This book tells a story that
happened long ago, way back in 1943,
when the lead platoon of the
Texas Division hit the beach
at Salerno, sunny Italy.
It tells of Sergeant Tyne,
never had much urge to travel.
Providence Rhode Island may
not be much as cities go,
but it was all he wanted...
a one-town man.
Rivera, Italian American.
Likes opera and would like a wife
and kids, plenty of kids.
Friedman, lathe operator
and amateur boxing champion...
New York City.
Windy, minister's son. Canton, Ohio.
Used to take long walks
alone and just think.
Sergeant Ward, farmer.
Knows his soil.
Good farmer.
McWilliams, first aid man.
Slow, Southern, dependable.
Archimbeau,
platoon scout and prophet.
Talks a lot, but he's all right.
Porter, Sergeant Porter,
well, he has a lot on his mind.
A lot on his mind.
Tranella speaks two languages.
Italian and Brooklyn.
And a lot of other men.
Here's a song about them. Listen.
# And poets are writing
# The tale of that fight
# And songs for children to sing
# Let them sing of the men
of a fighting platoon
# Let them sing of the job they've done
# How they came across the sea
# To sunny Italy
# And took a little walk in the sun
# They took a little
walk in the sun. #
Douse that light.
Douse that light!
Dear Frances,
I'm writing you this letter relaxing
on the deck of a luxury liner.
On shore, the natives have
just spotted us and they're
getting up a little reception...
fireworks, music
and that sort of stuff.
The musicians in our own band
have also struck up a little tune.
Ha-ha.
The gentle waters of Mare Nostrum.
That's really good.
Mare Nostrum.
Hey, Tinker, hey, Tinker.
Hey do you spell Mari Nostrum?
What's that?
- Mediterranean.
That's what the eye-ties call it.
It means our sea.
I want to know how to spell it.
- Why?
I'm writing to my sister.
What do you mean,
you're writing to your sister?
You're packed on a landing barge,
bouncing on your Mare Nostrum,
waiting to hit the beach
like the rest of us slobs.
I'm writing the letter
in my head.
When I get a minute I put
down what I remember in my head
and the letter's written.
It's the best way.
What a system. Does it work?
- Sure.
You just make up the letter in
your head, then write it down later.
That's pretty good.
Maybe I'll try it.
Works, huh?
- Every time.
Suppose you've got a bad memory.
Have you got a bad memory?
- I've got a good one.
Then why are you worrying?
I'm not. I just wondered.
What was that word
you wanted to spell?
Mare Nostrum.
I never learned it just
in the city of Saint Paul.
Still up there.
You're going to get killed.
Pull one, too high.
Those shells ain't interested in us.
- And vice versa.
When a shell's looking for a guy,
it don't whine, it snarls.
You kill me. You guys kill me.
At Messina they
pitched a few strikes.
Here, no control.
What's so funny about Messina?
Lost a lot of good Joes there.
What do you want us to do?
Cry about it?
That's a lot of cocky chatter.
Better than having the jitters.
Would it make you feel better if we
told you we had the jitters?
- Yeah.
It would.
Well... we got them.
Bet that new
lieutenant's got them bad.
Don't load your pack
on the other guy's shoulders.
I'm not.
His first time out leading a platoon
he's never worked with before.
Boy, I wouldn't want
his job for anything.
Nobody's giving it to you.
Porter.
It's a fine time you picked
to go to sleep, soldier.
HE GROANS
Anything the matter, sir?
Mary and Joseph, all gone...
Pete. Hey, Pete.
What?
- Shell splinter got the lieutenant.
Smashed his face all to...
I can't see anything.
- I can feel it. It's messy.
I think it took his whole face away.
Where's your flashlight?
- You can't shine a light here.
I can shine a light if I have
to shine a light. Where is it?
Cover over.
Take a quick look.
Told you.
Left cheek and his eye,
covered with blood.
Can't even tell whether
the eye's there or not.
Douse that light.
Go and get the first aid man,
what's his name?
McWilliams.
- Yeah. He might as well
start earning his money.
Where is he?
- Down at the stern.
I saw him down in the stern.
Where's McWilliams?
Where's McWilliams,
the first aid man?
Who's that?
- Sergeant Porter.
Oh, here I am, Sergeant.
You want me, Sergeant?
- Lieutenant's hurt.
Sergeant Halverson said for you to go up.
- What's wrong with him?
Get up there and see.
You want me to bring him here?
Just asking.
What is it, Mac?
- What's up?
The lieutenant...
That last shell, uh?
Don't know. Going up to see.
Well, whadya know?
I told him.
What's the matter with
the lieutenant, Sarge?
Old rocking-chair get him?
He had his head over the side.
Looking through binoculars.
What was he looking at?
Is he dead?
Not yet.
What do you know.
It's a purple heart,
sure as little apples.
How'd you like to
have a purple heart, Jake?
Depends on where I got the
purple heart. In the legs, OK.
In the guts, no.
Purple heart means a nice
quiet trip to Jersey City.
I would like a nice
trip to Jersey City.
I'd like a nice quiet trip anywhere.
Haven't had a nice
quiet trip since this war started.
Jersey City would do fine.
I should go back and see
if I can do anything.
- Why don't you?
Lieutenant's going to die,
he's going to die.
Nothing I can do about it.
Nothing in the world.
Blew a hole out
the side of his head.
In the head, no. I don't want
a purple heart in the head.
Joey Sims got
one in the head.
I'll bet he'll look better
when they're through with
him than you do now.
I don't want a purple heart
in the head.
Is Sergeant Halverson
in command now, Sergeant?
He knows what to do.
He always knows what to do.
- Shut up.
What did the lieutenant
do before the Army?
He was a businessman.
He worked in an office.
Well, I worked in an office,
but I was no businessman.
The whole Army's
made up of businessmen.
You kill me.
He'll be a businessman in 1956 while
we're fighting the Battle of Tibet.
I've got the facts down cold.
Put him on a nice hospital ship
and take him to a nice hospital
and give him a couple of nice
medals and take him home
and give him his walking papers
and he'll go back to business
while we're fighting the Battle of Tibet.
I've got the facts.
Maybe he'll die.
Nobody dies.
Nobody dies.
# These are the men
of the Texas division
# United States infantry
They are moving into hell
# And high water
# Rivera and Friedman,
Tyne and Porter,
# A Texan from Jersey
And one from Dakota
# A Texan from out
near Duluth, Minnesota
# Kansas, Maine
and Tennessee, Lord God
# They're all in the Texas Infantry
# They're all in
the Texas infantry. #
I've got to get word to the captain.
As soon as we land,
I've got to get word to him.
- Do you know what to do?
Course I know!
We've been briefed.
The farmhouse may be
pretty hard to find.
- It's on the map.
There's a road from
the beach that leads right past.
- Six miles is a long way.
What do they expect? A reception
committee with a dozen taxis?
That's the story.
How's it coming, Mac?
All right, I guess.
We'd better get him
to a doctor, though.
He ain't going to
be pretty any more.
Might not be alive
any more, either.
Bad, huh?
- I guess so.
Trying to talk all the time.
Can't you hear him?
I didn't hear anything.
- Not words.
Just talk.
- Is he comfortable, Mac?
He wouldn't know if he was
comfortable or not.
Tough ticket.
- He don't mind.
Nearly time.
Mac, you can pick us up later.
When it gets lighter, you'll see
a road running from the beach.
We'll be on that road.
Hoist tail! Hoist tail!
Hoist tail!
There'll be a honey
of a show on that beach.
A honey of a show.
Take them up 100 yards from
the beach and hit the dirt.
I've got to get word to the captain,
then I'll pick you up.
Let me get word to the captain.
Remember, 100 yards from
the beach and hit the dirt.
Doesn't matter where you are.
Don't care if it's a pig pen.
OK, Hal.
I was wrong, Eddie,
they did give you the job.
You know the lieutenant got wounded.
As platoon sergeant, I'm in command.
Each one of you knows what to do.
