Kind of an unsatisfying episode that maybe tried to pack too much into one episode to make it all work. The squad is ordered to take a bridge, but the Germans are well dug in at a house next to the bridge. They use an anti-tank weapon against a tank that strangely gets too close to the house (why it didn't use its cannon to blast the house to pieces a block or more away is unexplained) leaving the men to take it on their own. I thought they'd try the old western trick of setting the roof on fire, but Saunders instead decides to outflank the Germans.
In the middle of this is Nick Adams as Heller, a reluctant PFC who just wants to get through the war alive so he can go back to drumming. In a smaller part, Joseph Walsh plays PFC Jack Johnson, who takes a house with Billy Nelson while scared into uselessness. Unfortunately this is never really explored in the episode. Perhaps its because there's no time. In addition to the usual Saunders heroics, Doc (Conlon Carter) finally gets a good scene when Little John is wounded, and Little John (Dick Peabody) also gets a good scene as he grieves over a man he feels he killed with a badly thrown grenade. It's all really good, but you just wish they'd let one or two of these story lines play out fully rather than giving us tiny pieces of s many and then letting the Johnson thing go kind of unaddressed.
Interestingly, Walsh who played Johnson was nominated years later for a WGA award for his writing of "California Suite".
In the middle of this is Nick Adams as Heller, a reluctant PFC who just wants to get through the war alive so he can go back to drumming. In a smaller part, Joseph Walsh plays PFC Jack Johnson, who takes a house with Billy Nelson while scared into uselessness. Unfortunately this is never really explored in the episode. Perhaps its because there's no time. In addition to the usual Saunders heroics, Doc (Conlon Carter) finally gets a good scene when Little John is wounded, and Little John (Dick Peabody) also gets a good scene as he grieves over a man he feels he killed with a badly thrown grenade. It's all really good, but you just wish they'd let one or two of these story lines play out fully rather than giving us tiny pieces of s many and then letting the Johnson thing go kind of unaddressed.
Interestingly, Walsh who played Johnson was nominated years later for a WGA award for his writing of "California Suite".