Original subtitles

Michael Mastin, Staff Sergeant, United States Army, serial number... You don't

have to give me that information again, Sergeant.

I already know your name.

And your rank.

Your serial number, 879-3450.

Blood type O, I can read, you see.

I can also write.

I can write an order that will put you into a prisoner of war camp for

incorrigibles. Or, if I get the slight cooperation I ask, a less grim case of

internment.

Well, Sergeant?

Sergeant Saunders, 227. That's enough.

I meant every word I said.

He can't tell you anything, Captain.

None of us can. You wouldn't know that.

He doesn't know anything. He thinks the Germans are still winning the war.

Get up.

Now for the minor details, I ask.

When your regiment was withdrawing on the Chalons-Moselle Road, did you or did

you not come across a German field hospital unit?

A unit of wounded men who are missing for a week.

Is that all you want to know?

That's too much.

And it's too tricky.

There's no missing German field hospital unit, and you know it. You're just

trying to find out if my office... That's enough!

Well, Captain... Be quiet!

A truck will come along, which will take you to the rear, where you will remain

for a long time.

It might be more pleasant for you there.

The choice of accommodations, I mean.

If you show some willingness to cooperate here.

Now.

Very well, we shall see.

I am not

finished with you, Sergeant.

I'm Beecher. Hi, Beecher. What do you say, Sarge? Hey, Cokie. How are you?

You know each other?

Yeah, we used to be in the same outfit.

Oh, this is James.

Hi. Andy.

When did they pick you up, Sarge?

Oh, about an hour ago.

How long you been here?

Since this morning.

What kind of a setup is this?

I figure it's preliminary interrogation. They'll keep us here a couple of hours,

pick our brains, then send us back to the rear.

Some luck.

First day of combat and I get myself captured.

Hey, that other sergeant, is he still in there?

They're leaning on him.

Yeah, they were when we got here.

He's got more stripes than the rest of us. That crowd captain probably figures

he knows more than the rest of us. But if you ask me, they're wasting their

time. That Sergeant Mastin is a pretty tough-looking bird.

I don't think he's the kind of a guy that'll crack.

Lieutenant? Danke sehr.

English peas, Lieutenant. You don't want to slip later.

A very convincing performance.

Yeah, yours was a very convincing performance, too.

Vorsicht. Arms up.

Starring Vic Morrow.

And Rick Jason.

Guest star, Claude Aiken.

Now, there are three places where the Americans can mount their attack.

The village, the river, and the woods.

Now, if we can determine where they are presently concentrating their strength,

we will know where to attack first and catch their units before they are ready.

Okay, I better shake a leg.

You amaze me, Lieutenant.

Sometimes you sound more American than they do.

Why shouldn't I?

For 14 hours a day, seven days a week for a year, I watched and listened to

American prisoners.

I read, spoke, and thought in English, American English.

And there was research.

Captain, who is the 21st president of the United States? What's the capital of

South Dakota?

Who led the American League last year and runs batted in?

Baseball.

Hello, Hauptmannhaus here.

Jawohl, Oberst. Zu Befehl. Wir sind gerade dabei, Herr Oberst. Jawohl,

Oberst. Zu Befehl.

The colonel.

Time is of utmost importance.

To your house.

By the way, Captain, the 21st present was Chester A. Arndt.

Yeah. It's going to take more than a backhand in the mouth to make me tell

that baboon anything.

Look, I'm telling you, clowns, if we're going to bust out of here, we've got to

make a move soon.

They're not going to keep us in this spot forever.

I'm with you, pal.

That crack captain says they're sending a truck to take us to the rear.

Hey, Sarge, what happened in there?

Well, it's nothing I won't live through.

Hey, Sarge, what do you think is the best way to bust out of here?

Well, that depends.

That captain knows that we'll be mounting an attack soon.

He doesn't know just when, but he figures it's going to come from one of

three places.

The woods, the river, or the village.

You know, he spent the last half hour trying to get me to tell him which, as

if I'd know.

What's that got to do with us getting out of here?

Well, when and if we can make a break, we better know which way to head.