Porter's going to take you up
on the beach.
Go with him
and do as he tells you.
Understand?
Cold water.
Every time, it's cold water.
I'll take you in a wheelchair.
You and your purple heart.
Get them up there, won't you?
Sure thing, Hal.
101, 102.
Hope this beach isn't mined.
- Hey, where's the fire?
113. You think I want to
get caught out on the beach.
Anything could happen there.
118, 119.
120. We'll hold here!
Spread out. Hit the dirt.
Why here?
- 100 yards.
100 yards is 120 paces,
I figured out back there.
All here.
- Good.
Dig in.
- What for? We'll be out
of here in a couple of minutes.
I'm taking no chances.
Dig!
Well, I just conquered Italy.
You can have it.
I don't want any part of it.
I ain't going to give you any part of it.
I found the loving place and it's mine.
It's yours, cold.
- It can't be cold.
It's sunny Italy.
- You read the wrong book.
I read the soldiers' handbook
that said this was sunny Italy.
You calling the soldiers' handbook a liar?
- What page?
- I forget the loving page.
You always do. I wouldn't
trust you with a popgun.
- You've got to trust me with a popgun.
I'm a machine gunnner
with a machine gun.
'Things on that beach
suddenly went dead quiet.'
'The silence was bad.'
'Very bad.'
'Was the enemy 50 miles away?'
'Was he just behind
the beach head...'
'waiting?'
'If a machine gun
would only start up,'
'a man would know what to do.'
'But a man can't fight a vacuum.'
How long will Halverson take?
- Shouldn't be much longer.
- How do you know?
I know everything. What do you think
they gave me the Soldier's Medal for?
For pulling a nurse
out of a swimming pool.
I didn't think you knew.
I know everything. Who held up
the platoon in Sicily while he
stuck his snout in a barrel of wine?
I'd do it again if I knew
where there was a barrel.
Do you know where there's a barrel?
There it goes.
Well, we know where
we are now, all right.
Bet they get her in ten minutes.
When they do, the war will be over.
We just have to sit here and watch
the rest of it being fought out.
What are you batting
your gums about?
It's cold.
A profound comment.
It's always cold at dawn.
Even if I'm up all night with a girl,
or playing cards, or getting plastered,
dawn comes around I begin to shiver.
My feet grow icy,
my teeth chatter.
Me, I'm hot. You kill me.
Nothing can warm me.
Fire wouldn't be bad.
- No,
even a fire wouldn't do any good.
Profound comment.
Nine and one half minutes
to get the gun?
Why should it take Halverson so long?
- He'll show.
There was no need for the lieutenant
to get hurt. No need at all.
He got it, anyway.
What are you going to do if
Halverson doesn't come back, Porter?
How do I know?
- They'll be sending the planes over soon.
The planes come over,
we'll take a powder.
Halverson can...
- Take a powder where?
Try and find that farmhouse.
The sun will be up soon.
Even at nine o'clock in the
morning, in the sun, I'd still be.
Why?
- Don't ask me why.
That's the way it is.
- You guys kill me. You kill me.
Sergeant, I want a discharge.
I'm all fought out.
In the last war,
they sent a guy to France.
It's all there was to it. They sent
him to France, then he went home.
Simple. Real simple.
But what do they do this time?
Do they send you to France?
No, they do not send you to France,
they send you to Tunisia,
then Sicily, then Italy.
Who knows where they'll
send you after that.
Maybe we'll be in France next year,
around Christmas time, maybe.
Then we'll work our way east.
Yugoslavia. Greece. Turkey.
No, not Turkey.
All I know is in 1958,
we're gonna fight the Battle
of Tibet. I got the facts.
Kill that!
- So I want a discharge.
A honourable discharge.
I've done my share. The next
guy can pick up where I left off.
You tell 'em, Jack.
- I hear planes.
I guess I was wrong.
I thought I heard them.
They'd probably be ours, anyway.
They'd better be. We've got
enough guys in the air force.
There goes Jerry's gun.
Told you. Eight minutes.
It should have been you, Rivera.
Always, it should have been you.
It always is me.
Archimbeau, go take
a look down there.
Every dirty job in the army
is my personal property.
Nobody's going to shoot you.
Go on your gut.
- Why the gut then?
Because I said the gut.
You kill me.
Butt me.
Last pack.
- Get your filthy hands off it.
Ask and I'll give.
You call that claw clean?
My own dirt I can eat.
Match.
They are kind of dirty.
A man's hands never
seem to get clean, even if
you don't touch nothing.
Just stay dirty.
It's sort of a special kind of dirt.
G.I. dirt.
Bet one of them criminologists
could take a sample out
of a guy's fingernail,
put it under his microscope
and say, "That's G.I. dirt."
The dirt's always the same colour,
no matter what country
you're fighting in.
Funny thing. I wonder why.
Say! Never saw that fella
'till he moved!
Camouflage.
See, I bet that's what G.I. dirt is.
Camouflage.
Think I'll write Frances
a letter about that.
Dear Frances...
- I can't see the beach or the water.
It's all stopped. No shouting,
no firing, no sound of motors.
The war is over.
- Smells like rain.
- See if you can smell me a plane.
A little while ago, the place was
crawling with troops and now, for
all we know, we might be here alone.
The planes will be coming soon.
They always come soon.
If we were in those woods...
Halverson said he was...
- Yeah. I know. Halverson said.
I never saw anything like it,
never in my life.
Everybody's gone away.
They forgot us.
They don't want us in the war.
Halverson must be playing
black jack down in the barges.
A butt.
- What happened
to the one I just gave you?
I sent it home. They're cutting
down on the butts at home. A butt.
A match.
Thanks.
Pays to have friends.
What's the dope?
- No dice. I didn't see Halverson anywhere.
They're bringing down the wounded now.
- From where?
I spoke to a couple of guys there.
They ran into trouble with that machine gun.
- How about Halverson?
I told you, I don't know
anything about Halverson.
I saw Mac though.
He said the lieutenant's dying.
Mac says if the lieutenant dies,
he'll go and look for Halverson.
The ocean's full of stuff now.
I guess they're bringing in the
rolling stock, the heavy stuff.
The place is crawling.
- How does the beach look?
- Empty.
Where was the machine gun?
They didn't tell me. Over there, somewhere.
- Who didn't tell you?
- The two guys.
Hit the dirt!
Seems like this war
is nothing but waiting.
Waiting for your chow,
waiting for your pay,
waiting for a letter from home.
# It's a long, long time
a man spends a-waiting
# Waiting around in a war
# I think of a girl
I've never seen
# Her hair is black
and her eyes are green
# Her name is Helen
or maybe Irene
# It's a long, long time a-waitin'.
# I think of all the things
I haven't done
# All of the women I haven't won
# It seems like my life
ain't really begun
# It's a long, long time
a- waitin'. #
If they think I'm going to spend the
rest of my life here, they're crazy.
Take the subway home.
Here's a nickel.
It's the only nickel I got.
My last tie with the States.
Take it, it's yours.
It's worth it to get rid of you.
Take a tank. Or a franc.
Tank. Franc. A poet. A Shakespeare.
The Bard of Avenue 8.
The card of Avenue 8.
You guys kill me.
He's worked to death.
He's got those open period blues.
He had to crawl down to Jones beach.
A little recon and he's worked to death!
He wouldn't have kicked
if it had been Coney Island.
When I'm out of the Army and you're
sweating it out in Tibet, you'll be
laughing the other
side of your face.
Hey, Sergeant. How long are we
going to stay here? My tail's cold.
We'll stay here 'till it freezes to
the ground. There's a lot to spare.
Any ideas where to go, Trasker?
Yeah. Pikes Peak. If
I was there, I'd run up backwards.
I'd go on my hands,
pushing a peanut with my nose
then I'd take a train.
Railroads are jammed these days.
Oh, for Pete's sake.
Come on over here with me, Bill.
You too, Hoskins.
Look, something's wrong.
I know something's wrong.
Halverson should have been back by
this time. Am I right?
- Sounds right.
