Tue, Jan 7, 1964
While falling back under intense pressure from the attacking Germans, Lt. Hanley stops to help one of his men who is severely wounded. The Germans are advancing rapidly, so Hanley and his man take refuge in a vacant pillbox. As the rains begin to fall, Hanley attempts to head for his own lines, but is stopped when three German soldiers also enter the pillbox, making for a dramatic standoff. Hanley must make a decision to save his man and kill the Germans, or surrender himself.
Tue, Jan 28, 1964
Saunders, Doc, and Caje get the opportunity to shower at an abandoned barber shop found by Private Barnabo. While the three are showering, however, Barnabo is murdered and the rest are taken hostage by German Captain Aptmeyer and his NCO, who have been trapped behind American lines and are trying to get back to their own side. Aptmeyer holds Saunders and Caje hostage while he frees Doc to get an ambulance to transport them out of the village and back to German territory. Doc becomes the central character in this episode as he goes about getting an ambulance for which he has no authorization. Aptmeyer continues to hold them all hostage as Doc uses the ambulance to get them out of the village and back near German territory. Instead of releasing his hostages at that point, however, we learn that Capt. Aptmeyer has one more chore in mind for the Americans.
Tue, Feb 11, 1964
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.
Tue, Feb 25, 1964
Saunders and Kirby are searching the buildings of an abandoned French winery when they are spotted by two Germans who are using the tower for an observation post. A firefight ensues, and one of the Germans and Kirby are both badly wounded. The German officer, Heismann, snatches Kirby and takes him into the tower building. The wounded German attacks Saunders with a knife, but Saunders finishes him. Saunders has seen the Germans are setting up a large artillery position nearby, and Heismann uses the wounded Kirby to convince Saunders to surrender before he can report the artillery location to his HQ. While Heismann talks to Saunders, Kirby recovers enough to throw the German's radio outside where Saunders can see it is now broken. Heismann is so infuriated he decides to hunt Saunders with his special hunting rifle as if he were prey. Heismann and Saunders play cat and mouse among the many winery buildings while Saunders looks for the radio Kirby left in another building. He finds the radio, but his Thompson craps out, and he leaves the Thompson behind while he attempts to contact his HQ on the radio. Heismann finds Saunders' Thompson and smiles in satisfaction knowing Saunders is disarmed. His smile disappears, however, when finds the GI radio and realizes Saunders has reported the German artillery location. At this point, Heismann has nothing left to salvage except the satisfaction of killing his prey.
Tue, Mar 3, 1964
A British unit holding a depot doesn't know that Allied units around them are retreating from a Nazi offensive, because the Brits' radio is broken. Sgt. Saunders' squad can't join the pullback, because Lt. Hanley orders Saunders' crew to march to the railhead in France, to let the Brits know they are being surrounded.
Tue, Mar 10, 1964
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.
Tue, Mar 24, 1964
A new squad member is aggressive and naive - because he's really only 15. Orville Putnam's actual age is discovered by a knowing French bartender he puts his unsubtle moves on, to impress his fellow infantrymen. Orville swears Fauvette to secrecy, but then the squad is ordered to recon a treacherous hill whose treetops are stuffed with German snipers. Sgt. Saunders understands that Orville is covering up for his lack of combat experience, but doesn't know the whole truth about the orphaned teen.
Tue, Mar 31, 1964
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.
Tue, Sep 15, 1964
A belligerent hermit is the only one who can guide Saunders through a treacherous mountain route, so Hanley's company can follow. The Frenchman claims his family was ripped apart in World War I, so he's sitting World War II out at the top of a mountain. The huge Francois is very itchy on the trigger toward Saunders and his troops. Is Francois a Nazi collaborator leading the dog-faces into a trap, or a dangerous misanthrope ?
Tue, Sep 22, 1964
When it appears Lt. Hanley and his men are about to be overrun by attacking Germans, they are miraculously saved by a squadron of fast moving jeeps with mounted machine guns. The squadron of jeeps is commanded by a Greek Colonel named Kapsalis, a gung-ho, no-holds-barred soldier fighting a personal vendetta against the Germans. He orders Lt. Hanley and his men to join him and they attack a heavily-guarded German depot.
Thu, Sep 24, 1964
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.
Tue, Oct 13, 1964
While Mickey Rooney and Claudine Longet are the guest stars, this is Jack Hogan's chance to shine as Kirby. 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.
Tue, Oct 20, 1964
The Germans are entering a French Village, driving the Americans out before them. The squad is in retreat as Sgt. Saunders enters a building and discovers a member of his squad, a private named Kogan, cowering in a corner. As he drives Kogan out of the building, an artillery shell lands nearby and a roof-beam falls on Saunder's legs, pinning him to the floor. Pvt. Kogan flees from the town in terror, and informs Lt. Hanley that Saunders was killed. As the squad marches on, Kogan has an attack of conscience and returns to the village to free Saunders, as the Germans are now everywhere within the town.
Tue, Oct 27, 1964
A German captain warns Saunders that "a reckless hunter who sets a trap often becomes its first victim" when Saunders uses him as bait to attract a deadly Nazi Colonel. The infantry NCO battles not only the wily captain, but a cynical, fellow Sergeant, on loan for his German capability. Sgt. Maider doubts Saunders' every move, needling Saunders that his improvisation risks their lives, especially their wounded medic, solely for his own glory.
Tue, Nov 24, 1964
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.
Tue, Dec 1, 1964
Kirby claims a civilian he assaulted is a deserter, but Saunders maintains the MIA Sergeant was killed. With his dying words, Kirby's pal gasped that his Sgt. dropped his carbine and abandoned his men, but Saunders can't imagine the RA tough infantry vet would panic. Then Sgt. Avery shows up in civilian clothes, with a strange tale, but instead of Saunders reporting Avery to the CO, he accompanies him to find a corroborating witness.
Tue, Dec 29, 1964
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.