We got a better chance of living through this if we know where our guys are.

That makes sense.

Which house are you from, Sarge? B Company, 156th.

Where'd they pick you up, Sarge?

I was in a recon patrol. We were looking over the village.

I'm from Charlie Company, 155th.

My squad was heading toward the village, too, when Messerschmitt started strafing

us. I got separated into crowd patrol grabbing.

Sure is a lot of activity around that village.

Why, did your outfit there, too?

No, no, we were in the woods.

But we were on standby to move out.

To the village?

I don't know. I'm not sure. I think so, though.

Peter and I were heading in from a recon patrol when they grabbed us.

They sold us.

Your outfit was in the village.

How'd they grab you?

I was with a major and a jeep.

The crop patrol hit us. The major and the driver were killed.

Well, it sounds like the village to me, right?

That's where I'm, Joe.

Me too.

That's the way we go.

If we get out of here.

Yeah, if.

Anybody got any ideas on that?

What do you think, Saunders?

Put a ball of water around here, that's what I think.

Well, it looks like it's shot time.

All right.

Alarm in second.

The wine steward will be here directly, Minor.

Listen,

you tell your captain that I am getting very tired of his lousy stew.

What are you looking for? Another working over?

Who cares?

You better read something, Mastin.

If we do bust out of this joint, it'll be a long time between meals.

Meals? That's slop.

There's no meals. No wonder the crops are losing.

Losing?

We ain't exactly batting a thousand ourselves.

We're doing all right.

Hey.

What do you suppose that stuff is? Kidding, watch me.

Come in.

Did he take the food or refuse?

He refused, Mr. Hauptmann. And he threw it in the pot.

Good. Bring him in.

Yes, Mr. Hauptmann.

Luke, stay off.

Get the thing out of my ribs or I'll shove it down your throat.

Stay off.

Relax.

That baboon didn't get through me before him. He won't now.

You're right, Thomas.

He should have eaten his stew.

Excuse me. What did you learn?

The American build-up is at the village.

Good.

Do you still need those prisoners?

No, sir. They don't know anything else.

Good. Then we will send them back to camp, and then I will call in the

information that you have provided.

So say, Herr Hauptmann.

Sofort, Herr Oberst, bitte.

Herr Oberst, ich habe eine wichtige Information für Sie.

Stand in front of the table. Start the game.

I'm here.

Looks like her capitan still isn't through with Mastin.

Hey, you guys talking about Sergeant Mastin? Baker Company 156?

Yeah, you know him?

Sure, he's my platoon sergeant. Been reported missing for three days. He

here?

That's him right over there.

That's not Mastin.

Are you sure?

Sure, I'm sure.

We've been had.

We've been feeding that guy information for the last two hours.

I don't get it.

Mastin's a crowd.

That's the most I need.

All right, look, we got taken, so we didn't know.

Now, let's forget it. It's spilled milk.

I think we've got to start thinking about how to get in the way, get

ourselves headed in the other direction toward our line.

How do we get off of this truck?

How do we get past those two?

If we could get back to our line soon

enough, we could tell them what happened.

Gotta get off this truck.

Sounds like we're over on the train.

Bye-bye.

We lost them.

Not for long. They'll be on the radio. We'll alert the whole area.

So let's keep running.

Where? When that German captain finds out we've escaped, he knows we'll make

for the village.

Don't head straight for the village. Go by the river.

Go on. Move out.

Poker.

Take these.

Hey, where is this? Where are you going?

I'm going back.

Back where?

I'm trying to get myself recaptured.

Are you off your rocker?

Now listen to me, Coker.

There's going to be a full regiment in that village tomorrow morning.

How do you know that?

That major that was killed when I was picked up was operations officer.

I'm talking about 3,000 men that might get it.

They'll be sitting ducks. We've got to stop those crowds from hitting the

village. That's just great.

Would you mind telling me how you're going to swing that?

Get back and tell Maxton who ran to one of our patrols while we headed toward

the village.

There's a change in plan.

The big push is going to be coming along the river instead of through the

village.

Oh, come on. That's crazy. What makes you think he's going to buy that?