There's no sense in it.
We hang around here any longer,
we'll screw up the whole works.
Planes'll be over soon.
- Sure as little apples, they will.
And they'll be sending a few
tanks along here soon while
we're still up in the air.
We ought to leave somebody here
in case Halverson shows up and
go ahead while he's waiting.
Six miles is a long way.
- A long and weary way.
What do you think?
- It's up to you, Eddie.
You know what you're doing.
I've got to know.
- Do it, then.
I've got something up...
- Listen!
Planes. Do you hear anything?
- Guns.
- Hey, Sergeant, it's guns.
Where are they coming from?
- From out to sea, aren't they?
I think so.
- Ack-ack.
You sure?
- Probable sure.
That's it, then.
- Must be a ship shooting a plane.
That's the way it is.
Sure as little apples,
the way it is.
All right. Off and on.
- Here we go, Jake.
Going over in the woods.
- Squad columns!
Hop to it. Hoist tail!
How do we know
those aren't our planes?
Cos the ships are ours, dope.
We've got the only ships
in the water.
Boy, I wouldn't be a sailor
for nothing.
Who's gonna stay here, Eddie.
Stay for what?
- Halverson.
- I don't know.
I'll stay.
- OK, Bill, you stay here.
Hoist tail! Get moving!
We haven't got all day!
Get those squads moving.
Spread them out.
We'll be over in the woods, Bill.
- Leave me your glasses, will you?
OK.
Come on! Shake it, shake it!
The way you come walking over
that ridge, like you were back in
Missouri looking for daisies.
Nothing to worry about.
I looked the situation
over very carefully.
Made up my mind there was no danger,
so I walked instead of crawled.
Picked this up for self protection.
Where is everybody?
- Gone into the woods.
Afraid planes were headed this way.
Yeah. I heard the ack-ack.
Lieutenant's dead.
It's too bad.
- Yeah.
Halverson's dead, too.
Deader than a doornail.
Are you sure?
A guy in A Company told me.
Machine gun got him
coming out of the water.
Stitched him right across the middle.
That leaves it up to Porter.
Four ways from the jack.
- What?
Nothing.
What's going on down there?
Well, do you mind if I smoke?
Is it OK?
Well, they're bringing
in the big stuff now.
And coastguards, everywhere
you look, coastguards.
Gee, I'm glad I'm not down
on that beach any more.
The place is sure
going to get strafed.
It sure is.
- We'd better be
getting over to the woods.
The planes will be here in a minute.
Noisy.
- Put out that butt.
Do you know, the lieutenant
never moved his hands?
Good devil never even moved.
Dropping sticks on our transport.
From the sound of the
explosions, they missed.
That was no miss.
No miss, at all.
We'd better sit tight here.
There may be a few
fighters around somewhere.
Don't want any fighters to
catch me in an open field.
- I don't want that either.
Wonder what's happening now.
Plenty. Plenty of plenty.
Must be a honey of
a show on that beach.
Wonder what it will be like
when we hit France, Mac.
I don't know. I've never seen France.
Bet it's just a long concrete
wall with a gun every yard.
What's happening down
there's worth seeing, too.
Bet they'll set the water
afire with oil, too.
Boy, when that day comes, I want
to be somewhere else, far, far away.
This is bad enough.
This ain't so bad. At least
you know where everything is.
You're here and
the bombs are out there.
Simple.
You're where you are
and the guys being killed are
where they are.
It's simple.
- Yeah, I guess you're right.
We've got a grandstand seat.
Yeah. Only trouble is
you can't see nothing.
That's the whole trouble with the
war, you never get to see nothing.
You fight them by ear.
Got to guess what's going on.
Got to guess unless you see.
Sarge, can I go take a look?
You stay where you are.
I want you here.
Good thing, dirt.
I see the planes, Mac.
Six of them.
- Is that all?
It's not many, is it?
Gee, you'd think they'd have a
couple of hundred around, up there.
Just goes to show you...
- Just goes to show you what?
Just goes to show you.
- Funny.
Maybe there's more coming.
No.
Just six of them.
I tell you what, Sarge, what say
I take the glasses and go over the
ridge and take a look at the water?
We ought to know what's going on.
We know what's going on, Mac.
There's no point in it.
No point in guessing.
We got to be getting along
to the platoon.
Sarge, you wouldn't go through
an open field with them planes
up there, would you?
I wouldn't do that.
No. I wouldn't, either.
They're out of range, now.
Probably gone after bigger game.
Suppose I took the glasses
and went over the ridge? Maybe
there's a new landing coming off.
We'd want to know if there was.
It stands to reason.
Go and take a look, Mac.
Go and take a look.
It's just for the record.
Get it off your mind.
I think it's a good idea.
- Don't hang around, though.
Those bombers may be back.
Here, take a good look.
What is it? What is it?
What do you mean?
Come back, McWilliams!
In a minute, Sarge!
Hurry Mac! Hurry!
Come back!
The leg. The right leg.
It's Trasker.
In the middle of a word.
He was just speaking when
it got him right in the mouth.
In the middle of a word.
Gee, I'm scared.
# This is the story of
one little job
# One day from dawn until noon
# Just one battle more
in a long, long war
# And the men of a single platoon
# It was 53 men started out that day
# Along the Italian shore
# And some of those
were mighty good joes
# Who'll never see the sun rise
any more, poor boys
# They'll never see
the sun rise any more. #
Don't you want to live here?
- I didn't say I wanted to live here.
It's a nice country, full of
opportunity. Just look around you.
Opportunity, that's the big thing.
This country is full of opportunity.
- You can have it.
Is that a way to talk about
a country where you're a guest?
They'll kick you out.
- No, they won't.
Do you know who you're fighting?
They never told me.
Germans.
- That's all I want to know.
You're screwy.
- That's life.
We were the same draft board.
Same day.
Forget it.
He was a good guy.
- OK.
Tibet!
OK.
Go away. A butt.
Arch is taking it hard.
- Nobody dies.
Saturday Evening Post has
the best covers. That guy,
what's his name?
Norman Rockwell. He can
draw covers to beat all.
He had some covers about the army.
I'll take a camera picture any day.
Drawing's OK but it ain't real.
I like things to be real.
This guy Rockwell made it look
just like a picture.
I used to look at them. Looks just
like a picture, I used to say. You'd
never have known it was painted.
Should have taken a picture
and saved time.
You can't get the touch in a picture.
- Drawings was all right
when we didn't have cameras.
Now they've got cameras,
you don't have to draw.
That's screwy.
- Why?
You might as well say now they
got moving pictures, there's
no sense in taking pictures.
You might just as well have a
movie on the cover of magazines.
- Some day they'll have it. Maybe.
No, they won't.
Maybe, some day, they'll have
movies that'll smell, though.
Maybe the scene will be
in a garden, or something
and you can smell the flowers.
I'd like to see one in a brewery
so you could smell the beer.
If a guy asked me, "What'd you
give for this beer?",
I'd give him my G.I. rifle, my G.I. bayonet
and even my G.I. pants.
It's Tyne.
Hey, Sarge, it's Tyne.
Well, come on. Come on,
for Pete's sake, what happened?
Halverson's dead.
McWilliams is dead, too.
Plane got him.
The lieutenant died.
That does it. Trasker's dead here.
Hoskins and Giorgio got wounded.
- I got the lieutenant's map case.
Did you get it from Halverson?
- The barge. I had it all the time.
I was going to give it to you.
- What's in it?
- I don't know. Look and see.
There's the sea coast.
There's the beach.
Here's the wood where we are.
There's the road.
About 100 yards to the south.
Halverson was a little off.
- Where's the farmhouse?
- Here. This must be it. The only house.
See, where's the scale?
- There it is.
It's about six miles, all right.
It's nearer to seven.
- What's that?
Rocks. High ground.
Marked for a machine gun.
Farm building's marked for
a machine gun, too.
- That's me. I like to work indoors.
Bring it over here. Let me see it.
Spread out!
Giving you trouble?
Well...
