Original subtitles

[ Engines Idling ]

[ Metal Rattling ]

[ Engine Stops ]

Sergeant Troy? I'm Lieutenant Winters.

You're an hour late, Lieutenant. You had me worried.

You know our mission's running on a time schedule.

I have no control over the heat or the terrain, Sergeant,

and if I blew up on the way here, it would do your mission no good.

No good at all. Will you gentlemen unload these explosives, please?

[ Whistling ] Ah, very gently.

No unnecessary jarring moves.

Compared to this, nitroglycerine is as tame as a firecracker.

You can call me old-fashioned, Lieutenant, but I prefer dynamite.

For steel and concrete? To blow up this radar station?

To combine demolition and incendiary and still be of a reasonable size?

[ Chuckles ]

Ah, just pretend you're walking on eggs and there'll be no problem.

Oh. Ah, careful not to trip. [ Chuckles ]

Thanks for the advice, Lieutenant. You're welcome.

I worked for 36 hours to create this bomb.

Blend of plastic, thermite, touch of oil for lubrication.

Light as a feather, and as you see, the size of a tennis ball.

[ Clicks Tongue ] But I must confess, it's highly volatile, quite unpredictable.

[ Sighs ] Lieutenant, you know we have to move fast.

I admire dedication, Sergeant, but let me give you a brief look at reality.

Will you gentlemen move your jeeps behind that hill, please?

Very gently though. Slowly.

So you wanna move fast, do you?

[ Gunshot ]

Poor insurance risk, I'd say.

So how do we control this stuff, stay alive?

It's a secret the lieutenant took with him, isn't it?

Looks like one of Dietrich's units. [ Engine Revving ]

Sounds like his buddy's on his way home.

[ Motorcycle Departs ] Where do you think you're going?

I can catch him, Sarge. And one bump and you join Winters.

[ Sighs ] When Dietrich gets word of this,

he'll know there's only one route we can take through these mountains.

He'll be right on us. Then we must move quickly.

We have to destroy that radar station before our bombers take off for target.

Or they get chopped down. Then we'll have to chance it. Maybe not.

I once went on a fossil hunt in these mountains,

and I remember being told a story of a race of people destroyed by a flood.

There might still exist a dry riverbed that cuts through the mountains.

Dietrich certainly wouldn't know that route.

What are the odds in us finding that riverbed?

What are the odds if we don't find it, loaded with these...

and Dietrich coming at us like a skyrocket?

You better be right.

[ Troy ] Let's shake it.

But very, very gently.

Sarge, I hate to mess up a storm,

but when we get to where we're going, how we gonna set this stuff off?

[ Clicks Tongue ] Like the man said, all you have to do is trip and fall.

[ Man Narrating ] While the Rat Patrol was forced to move slowly,

the clock was running fast.

Allied bombers were readying for a mission that wouldn't wait.

At stake, either a full division of Rommel's

armor that lay exposed on the Bizerte docks...

or the Allied bombers themselves,

whose course past the key radar complex meant their own destruction...

if the radar station was left standing.

Advised by his motorcycle scout that the Rat Patrol was in the area...

and had received a shipment of high explosives, Dietrich made the assumption...

that they were headed for the German radar station at Fa'id...

The sole German installation within 200 miles.

But Dietrich's own scouting made it clear...

that the Rat Patrol had not taken...

the only route through the mountains that led to the radar complex.

They have gone with the wind, my friend. No, no, effendi.

You must understand. My country is a hiding place for countless secrets.

Speak plainly. There are tales of an ancient road through the mountains.

My people have reported no signs of any such mountain trails.

There was an old storyteller in the village of Al Mina Zafir.

As a child, I listened to him spin many songs of the people of those ancient times.

I have not been there since, but he should remember.

Bring him here.

Any of this is true and we find the Rat Patrol, you shall be very well rewarded.

You understand?

Now you may leave.

[ Speaking Foreign Language ]

You enjoying the drive, Tully?

Now what gets into a guy's mind to make him

dream up explosives his whole life, Sarge?

Imagine making 'em look like tennis balls.

I guess tennis isn't your game, Sarge.

[ Donkey Brays ]

[ Man ] The old one is dead.

This is Selhim, his great-granddaughter.

He passed every word down to her.

Selhim, this is Hauptmann Dietrich.

Hauptmann Dietrich? Selhim.

You are a very handsome man.

You're a very beautiful woman, very beautiful.

We shall talk.

Yes, we shall talk.

We come seeking the mystery of an ancient river...

that is said to once have existed in these mountains.

[ Selhim ] One time, here were my people,

and here are the mountains,

and here, one time, was a river.

I'm lost.

[ Narrator ] In two hours, the Allied bombers would be clearly visible...

on the scope of the German radar complex...

that would take pleasure in arranging for the bombers' destruction.

I'm lost.

You're lost! What do you mean you're lost?

Exactly that. The riverbed should be here, but it isn't.

- This isn't a fossil hunt, Moffitt. - Don't you think I know that?

- I'm also involved in this. - Well, I'm not thinkin' about you or me or them.

I'm thinkin' of those bombers getting through undetected.

I'm thinkin' of them smashing Rommel's new division before they get off the docks.

I must have gone wrong somewhere. I could

probably find out where, if we had more time.

All right. We made a mistake.

You unload your jeep.

You travel light and you travel fast, and you find that riverbed, Moffitt.

I'll be driving right behind you. Hitch.

[ Moffitt ] No mistake this time.

Cuts right through the mountains, just like the story said.

And here, I brought you something.

A few thousand years old, give or take a day or two.

[ Troy ] What's the matter?

Tank tracks.

Looks like Dietrich's also been on fossil hunts.

Will you wipe that look off your face?

This place has been around for a few thousand years, give or take a day or two.

I expect Dietrich's already at that radar station, sitting very pretty.

Yeah, he sure is sittin' pretty.

That is pretty neat, if I must say so myself.

Got their radar control center underground.

[ Narrator ] The Allied bombers' high altitude...

makes their detection from the ground impossible with the naked eye,

but easy for the sweeping eyes of the German radar station,

which will pick them up in 15 minutes.

[ Speaking German ]

- You come like a Greek bearing gifts, Sergeant. - You can call it that.

Did you come to destroy the radar station? Hmm?

You're a brave but foolish man, Sergeant.

I wouldn't play with that.

You're my insurance policy for staying alive.

Your men won't risk on shooting you when we walk outta here.

Sergeant, all I have to do is give my men a signal...

or pull this trigger here.

Either way.

Now, you wanna pull that trigger, you pull it.

You have 18 seconds.

[ Chuckles ]

Dietrich.

You have 12 seconds.

Let me move my men out of here.

All right. Do it fast.

[ German ]

Where are they? Right underneath their noses.

[ Gunfire Continues ]

I will see you, Sergeant.

[ Explosion ]

[ Pettigrew ] Too bad Winters couldn't have seen the fireworks.

Should have been the Fourth of July.

I don't think I'll need this anymore, professor.

Sarge?

Why'd you let Dietrich go?

[ Roars ]