Even if you do pull it off soon, you're liable to spend the rest of the war

behind German barbed wire.

That's right, but we don't have a choice.

If you go ahead and I go back, one of us might make it in time.

Stop worrying. When you get back, tell the artillery location of the compound.

See if they can lay in a barrage tonight. I might be able to get away in

the confusion.

Might get yourself blown up, too.

Maybe not if I know what time the artillery's coming in.

All right.

It's 8.00 a.m.

0200.

0200, go on.

Hey, son.

Good luck.

Yeah.

Was that an Einheit?

No Deutsch.

Wie kommst du hierher?

A prisoner... Prisoner war camp.

Stalag... Stalag 9, Captain... Captain House.

Stalag 9?

Yeah, Captain House.

Ist ein inkommender Kriegsgefangener.

That's your house.

Michael Mastin, Staff Sergeant.

United States Army, serial number 879... You don't have to tell me all that

information again, Sergeant.

I know your name and your rank.

And your serial number, 879-3450, blood type O. I can read, you see.

I can also write... I can write an order which will put you men into a prisoner

of war camp for incorrigibles.

Or, if I get the slight amount of cooperation I ask, a less grim place of

internment.

Well, corporal?

Corporal Giles, sir, number 395. That's enough!

I don't seem to be able to make you men understand.

They understand, all right. You don't.

He still thinks the Germans are winning the war.

Now, once more, the minor details, I ask.

When your regiment was withdrawing along the Chalon-Moselle Road, did you or did

you not come across a German field hospital unit?

A unit of wounded men which has been missing for a week.

You mean that's all you want to know?

Well, that's too much.

That's too tricky.

There's no German field hospital unit, and you know it. You're just trying to

find out if my... That's enough.

But, Captain... Keep quiet.

A truck will come along soon, which will take you to the rear, where you will

remain for a long time.

Now, it may be more pleasant for you there, the choice of accommodations, I

mean, if you show some willingness to cooperate here, now.

Very well, we shall see.

In the woman's house.

Come.

Ruth.

I am not finished with you, Sergeant.

Fire.

Lieutenant, another convincing performance.

Captain, if your performance gets any more convincing, you just may have to

get yourself another boy.

Well, what are we after this time?

Nothing specific, Lieutenant.

Anything you can learn.

Things are going well now, thanks to you.

Well, I'll give it the old college try.

As the Americans say, you never can tell when old man opportunity is going to

knock at your door.

Drop your head down there.

Okay.

Are you all right?

He's going to be all right.

Yeah, well, I think we'll clean it up a little bit.

Lousy crowd captain.

Boy, I sure would like to bump into him after this war is over.

Yeah, well, if you do, buddy, just make sure I'm there with you.

Hey, that sad's in there. What's his name?

Um, Naftin.

Boy, he's got guts.

Oh, yeah, he's got guts, all right. But he ought to remember what they taught

him in basic training. Keep your mouth shut.

Don't pay to have a flip-flip when you're a POW.

Might have blurted out something they want to know.

What? Something to make me a fortune, you crumb.

Yeah.

Hey, what are you trying to do, Sarge? Start a lone war as a POW?

Lousy crowds. They think all they got to do is lean on a guy a little bit and

he's going to crack wide open.

How does it feel?

I've had worse.

But I've also had a better medic.

Yeah? All right, well, you just keep right on and you're going to find out

how it feels to really get hurt.

You'll feel better after a while.

You'll try to get some sleep, huh?

Yeah, thanks.

Hey, Johns, have you ever been in Albany, New York?

Oh.

I swore I saw you there. It's kind of just like you. Works in the same plant

that I do.

You look enough like him to be his brother. Sarge, do you mind knocking it

off for a while? Let him try to get some sleep. It might help.

Oh.

I guess not.

Next time I send you out of here, I will make certain that you are better

guarded.

Come in and talk.

My lucky day, I got caught again.

Again? Did you get away?

Yeah, we all did.

Well, that's great.

When? How?

The truck came to a stop there.

Thanks.

Had a railroad crossing. We jumped the sentries and made a run for it.

Where are the others?