That bridge.
- What about it?
You have to blow it.
- Yeah.
Blow it. Gerry will bring
stuff over that bridge.
Pain getting bad?
Heinie buzzards!
- Do you want somebody
to help you down to the beach?
Not me. They'll be
strafing that place for weeks.
Going to stay right here.
What about Giorgio?
- What about Giorgio?
Look, man, you're in command.
Don't ask so many dopey questions.
Leave me alone.
Cousins, go and ask
Giorgio if he can get back
to the beach by himself.
Light stuff coming from inland.
Battle's beginning.
Better get moving. Get your squads
together. Get them on the road.
Giogio says you can have the beach.
He wants to go along.
- He can't.
There'll be a hospital here
soon. Tell him to stay here.
Tell him yourself.
You're wearing the stripes.
Squad three. Fall in. On the road.
Second squad, fall in.
You'd better go down to the beach, Giorgio.
- Wait, Sarge. I'm wounded.
I've got privileges. I don't
want to go down to the beach.
I want to go along.
- You can't go along.
You won't do any good.
You can't do anything.
Now, go on down to the beach.
- I'll stay here with the Sarge.
Suit yourself.
Let's go. We've got to move.
Where are the binoculars, Bill?
Holy mackerel. I forgot them.
McWilliams has them.
The only pair we had.
Not doing him any good.
I'll go back and get them.
- Oh, never mind.
Sunny Italy.
Another little hike.
You should have to carry this.
I am happy with you, dear.
You make me very happy.
Now, listen, men.
When we hit the road,
we'll go in three squads.
We'll bust Hoskins' squad up.
Kramer, you take the first squad.
Archimbeau, Cousins, scouts.
Rankin, connecting file.
Ward, you take the second squad.
Tyne, you take the third.
You bring up the rear. Get it?
Now, for Pete's sake,
keep your eyes open.
Anything may be coming down
that road. If they bring...
If they bring up tanks, they'll
probably bring them along the road.
Be ready to fan out at any time
and keep the bazookas ready.
When I blow my whistle,
head for cover.
And I mean cover.
Keep your eyes open for planes.
They may try to shell the road, too.
I don't think they're wide awake
yet, but they're going to be.
It's a stinking situation, right?
- Right!
- OK. Let's go.
Mail this for me, will, you, Sarge?
It's a letter to my wife.
Yeah.
Sure.
- Thanks, Sarge.
How is it, Hosk?
- It'll keep.
Got it on ice.
- Take it easy.
Tyne, you're a smart apple.
Keep your head.
- I'm the boy.
I mean it.
Keep your head, you may need it.
- Always have.
I ran into an Australian in Tunis.
They slugged one into his leg
at Mareth.
He's always going
to walk with a limp.
That's a tough ticket.
Ruins you with the Army.
- You'll be all right, Hosk.
You're a smart apple.
Keep your head.
- Better hang on to this. You may
need more than you have.
Thanks.
Keep your eye on Porter.
I think he's going to crack.
What makes you think that?
- I've seen 'em crack.
He screams just like anyone else.
Once in a while, a guy steps
past the scream. It's hard to tell.
He's a good man but I think
he's going to crack.
That's the way it goes.
He's got a lot on his mind.
Keep your head on.
- OK, Hosk.
So long, Giorgio.
That's a funny thing.
What?
- Giorgio. He's an Italian. His
old man came from this country.
All he'll ever see of it is
a beach and a piece of wood.
Funny thing.
- Yeah.
Funny thing.
- Well, see you around, Hosk.
Yep.
Around.
Hey, Sergeant...
Supposing this road is mined?
- Don't worry about it.
"MADEMOISELLE FROM ARMENTIERES"
That's one thing I want
to do when I get back.
I want a nice collection of records.
I know a guy who must have
had millions of records,
millions that guy had.
He worked in the NBC Studios.
He had all kinds of autographs.
You couldn't name anybody he
didn't have an autograph of.
He even used to sign his records. He
had a record of the Andrew Sisters,
all three of their autographs.
That's the kind of life.
- Just the music is all I want.
I got one
collection but I want a big one.
I got all the Bing Crosby
records except the last one.
You know Russ Columbo? My sister
used to be nuts about Russ Columbo.
She stayed in her room all
the time the day he died.
When did he die, anyway?
- I don't know.
Must have been about ten years ago.
She was a kid. She's married now.
Her husband in the Army?
- Beats me. I never heard from her.
Maybe he's in a war plant.
- That's the life, the war plant.
I read some place, those guys
make 400 or 500 bucks a week.
I don't care about the
dough, I'd just like to be
able to go home at night.
If I hadn't gone in the Army,
I was going to California.
- Got a job there?
No. I just always wanted to go to
California. Out with the movie stars.
Could have been something else. Could
have been the engineers or the tanks.
Could even have been the Navy.
They looked at me and said
here's a guy that can walk.
They finished me, all right.
- Everybody walks. Even monkeys.
There are limits, plenty of limits.
I've been thinking,
how long have we been in the Army?
Murder!
- Look at Hoskins...
Gets a lousy little dig in the leg
and he's out of the Army, but he
doesn't want to be out of the Army.
Justice.
Where are we going, Rivera?
- I'm going someplace where
I can set off this weapon.
Then I'm going to shoot this weapon.
I'm not going to walk any more.
There are limits.
Archimbeau's sure angry
at this country. Look at him
beating it to death.
You're an insensitive lump.
He's still got Trasker on his mind.
I've got lots of
dead guys on my mind.
Planes!
That's it!
Hit the dirt!
Anybody hurt?
- Anybody hurt? Anybody hurt?
- All right here.
Did you see that? Did you see that?
Right out of the blasted sun,
the dirty kraut.
There's some wounded across the road.
My squad, I think. I'd better go over.
- Wait a minute. He may be back.
- I'll take my chances.
Want a hand, Sergeant?
Won't help him.
Get over to that ditch.
Did he get one?
- Yeah.
Get in the ditch.
Where did he get it?
Arm and shoulder.
- Give me a hand.
Get in the ditch.
- Who's that?
Never mind.
Dougan's dead.
- I know.
Look at that Jerry.
Shoot him. Shoot him. Beautiful!
No more waving for that baby.
Hey, sulphur somebody,
you guys want me to die of gangrene?
They've looked you over, Smitty.
What you've got is no
worse than a scratch.
It hurts, burns like fire.
Doesn't yet. But it will.
Take over, Joe.
What'll we do with him?
Leave him here?
- We'll have to. We can't take him with us.
Think we'd better get on with it then.
- I'd wait a while if I were you.
There might be more planes
where that last one came from.
Better take ten, anyway.
- Tell them, will you?
Take ten. Take ten.
Take ten.
Say Sarge, can I smoke?
- Burn. Take ten. Take ten.
Butt me, Friedman.
7.35.
Match.
- Take ten.
It is 7.35, Friedman. And in 30
minutes, we've covered a mile.
On a dry track, too. A whole mile.
Stop griping, doughfoot.
At least you're a mile away
from the beach and the shells.
What was that plane
shooting at us, jellybeans?
Oh, by the way, have
you dined yet, Sergeant?
Yeah. And you have, too.
How can he turn down a
tasty dish like this?
You know where they get this stuff?
- Sure.
I know where they get everything.
Where'd they get this stuff?
You know the sewers?
- What sewers?
Any sewers. The Hoboken sewers.
- How do you know?
You got a brother works in the sewers?
- Never mind my relations.
You want me to tell you how
they get it out of the sewers?
No. I'm eating it.
We should be in the Heinie Army.
They wouldn't take me.
Why should we be in
the Heinie Army?
The food. Good food.
How do you know?
Are you a spy or something?
How about that HQ we
walked into in Sicily?
Wine on the tables. Steak.
A picture.
- That was Officers' Mess.
So what? Do our Officers' Mess get
wine on the table? Do they get steak?
The Heinies are really eating.
They won't be.
Listen, chum.
In three years, the whole world
will be eating C-rations.
