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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.

Unearthing a French baby buried under ruins, unites Hanley's men and a Nazi squad. All the troops' hearts go out to the desperate young mother, but as the German lieutenant warns "distrust is a crippling thing." Laying down their arms in an unauthorized truce proves challenging to the frayed nerves of both squads in the village devastated by both sides' heavy artillery. Hanley's squad needs to get out for a rendezvous, the Germans are hustling to re-occupy the ville.

Sgt. Saunders is wounded and trapped behind enemy lines while trying to provide cover for Doc and Caje as they take a wounded Little John back to their lines. Saunders wakes in a German Field Hospital to find that a French worker has put him in German clothes to prevent him being shipped to a POW Camp. As a result he tries to escape by passing himself off as a shell shocked German soldier. Placed on a train going to the German rear with a German officer who considers many of the wounded as malingerers, Saunders and a captured American flyer manage to jump from the train and escape. As they try to make their way back to their lines the flyer is shot and killed by a German patrol and Saunders is taken with them. He is befriended by a veteran German sergeant who is convinced he is a wounded Afrika Corps soldier and decides to look after him. As they are travelling to their destination they are ambushed by Americans who are looking for prisoners and information and, in the fire fight that follows, Saunders has to shoot and kill the German sergeant.

Saunders' squad rescues a badly wounded pilot in the woods and his recon film, but then they are chased by a resourceful Nazi Sgt.

When their jeep hits a land mine, Saunders, a tank captain, and private Gavin attempt to maneuver an abandoned German tank through enemy territory.

Kirby, who is given command of the squad in Saunders's absence, learns a lesson in leadership.

The Americans liberate a French village, and a young French girl follows Sgt. Saunders squad. She wants to be a nurse, but Saunders tells her to go away. However, her bravery wins even Saunders hardened heart.

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.

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

Saunders and the squad break in four teenage replacements.

A bitter, antagonistic replacement whom none of Saunders' men can stand (with good reason) is wounded and pinned down by German snipers...who use him to try and lure his fellow Americans into their ambush.

A GI private is killed after taking over an enemy machine gun and killing dozens of Nazis, but his best friend falsely claims he did the shooting.

A British captain refuses Allied orders to retreat, delivered by Sgt. Saunders. Instead, Capt. Johns commands Sgt. Saunders' battle-fatigued U.S. squad to dig in at the besieged railhead and help repulse a German advance. Saunders fears it's suicide for all, but the imperial Capt. Johns, a Sandowner and son of a general, insists they can hold the depot against a Nazi offensive.

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.

Saunders is ordered to join a reconnaissance patrol whose Sergeant doesn't like him or want him along.

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

Sergeant Saunders faces court martial, charged with a reckless decision costing two machine gunner's lives. The gunners' NCO O'Neill accuses Saunders of forgetting to check if the combined squads had ammo for their bazooka, just before a panzer attack. Instead of retreating prudently, Saunders ran down the hill they were defending to not only lug the ammo back up, but drag his wounded squad member who carried it, to safety. That allowed the tank time to get close, and blow up the 2 machine gunners. As the protagonists' commanding officers square off, Caje and Kirby grill O'Neil, a life-long student of warfare, over his own judgments on the mission.

Alone and blinded, Saunders is at the mercy of a German chaplain.

Lt. Hanley must flush out a Nazi spy among the soldiers he's leading on a dangerous intelligence mission, before the German sabotages the plan. Hanley's thrust into the unfamiliar leadership role when the G-2 Captain heading the mission is accidentally shot by another infantry unit, who are hunting a deadly hauptmann who speaks perfect English. Because it's a top secret infiltration of a German planning HQ, none of the MI men know each other, nor does the novice Hanley know them. Another suspect wanders into the mission's rendezvous point, an Army minefield specialist claiming he's just escaped from the Heer.

Still interred in a German POW camp, Sgt. Saunders and his squad must find a way to escape before they are all killed.

Hanley is captured by a brutal SS officer, Captain Reichhardt.

The squad finds a German field hospital in a French village. Sgt. Saunders and a German soldier must travel together to get a truckload of plasma, but they have an uneasy alliance with each other.

A loudmouthed cardsharp holds an ace in reserve over a young recruit, who volunteers for a dangerous recon in his stead. Corporal Jackson the older man, bitterly resents Caje being named temporary leader of Jackson's squad, after Sgt. Saunders sees how the Corporal lords it over the young Private Tommy. While Tommy slogs through a heavy downpour toward a German machine gun nest, Jackson in the comfort of a château, tries to wipe out the other poker players, plus sway them to his jaundiced view of the situation.

Sgt. Saunders suspects a GI corporal and lieutenant, with a Nazi colonel in custody, are really impostors who want to sabotage command. But Saunders isn't believed by Lt. Hanley.