I don't know. We split up after we got to the river.

Yeah.

How long have you guys been here?

We just got here.

Rogers caught a slug in his leg and we were limping back from the patrol.

They grabbed us.

By the way, I'm Giles.

Saunders.

What were you doing at the river?

I thought we agreed if anybody got away, we'd try to rejoin our guys in the

village.

That's right. We started for the village and then we met a recon patrol.

I don't know. It seems like they changed their plans to big pushes and be coming

along the river.

But why?

Are you sure?

I don't know why. I guess the Brats have their own reasons.

The only thing I'm sure of is that it's going to be coming from the river.

Nice to know this.

I was so close.

And so far.

How'd you get separated from the others?

When we got to the river, we figured it'd be better if we split up.

Less chance of being spotted by the crowd of guards.

Only I got spotted.

Saunders,

you say you ran into one of our patrols and they told you all this about pushing

out from the river?

That's right.

Since when does a dog face know what the brass is going to do?

This patrol had its own brass. It was a captain.

I don't know what's happened. All I know is they're moving troops as fast as they

can along the river.

Like you said, you never can tell what the brass is thinking.

they're going to ship me out of this hole.

Give me a chance to jump off a truck too.

On the river, not the village.

The river?

How do you know this? The sergeant they recaptured. The captain told them.

Sure you didn't tell him anything? Anything at all? No, it's like I told

you. We got here just before you did.

I'm sorry I almost blew your story.

Lousy kraut.

What do we do about him?

Nothing.

If he thinks we're out to him, we'll ruin everything.

Okay. We'll wait for the artillery.

There's nothing else to be heard.

Hi.

My name's Master.

Murray.

Come on in the palace.

We got another lost sheep.

All right, this is Sergeant Saunders, Rogers, Giles.

All right, go on in. Pull up an easy chair.

Nice little place you got here.

Where'd they pick you up?

About two miles this side of the river.

Me and a couple of buddies were heading back to the village from a recon.

We spotted a GI stumbling through the woods with a slug in his leg.

We doubled back to give him a hand.

I didn't know there were Germans following them.

I finished them off.

The guys I was with.

Why were you going back to the village?

Why not? Our outfits dug in there.

Nobody's doing out there anyway.

Wasn't even carrying a rifle.

Preacher. Alfred L.

Preacher.

You say this happened just two miles this side of the river?

About that.

Saunders?

You said you guys split up after you got to the river.

Yeah, well, that's right. That must be another Beecher.

That isn't very likely. It's not a very common name.

What are you guys talking about anyway? You know this Beecher?

No, I guess not. Like Sondra said, there could be two guys with the same name in

this man's arm.

Where are you going?

Just outside to get a little fresh air.

Get a little stuff in here.

I think you better stay inside. The captain's lab will lean on you if you go

out there.

He didn't scare me.

Have you guys heard what's going on here?

He's a kraut.

Saunders. The sentries are coming.

What do we do?

Looks like some more of that paste, too.

What did you say it was, horse meat?

It's more like yesterday's.

Yeah. Yeah,

you'll have some.

I'll take it.

You don't have to worry about him yelling again.

He's dead.

What happens when the sentries come in for a bed check?

Let's hope the artillery gets here first.

How's the leg?

The leg?

Don't worry about it. I'll make it.

Listen, the crowd's got this guy Beecher.

Maybe they got Coker, too. Maybe there's not going to be any artillery.

215-0215, no artillery.

No, when that artillery starts, it's got to look as if Mastin got it from the

showing.

Why?

Why?

Because if the captain ever gets the idea that we killed Mastin, he'll know

we were on to him and that Saunders was feeding him a bunch of lies.

Did you hear what I said, Saunders? It's a quarter after two. Nobody got through.

There's not going to be any artillery.

There's nothing we can do but wait.

Betcheck. Well, we've had it.

Village? Yeah, about a mile ahead.

Sounds like our guys are moving out.

Light rifle fire.

Can't be too many crowds in front of them.

We suckered most of them to the river.

Yeah, ain't that a shame?

Yeah.

Let's keep moving. I don't feel like getting captured again.