I got it from a friend.
- Give it back to him, I ain't interested.
What do you get out of it, Friedman?
Out of what?
- The business.
What business?
- This business.
I ain't a member of the firm.
You saw that Messerschmitt.
- Yeah.
It was after you.
- I wasn't in when he called.
Be another one along any minute now.
I won't be in that, either.
- Friedman, you're a draft dodger.
You're yellow, Friedman.
- That's what I am, all right.
I catch you kidding me again,
I'll kick you in the gut.
What's eating him?
- Don't YOU know?
I've got a headache.
A rotten headache.
- Tough.
Do you trust this operation?
- How do you mean?
- You know.
I don't like the ring of it.
It doesn't ring true.
Something funny about it.
I wish he'd cut out that groaning.
He ain't too bad. He's just
working for his Purple Heart.
I don't like the responsibility.
- You're stuck with it.
We'd better get moving, hadn't we?
I think we had. If I were
you, I'd keep off the road.
Why?
- Tanks.
Let's take it along the ditch.
OK.
What about Smith
- I'll talk to him.
How you feeling, Smitty?
In the pink, Sarge. In the pink.
Do you think you can stay
here by yourself for a while?
Leave me some butts.
- Sure you'll be all right?
Sure, Sarge.
Just leave me some butts.
Somebody'll be along to pick you up.
He'll stay.
We'd better get started then.
All right. Hoist tail.
We'll stick close to
the ditch this time.
Keep the same formation,
but stick close to the ditch.
Hey, Smitty.
Could I bum one of those butts back?
Sure, Sarge. Help yourself.
How long do you think I'll be here?
Beats me.
Shouldn't be long, though.
There'll be plenty of company coming
up this way soon.
- What company?
Any kind you want.
Just take it easy, Smitty.
If I want anything, I'll ring.
Hey, Smitty... you forgot to groan.
Hey, Cousins.
What comes after Tibet?
- What comes where after Tibet?
In the war. Where are we going
to fight the war after Tibet?
How do I know? In bed.
- There's a country, don't know its name.
- There's a million countries.
I can't think of their names.
- All right. I just asked. Forget it.
Ask Victor McLaglen. In the movies,
he's always fighting
that country around Tibet.
You kill me, just kill me.
Hey, Arch, look.
Two guys, 500 yards to the left,
I seen them.
- What are they?
Search me. Too far away.
Ward.
Two guys, 500 yards off to
the left. Take a couple of men.
Get down and see.
Johnson! Riddle!
- Take it easy.
Fan out.
Hit the dirt.
Wait a minute.
Wait a minute. You speak English?
Oh, shut up. Come on.
A couple of Eye-ties.
Can they speak English?
- Not my kind.
Hey, Giorgio.
- Giorgio got wounded.
Yeah. What's the matter with me?
Tranella.
You want me, Sarge?
Can you talk Italian?
- Sure. I can talk Italian.
Talk to these guys.
What do I say?
- Ask them where they
come from, for Pete's sake.
Hey, Tranella.
He says he's from Turin.
Where's that?
- It's north. Way up north.
I don't mean that. Find out
where they're coming from now.
- Oh.
Where are you coming from now?
Oh, I mean...
He says there's a battle up there,
they were running away
from the battle.
They're no longer fighting.
- Ask them what's going on up there.
He says they were lying
along the road
and they saw the Germans
bringing up some tanks.
- When was this?
Says he's got no watch.
He's not sure. Maybe a couple of
hours. Maybe less.
For the love of Petronella, see what you
can find out. Ask him some questions.
- I am, Sergeant!
Find out something.
- Ask if he knows this country.
He's from the north
but he knows this country.
He was once stationed here.
- Good. Where's the map, Eddie?
- What map? Oh, it's here.
We have here a map of the area.
Tell him that, Tranella.
Says he knows all about maps,
he's a corporal.
We're about here, I think.
Ask him if I'm right.
He says that over there's
where the battle is and over
here's where he saw the tanks.
Is it bad country?
He says that...
he says that it's a good country for
defence, rough with a lot of ravines.
The young punk says it's dusty.
How many Germans?
Says he doesn't know how
many Germans are around.
- He must have said more than that.
Well, he says that they're beaten,
that they're no longer soldiers.
What did he say?
- The young punk
says he knocked off a Kraut.
Ask him where.
Hey, Tranella...
- Una momento, Sergeant...
Tranella, what are
you talking about now?
About Italy. He's from near
where my old man came from.
He says he didn't want the Germans,
but there was no choice.
These guys are looking for
a way out.
What do you know? My old man told
me that they've been fighting
the Germans since they came
and they're still fighting.
- OK. OK. OK.
What's he saying?
- He says now they can't go home, that
the Germans cover the north, like beetles.
He says there's a lot
the matter with Italy.
You're letting him tell us what's
the matter with Italy.
- My old man would like to know.
Let him read it in the papers.
I know what's the matter with Italy.
Find out about that hill
with the farmhouse on it.
This farmhouse here. Ask him
if he knows anything about it.
He says yeah.
Ask him what kind of bridge this is.
He says he don't remember.
Could be wood. It could be steel.
It could be concrete.
- A great help he is!
Ask him, does he know where
I can get a pizza.
- Shut up!
He says there's lots of Krauts
a few miles along.
- How many?
He says he hasn't got any idea.
We might as well go on.
- Might as well.
All right, men, get going.
Thanks, Tranella.
- Any time, Sarge.
Tell them they can go.
Hey, Sergeant, now they both want butts.
Give them a couple.
- Out of my own pack, for the love...!
- Give him a couple!
Hey, Sarge,
he says they're our prisoners
and they'll come along.
- Over my dead body.
Hey, Sarge, they don't want to go.
That's too bad.
Now the punks say they're hungry.
Give them some K-ration.
- They can take this.
When they eat that,
they'll wish Italy never
went out of the war.
They'll think twice about
the Americans next time.
- Hic!
That's a tough ticket,
but I've got to leave you.
What's the dope?
- They don't know anything.
We don't know any more than we did before.
- You expect to?
- They might have known something.
Slap-happiest people I ever saw.
"Dear Frances,
"just left a couple of Italian
soldiers standing in the road."
No, cross that out.
"Just left a couple of Italian
ex-soldiers standing in the road.
"Poor suckers.
They still don't know what hit them.
"And in a way, it's their own fault.
"They let themselves be sold a bill of goods
that they were going to boss the world.
"And now the guys that sold to them
have gone and they're left holding
the bag.
"Poor suckers. Right now, they
don't even own their own country."
Bill? You ever had a feeling that
something was going to happen to you?
- I have it all the time.
I've got it now.
- Don't worry about it.
I've never had it before.
I don't like it.
Something's happened to me.
- What?
I don't know. Can't figure it out.
It's not that I'm scared,
I know I'm not.
It's just that
I can't figure things out.
Look, if you have to,
will you take over?
I don't feel good.
Got a headache.
What are you going to do after the war?
- Join the mob, become a mobster.
What did you do before the war?
- Friedman, sixty million times you
asked me that. I was an undertaker.
I undertook stiffs.
- How'd you like the job?
- Made my hands smell.
Why don't you join the
grave registration squad at the QMC?
That's right up your alley.
I can't spell.
Hey, Justin...
...you look like a bright boy.
Why don't you join the graves
registration squad of the QMC?
How's the pay?
- Stinks.
- Any future in it?
What do you care? You ain't even
living in the present.
That's right, Jake, give a smart
apple, Jake, a reader of character.
What do you mean, I ain't
living in the present?
I'll ask him. Where are you now?
- Italy.
How do you know you're in Italy?
Have you seen any signposts
in Italian?
We just landed in Italy.
- How do you know you landed in Italy?
Just because somebody told you?
- I've just seen a couple of Italians.
In Tunisia, you seen a million Italians.
Is that Italy? No, it's Tunisia.
You're ignorant, Justin.
All right.
If we're not in Italy, where are we?
Sunny France, marching to Armentieres.
Where do you think we was?
Italy.
