weapons. Never able to form up into any sort of fighting force, they become stragglers separated from any cohesive unit. Saunders and Caje are also separated from their unit, and they pick up several of the rear-echelon stragglers as they discover they are all now many miles deep in German territory. While the rear-echelon guys have no combat experience, they each contribute in their own way in their effort to get back to their own forces. During their trek back, Saunders hijacks a locomotive with several cars carrying German troops, and his new "squad" has to get rid of the German troop cars so they can then take the engine in the direction of their own lines. As might be expected, one of the rear-echelon guys knows how to operate a steam locomotive. The shots of the locomotive action do make for some very nice cinematic scenes.

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 fake radar installation. The GIs blow the fake installation and prepare to return when they finally learn Marchand is an imposter and they have destroyed the wrong target. A bombing raid is scheduled for that night, and the bomb group is counting on Saunders' squad to destroy the radar installation.

A French countess walks a dangerous tightrope as she entertains a château full of German soldiers--while sheltering a wounded Hanley.

Sgt. Saunders and his squad have been ordered to escort a Sgt. Keeley behind enemy lines with his trained pigeons. The birds have small cameras on their legs to photograph the enemy, but Keeley is belligerent and surly.

Kirby is being tried in a military court for desertion under fire, and the penalty could be death. As the trial proceeds, Sgt. Saunders and Caje try to gather evidence to prove his innocence.

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 commander tells Hanley he will have to take the hill without artillery support. Hanley tries several different strategies to take the hill, but each time the men go up the hill, the overwhelming fire from the bunkers stop them, and each time they leave a few more dead GIs on the hill.

Lt. Hanley has the support of a tank to help his platoon to take the hill. However, the tank is destroyed by a German bazooka. Now Hanley plans to use the shield of the tank to attack the German bunker also with a bazooka.

Hanley and Kirby join a swaggering British commando on a treacherous hunt for German V-2 launching sites.

Out of ammo, Saunders is holed up with terrified young Private Carey ('Tommy Sands'): a pacifistic draftee who can't bring himself to fire on their pursuer, a relentless German sergeant.

Privates Vinnick (Sal Mineo) and Burke (Tom Skerritt) have been together since basic training and are assigned to Hanley's platoon. Vinnick is a street wise city kid who is fearless in battle. Burke, on the other hand, is paralyzed by fear when a firefight begins. Vinnick's contempt for Burke is obvious as is Burke's hatred for Vinnick. The episode opens with a firefight where Burke is frozen in fear. Vinnick charges a German MG-42 emplacement, and Hanley tells them he will recommend Vinnick for a Bronze Star. Later, Hanley receives a message that Vinnick is wanted back in the states on a murder warrant. Hanley disarms Vinnick and intends to turn him over to the MPs, but Vinnick manages to get away. Wanting to capture his nemesis, Burke goes hunting for Vinnick. In the end, the basic character of both men holds true. Mineo and Skerritt give stellar performances.

This episode is all Lt. Hanley and a bunch of twists along the way. Concussed during an artillery barrage and separated from his platoon, Hanley starts to come out of his daze only to find he is being taken prisoner by an SS soldier. The first twist is when the SS soldier is shot by another SS soldier who frees Hanley. Then we learn the second SS soldier is really a GI corporal who just escaped from a holding area, but his wounded Colonel is still being held by the Germans and has information valuable to the Germans. As Hanley's head clears, he decides they must rescue the Colonel and keep him from giving the Germans information. They do manage to rescue the Colonel, but there are more twists in the road for Hanley before he gets back to his own lines.

Kirby embarks on a personal vendetta against an SS colonel who killed his sister's fiancé.

It begins with Kirby being sent back to town to recuperate from some minor injury. While there, he meets GI Harry White who is a truck driver who uses dirty dice to cheat other GIs. Harry has been running his dirty dice game when Kirby spots the dirty dice and tells the other players. Harry manages to skip out just as the town is hit with an artillery barrage. A shell shocked Kirby manages to get out of town and later comes across Harry White whose truck has run out of gas. Harry takes up with Kirby to get back to their own lines, but he insists on carrying a huge Sterling silver service set with him. Along the way, they pick up Claudette and her ailing grandfather, and all four must travel through cold and snow to evade the Germans on their way to safety. Harry is concerned only with his war booty, and Claudette's concern is for her grandfather who is unable to walk and must be pulled on a sled across the snow. The normally somewhat irresponsible Kirby rises to the demands of the hour and forces the group onward. In the end, Harry White does make a sacrifice to aid the others.

An embittered French woman resists Saunders' efforts to commandeer her truck, needed to transport the wounded Kirby.

King company is quickly overrunning a French Village, and the German withdrawal is in complete chaos. Most of the German troops are killed, wounded, or captured in the action, but one German officer, Hertzbrun, tries to blow a bridge before he leaves the village. Unable to blow the bridge during the attack, he takes refuge in a Catholic church where he exchanges his uniform for the vestments a priest and becomes "Father Hertzbrun." His intention is to impersonate a priest long enough for him to finish setting his charges, blow the bridge, and make his escape. Much to his dismay, as soon as the fighting is finished, he is asked by a GI to hear his confession. Unfortunately for Hertzbrun, he really has no experience in priestly matters, and his ineptitude leads to the failure of his ruse. A 44 year old James Whitmore is a pleasure to watch as he plays the German officer masquerading as a priest.

A escape convict sees a Resistance leader killed, steals his papers and tricks Sgt. Saunders in escorting him where he hopes to flee to Switzerland.

Sgt. Saunders tries to harass a Nazi tank with small arms fire before it discovers a GI trying fix a large supply truck.

Hanley refuses to let an elderly French ex-general lead Sgt. Saunder's squad in their search for an observation post, but he follows them anyway to prove his usefulness.