Plot
Prior to the Normandy landings, replacement soldiers Mason, Corliss and Talbot are assigned to 1st Platoon, D Company, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment. Mason gets off on the wrong foot with certain members of the platoon, mainly Sergeant Forrest and Corporal Dreef.
When the platoon is ordered on stand by for the invasion, their passes are cancelled and they're ordered back to their barracks. They find the quarters destroyed by a drunken Mason, upset by a Dear John letter. Platoon leader Lieutenant Pauling keeps Mason in the platoon and gives him a chance to redeem his behavior.
On the night of June 5, 1944, the 502nd board their troop planes bound for the invasion of Normandy. Sergeant Forrest briefs the men that their task is to establish roadblocks and hold a bridge along the Douve. Their drop zone is a mile beyond the 2nd Battalion's. Their planes receive heavy anti-aircraft fire and Peterson is killed by flak.
The platoon lands outside their drop zone but create a rallying point and split into three patrols. Mason kills a German sentry aiming at Dreef, who is nonetheless killed in the ensuing firefight. The platoon is outraged when Dubrowski tells them Dreef was killed because of Mason. When Lieutenant Pauling is blinded by enemy fire, Sergeant Forrest leaves him to take care of the wounded officer.
Lambert, Hernandez and Nolan are killed when the platoon attacks a German-occupied farmhouse. Inside, they take a Hans Schlacht prisoner, and his hostage, a French girl named Marianne, volunteers to aid Lieutenant Pauling. The German informs the platoon there are 300 German soldiers between them and the Douve.
The platoon captures a German truck and forces the driver to take them to a tavern being used as a headquarters. They concentrate a number of German prisoners in a cellar and force Hans to transmit false orders by telephone, drawing enemy troops away from them. Hans leaves the telephone line open so the Germans can hear their chatter. When a truckload of Germans arrive, the platoon flees with Marianne. Hans and the Germans from the cellar are killed by friendly fire. Talbot, Foley, Smith are killed by enemy fire while Mason sustains an arm wound.
The seven survivors escape by truck and link up with the rest of D Company at the bridge. Lieutenant Pauling bids farewell to Marianne before he and Mason are driven to a field hospital.
Production
Parts of the film were filmed at Fort Benning, Georgia. [1] The technical advisers were Richard Haynes Case, a D-Day veteran of the 101st and Werner Klingler, a German film director who also had a role in the film. Case had also acted as an adviser to The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit the same year. [2]
Jan Merlin recalled that he was originally supposed to play Private Mason because of his reputation for playing villains. As his character was to continually carry the blinded lieutenant who was to have been played by the much taller Tom Tryon, the men agreed to switch their roles. [3]
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