- I give up.
So do I.
I want to get out of this man's Army.
- Me, too. Move over.
Hit the dirt!
Hey, look, it's a jeep!
- It's our guys!
Where you from?
We're reconnaissance.
Seen anything around here?
- Not so far.
What's your mission?
- Objective is some high ground with a
farmhouse on it, three miles up the road.
Anything up there?
- Wish I knew.
Want me to run up and see?
- Be nice if you'd scout a couple of miles.
Take a lot off my mind, anyway.
OK. It's the first time I've been
to Italy. Like to see the country.
That's the kind of job to have.
No walking. Solid comforts.
Between you and me, Jake,
motorcycles scare the life
out of me.
I didn't think you were scared of anything.
- Women and motorcycles, Jake.
A butt.
- When I run out of butts,
you'll be in a rotten mess.
I'll find a new friend.
I feel better. If the road's clear,
it might be all right, after all.
How long do you think it
will take him to get back?
About ten or 15 minutes.
What's the idea of leaving the ditch?
We got no orders.
The road's easier on the feet.
Simple.
It's time that rider
was coming back.
He's only been gone ten minutes.
Everything in the Army is simple.
You live or you die.
I'd still
like to be sitting in his boots.
Whose boots?
- The guy on the motorcycle.
That's a life.
- Why? Are you feeling
a lousy hero?
I like my comfort.
- The guy's a dead pigeon.
High mortality rates.
- So what?!
So what? That's the first sergeant
I ever saw on a motorcycle.
Most of them are lucky
to make corporal.
Do you think you'll make corporal?
- I just want to make civilian.
You've got no imagination, Rivera.
You're a lump.
- That's what I am, all right.
Suppose you still
think they'll be back?
May have gone further than we thought.
Might have got a flat.
He didn't go too far
and he didn't get a flat.
He ran into trouble.
Did you hear any firing?
- Didn't hear a thing.
- He ran into trouble.
Eddie, I don't know what's
the matter with you,
but you need to snap out of it.
What's eating you?
- I don't know.
Still wanna be on a motorcycle, ugly?
Sure. It's a life.
- In that guy's case,
the question is, is it a life?
He's probably sitting under a
tree somewhere, reading a book.
It's optimists like you that cause
all the trouble in the world.
Where would he get a book?
How do I know where he'd get a book?
Last pack.
I'll let you watch me.
You've got another loving pack.
- All I got, baby.
A drag.
- I'll consider it.
Well?
It's a funny thing, how many
people you meet in the Army who
cross your path for a few seconds
and you never see them again.
- Who do you mean?
You've never seen the face before, you
never see it again. Can't forget it.
Guy on the motorcycle?
Bill, I'm scared of the tanks.
If they catch us on this road
they've got us cold, like mackerel.
Tell them to take a break.
Jack, Phelps, Dubrusky, Long,
Tranella, Tinker,
Archimbeau and all bazooka men,
front and centre.
The rest of you,
take a break, into the woods.
Sergeant Porter wants you
bazooka men up ahead.
I'm giving you ample protection.
When you get a mile ahead of us,
we'll follow.
Good hunting.
Archimbeau, you stay here.
Watch the road. If you see that
rider coming back, wave to me.
- I'll never stand it till then.
Till when?
- Till the Battle of Tibet.
Every dead-head job in the Army
is my personal property.
Something's up with the Sergeant.
Which Sergeant?
- Porter.
Nobody tells me nothing.
- Keep your eyes open.
If you weren't smoking your last
butts and getting smoke
in your eyes,
you might know more about what's
going on. Butt.
What's up with Porter?
- How do I know? I ain't a doctor.
Thanks, Bill.
It's nothing. You
just didn't think of it, that's all.
Yeah. I didn't think of it.
Apples.
What did you say, Sergeant?
Oh, guess I said apples.
Why?
I'm just thinking of them.
Oh.
- What kind of apples, Sergeant?
All kinds. Bald ones. Mclntosh.
Reds. Pippins. Russets.
I was thinking I would like to
be cutting one open, right now.
And licking that
juice off a knife.
Cut it out, will you, Sarge?
Now you got me thinking
about something juicy.
You like apples, Sergeant?
Not especially. Apple's just
happened to pop into my head.
I like pears better.
- Maybe we'll come across some
growing around here.
We won't.
- How do you know, Sergeant?
I'm a farmer. A good one.
The soil's no good around here.
It's no good, at all.
It's old and tired and worn out. See?
They say up north it's different.
They say up north they grow
grapes as big as a man's head.
You can't convince me.
My mind's made up.
You know, once I make up my
mind about something, nothing
changes it except an act of God.
Or my wife.
Yes. Soil's no good.
It's no good, at all.
Maybe too many soldiers
have been walking on it.
They've been walking
on it for a long time.
That's what always happens to a
country when soldiers walk on it.
I wrote a letter to my wife.
All right.
I wrote it in the landing barge.
It's hard to write something
when you can't see it.
Why didn't you wait 'till daylight?
You never can tell.
A man don't want to take no chances.
I even wrote
the envelope in the dark.
It looked good.
- How do you know it looked good?
I saw it in the daylight.
Then I give it to Sergeant Hoskins.
What for?
- To mail for me.
The guy'll probably
tear it open and read it.
He'll be reading it right now.
He wouldn't do that.
- You never know with sergeants,
they do some funny things.
He wouldn't.
- How do you know?
Maybe he thinks there's money in it.
Maybe he's using it for a bandage.
He's got a bullet hole and he may
have stuffed it in the bullet hole.
You're crazy. You can't
stuff paper in a bullet hole.
How do you know you can't?
- It crinkles.
Boy, what a dope. Next time
you get a bullet hole in you,
stuff some paper in and see
how it feels, then you'll know.
Cut that out, Riddle. He'll mail the
letter. Now, leave him alone.
I were just kidding, Sarge.
You've got a mean streak, Riddle.
Someone'll paste you
one of these days.
I'll wait.
OK, Johnson. You mailed your letter.
But you never know
what Sergeants will do.
They won't do anything.
It's time we got moving, Eddie.
Call Ward, will you?
Hey, Ward!
He don't feel so good.
A guy can pick up anything
in this kind of country.
Ward... I can't go on.
Tyne is taking over.
Well, it's OK with me.
Tyne's a good man.
I know he is.
You can work with him, Ward.
I know I can.
- You can go on, Eddie.
- I don't know.
Do you ever feel like you
want to lie down and never get up?
Sure I have.
- It's the way I feel.
I want to lie down.
I've got to get up.
A guy gets tired after a while.
You've been at it a long time.
- We've all have.
Why don't you lie down, Eddie?
You might feel better.
- Need...
a drink of water.
Maybe if I rest...?
I've got to lie down.
Poor dirt.
Poor country.
Armoured car coming!
Enemy armoured car! Take cover!
Eddie. Eddie.
That was close, Sergeant.
That was close.
- Leave him alone.
What's the matter with him?
- He's sick.
How did they get by our bazookas?
I almost threw a grenade at it.
- It's a good thing you didn't.
What do you think, Ward?
- I don't like it, none.
- Go on back, Arch,
and keep your eyes open.
- Why do I have to pull this stuff?
How about someone else?
- OK, get someone else.
- I'll do it.
Here, Arch, watch this rifle,
it gets in my way.
- You...
Tanks.
- Yeah.
Our bazookas let
the armoured car go by
to get at the tanks. It'll be coming
back. We've got to get it.
Without the bazookas
we'll have a sweet job.
Might knock it off with grenades
if we're lucky. One under the belly might
knock it off the road or
at least shake up the driver.
How about machine guns?
- Throw everything we've got at her.
Eddie?
Leave him alone. Nothing you can do.
- No, guess you're right.
Set your squad as close as you can
get. Throw grenades on the whistle.
Just this side or they'll throw
grenades in each other's laps.
Rivera?
Got a butt, Sarge?
- How's your gun?
- OK.
Set up by the road. When the car
comes, we'll get it with grenades.
When the grenades go off, let the
car have everything you've got.
Rake it, compris?
- Yes. Sure.
Set it up in a hurry.
- Right.
I got a job. They hired me.
100 bucks a minute.
- It ain't enough.
Coming?
- I'm invited?
I got a silver-plated bullet with
the name Applegloss on it.
Yeah. That's me, all right.
- Then you're invited. I'll come.
Good, since you've got the ammo.
Line up your squad, Ward.
When the armoured car gets
abreast of that boulder, see.
Yeah.
I'll count ten, then blow
the whistle. OK.
- OK.
My squad, off and on.
- Don't let anyone else do anything.
Stay back and hang on.
Shoot the works. You get that?
Don't let anyone else do anything.
Just sit tight.
- Come on, Cord, you here.
Randall, get in there.
OK. When you get the whistle.
And so help me, the first guy that
throws before he gets the whistle
is going to get this grenade
right between his teeth.
You want to live, throw straight.
You won't get another chance.
Johnson, you understand?
What do you think I am, Sergeant?
An amateur?
No.
Windy? Watch Porter.
Don't let him move around.
You're crying, Porter.
You're crying
because you're wounded.
You don't have to be
bleeding to be wounded.
You've just had one battle to many.
Yeah. You're out of it now.
No more guesswork and
waiting and wondering for you.
You've built yourself a foxhole...
up there.
Ain't nothing in the world
that can make you come out of it.
Go ahead, Porter, keep crying.
We understand.
Not yet.
Ever go to Coney Island?
All the time. Some joint.
Ever shoot those electric guns
that shoot down the airplanes.
Sure. I'm a shock at the stuff.
Want to know a secret, Friedman?
- You ain't got any secrets.
You're an open book. You ain't
bright enough to have any secrets.
This is a secret, Jake.
- What is it?
I never could hit those airplanes.
I used to miss those airplanes
all the time.
Maybe I better go away.
Maybe you ain't safe to be with.
How did you get to be
a machine gunner?
I bribed a guy.
- I want a transfer.
Friedman, it's too late.
You're stuck with me.
How are you going to get that car.
I'm going to aim for the knees
and then I work north.
You think this stuff will go
through armour?
- Never has yet.
Easy. Easy.
Two, three, four, five, six,
seven, eight, nine.
Put some shots through the slits?
- I'll stop Rivera.
- OK.
Halt your fire.
Stay where you are. There's nothing
out here you haven't seen before.
OK.
Nice looking ruby.
Wonder where he stole that?
I don't know if they
heard all this noise up ahead
but whether they did or not,
we'd better blow out of here.
- Right.
Get that gun down, doughfoot.
- Right.
Some smoke screen. That car's
probably full of holes.
Like a cheese. Like a loving cheese.
- I bet you never put a hole in it.
I never miss.
- How about the airplanes at Coney Island?
- Those were airplanes on Coney Island.
OK, Rivera, you're a terror.
- I'm a killer.
I don't know what the platoon'd do
without me.
Win the loving war?
- That's right! Win the loving war.
Yeah?
- You take over my squad.
Why me?
- Why anybody else?
Fair enough.
- Oh, Johnson.
Yes, Sergeant.
- You stay here with the Sergeant.
Don't let him do anything. Just keep
him here, you understand?
Suppose he tries to go somewhere.
- Don't let him.
How?
- I don't care how.
Just don't let him.
Eddie?
Eddie, how do you feel?
OK, watch him, Johnson.
Listen, men. Getting that Jerry car
was just a lucky break.
We heard tanks up ahead and
still don't know what's happened.
Next time, we may not be so
lucky, so stay on the alert.
Arch, you and Cousins, go on ahead.
If you see anything, just shoot. OK.
You've got the direction, Arch?
- Can't miss.
All right. Let's go.
Our patrol ahead!
Our patrol.
We lost Phelps, Dubovski and Long.
But we knocked
out two tanks and an armoured car.
Took every bit of bazooka
ammo we had to do it.
Might as well get rid of these.
- Turn them over to Summers.
- OK.
I hope we don't meet any more tanks.
Without bazookas, I don't
want to meet any more tanks...
or armoured cars, either.
Where's Tinker?
He's all right. He's up ahead.
OK. Let's go.
Did you ever go camping
when you were a kid?
Every time we get in a bunch of
trees you ask me the same question.
When I'm in a bunch of trees,
I remember.
For the millionth time, I never
went camping - I lived in the city.
I lived in the city, too, Schmegegee.
I got on a train.
- You told me.
- Well, I'm telling you again.
You're a jukebox. Somebody
keeps putting nickels in.
I ain't talking to you, any more.
Hey, Judson?
- Yeah.
Do you ever go camping in the woods?
- What woods?
Get that, will you? Any woods.
- No.
You don't know what you're missing
You've never lived till you've
toasted a Mickey over the coals.
It ain't like the Army chow.
You can sit around a camp fire,
and shoot it all night.
You can go fishing.
Outdoor men.
- Next time they make
you a civilian, Judson,
try a camp in the woods.
Just tell them I sent you.
- Tell who?
- The birds and the bees.
Didn't your old man ever tell you
about the birds and the bees?
No.
- Did you hear that, Friedman?
Judson never heard of
the birds and bees.
- Terrible...
Shall we tell him?
- Maybe we'd better.
Give us a butt, Judson,
we'll tell you all about
the birds and the bees.
I haven't got a butt.
Good thing they invented trains
for travelling salesmen.
Alright, kill me. What's the gag?
- No gag.
If they didn't have trains, all the
travelling salesmen would have to
walk. What a job that would be.
You're a travelling salesman.
You ain't taken a train lately.
I'm a travelling salesman?
I'm a murderer.
You're a travelling salesman,
selling democracy to the natives.
So that's what I am, eh?
What do you know!
Where did you get that malarkey, Jake?
- Out of a book.
- A book?
You're a decadent democrat, Rivera.
- That's what I am, all right.
To get back to travelling salesmen,
how many of those joes do you think
would become one
if they had to walk everywhere?
I don't know. I never knew
a travelling salesman.
- Maybe I'll be one after the war.
You get to cover a large
hunk of territory.
Baby, you're covering a large hunk
of territory and you ain't nothing.
Friedman, I've been good to you.
Every time you needed it,
I'd always give you my last franc.
I treated you like a brother.
And every chance you get,
you needle me up the back?!
I'm antisocial, I got gabosis!
Maybe you should go off somewhere.
- Where?
- How should I know?
Treat you like a brother
and you stick a knife in my back.
He's a crumb, isn't he, Judson?
- Yeah, everybody's a crumb.
Wish I was home in bed.
Anybody who would sleep in the
noontime is a dope.
- A dope!
Take it easy, Arch.
Don't get too far ahead.
- Didn't know I was.
I was almost asleep on my feet.
Didn't get any sleep
at all last night.
Keep awake now.
- OK.
Say, Sarge, do you think I'll make
Sarge by the battle of Tibet?
Sure. They'll make you a General.
- That's all I wanted to know.
How much further's this farm?
- We ought to be breaking into
the field below now.
Keep your eyes open and stop when
you see the field.
- Right.
How's it going, Tim?
- I've been here before.
- How's baby?
I'll wake her up
when it's time to feed her.
Still thinking about apples,
Sergeant?
Yeah. And I've been doing my darndest
to think about other things like
cold well water, cold cider
fresh in a jug, ice-cream.
But it don't do no good.
I still keep thinking about apples.
A guy always wants something
when he can't get it.
- Yep.
We should be thinking about
that farmhouse up ahead.
About how many men are there.
And how we're going to take it.
It's all I keep thinking about,
is a big red apple.
Some day, some country will put out
a rug that says Welcome.
And they're going
to let me walk in on it.
That's what I'm gonna do someday.
When?
- Next Tuesday, chowder head.
How do I know when? 1983.
I'll look you up then.
It's a loving way to see Europe.
- If it hadn't been for this war,
nearest you'd ever got to Europe
woulda been the Staten Island ferry.
- Anybody can go to Europe.
I know a guy, once, wigged
his way over on a cattle boat.
Why?
- He wanted to see it.
Must have been a honey of a dope.
- He was my cousin.
- Then I know he was.
Friedman, after we get to this farmhouse,
I'm going to take you up to the barn
and beat the bajavas out of you.
What with?
- The barrel of this gun.
I thought you were
really going to get tough!
That farmhouse is sure
little apples full of krauts.
Sure as little apples is.
There she is.
That's it, all right.
On the nose.
- On the nose.
What do you think?
- I don't know yet,
but I'm gonna to go up and take a look.
Arch, you come along.
Take it easy.
Wish I had those binoculars now.
Do you see anything?
- Not a thing.
How about the windows?
- Sun's on them.
Wish I knew. Wish I knew.
- Knew what?
Nothing. Let's get back.
How's it look?
- It's quiet.
I don't like it. It's too quiet.
Yeah. It's bad when it's too quiet.
Windy?
- Yeah.
- Come here.
Here's the setup.
There's a stone wall,
runs clear around.
And there's a clear slope
up to the house, from the wall.
Not much cover. Pretty hard
to tell just what the story is.
If I had that pair of binoculars
I would have been able to see more.
Anyone there?
- That's what we don't know.
We're not going to take any chances.
We'll send a patrol up first.
Four or five guys.
- I'll take it.
- I may need you here.
I want to take it.
OK. You take it.
Pick yourself four men.
I'll go.
No, you don't, doughfoot.
I need this little instrument.
I want four volunteers.
Four congressional medal of honour
with ten oakleaf clusters volunteers.
Any extra pay?
- Oh, no.
I'll go anyway, just to make
them feel ashamed.
- Good.
I'm a hero.
I've been up front all day.
I might as well stay there.
- All right.
I'll go along, Sarge.
- OK. One more.
First guys who get to that farmhouse
will get the wine. I'll go.
That's four.
- Pass out the purple hearts, Mother.
You take your popgun down by the road
where you can keep your eye on
the road and the farmhouse.
You got that, doughfoot?
- In my head.
- Keep it there.
And remember to cover if anyone needs it.
- OK, chief. Let's go.
All right. Let's go.
Gotta have portable walls
to go with every war.
I'll see they have them next time.
Wouldn't want you to be disappointed.
It's a pretty good spot.
It'll do for a while.
I ain't planning to raise
a family here.
How's the farmhouse look to you?
I'll rake the joint.
Timing's OK.
You got plenty of grenades?
- Yeah.
OK.
- Stay five yards apart.
Keep on your gut.
Five yards apart.
Go on your gut.
Good luck.
- Same to you.
Fix bayonets.
Let's go.
Go back, go back! Patrol, go back!
Now, Rivera, now.
Why don't we open up?
Why don't we open up?
Go, Rankin, everybody, over the wall!
Did you get hit?
- No.
You shouldn't have tried it.
You shouldn't have tried it.
Did everybody get back?
- Tinker. They got Tinker.
I think they got Rankin.
Rankin didn't come back.
I knew it. I knew.
I thought there was only three.
Is that Tinker?
- Yeah.
Why don't you pull him in?
- He's dead.
How do you know he's dead?
- I can tell when a man's dead.
What a mess. What a rotten,
filthy, stinking, no good mess.
Could have been worse. They could
have waited till you all
got up there.
Could have been a lot worse.
- It's bad enough.
You all right, Tranella?
- In the pink.
Cousins?
- OK.
Tough luck.
Now we've really got
a job on our hands.
- Yeah.
No element of surprise.
They've got us cold.
Probably a machine gun in every
window. Can't get near enough
to use a grenade.
If we only had just one rocket
left for our bazooka.
But we haven't got a rocket.
- No. How about waiting until dark.
We can't. We've got to get in there
and get in there fast.
We'll have to figure something out.
Wonder who they knocked off.
It's too far away to see.
Hope it ain't anybody I like.
Hope it ain't anybody I know.
- Me neither.
It was beautiful,
the way I messed up that house.
It was beautiful.
I could do that 50 times a day.
Keep your eyes open or they'll
be sending a half-back around
with a grenade in his mitt.
They only have to do that once a day.
Knuckles to them!
I seen them coming round
my end by the millions.
They never gained a yard around my end.
I'm indestructible. Nobody dies.
Nobody dies.
OK, corps.
Close. Somebody's careless
with firearms...
Joke.
I can't think of a thing.
They've got us cold.
Pretty and cold.
It's no place for a gentleman.
Please, teacher, can I leave the room?
- You and Tinker.
We should have given
you some cover, too.
It wouldn't
have made any difference.
The only thing I hope is they
haven't put through a call
to send tanks.
That'd really put the screws on us.
- I don't think they will. We've
got a lot of planes around here.
They'd be afraid the planes would
see the tanks.
- What makes you think so?
I just got a feeling.
- I just got a feeling, too.
I wonder if Rankin's dead.
Oh, gee. I don't know.
I guess he's safe where he is.
He can hang on.
Yeah. If anybody can hang on,
Rankin can hang on.
Just look at this leaf.
What about it?
- Look at the complications.
Think of all the trouble
it took to make this leaf.
You never saw nothing
as complicated as this.
I'm as complicated as that.
The human body's the most
complicated thing in the world.
It ain't more complicated
than this leaf.
- Sure it is.
That leaf's a little thing.
The human body's a lot bigger.
That's what I mean. It's got a lot
more to be complicated about.
This leaf ain't got
nothing to be complicated about
when you get right down to it.
What's so fancy about it?
Look at the veins, for instance.
These veins are more
important than human veins?
I didn't say that.
I only said look at them.
All right. I'm looking. So what?
They're fancy.
The trouble with this map is
there's no detail about the farm.
It says the wall ends down by
the river. We know that already.
Doesn't show us anything new at all.
Might as well toss it away.
If we tried the river...
What did you say?
Nothing. I didn't say anything.
Oh, come on, Windy. This is no time
to be writing letters to your
sister. What did you say?
I was thinking that...
Spit it out.
Well, I said,
I'd bet if we tried the river.
What about if we tried the river?
Well, we could circle the farm
by the river and then crawl
along by the bank.
Maybe he's got something there.
Go on, what else?
Forgetting the farm entirely.
Just crawling along the wall,
then wading along the bank till
the bridge then we blow her?
How about it?
Say, you're a pretty
shrewd guy, Windy.
I tell that to myself all the time.
Doesn't sound bad.
- Sounds good.
We'll have to work fast.
- Awful fast.
Yeah.
What we'll do is this.
Ward,
you take a patrol and go first.
Windy, you take
another one and follow.
If Ward gets jammed,
you'll pitch in.
I'll stay here with the rest
of the platoon.
I'll give you exactly 30 minutes.
Then we'll hop over this wall
and head for the house.
You can tell when we start
cos I'll put Rivera to work.
The krauts will think we're
coming up on this side,
so they'll pay us all the attention,
then you can blow the bridge.
As soon as we hear you blow it,
we'll get up and rush the joint.
How does it sound?
- Sounds all right.
How about you, Windy?
Check.
- Well, that's the story, then.
You've cut yourself a tough job, Tyne.
It's suicide. I'm a hero.
We're all heroes. This'll mean
a good conduct medal.
OK. Pick your men.
You too, Windy.
Joe, Sam, Rye, Horn, Ross, Tranella,
Monty, Miles.
Ward and Windy will tell you
what the setup is.
It's kind of simple.
So it could go wrong easily.
Can't be any worse
than Louisiana manoeuvres.
I don't know what else to say except
it's a stinking situation. Right?
Right.
Good luck.
OK, you gravel agitator, let's go.
Jack?
Can you take a note to Rivera?
Hey, Rivera.
Somebody's coming up there.
Maybe it's Marlene Dietrich.
Has it got legs?
- I can't see.
It's the way they walk in the army.
It's Joe Jack. Look at that guy travel.
- Not much style.
Why do they always stick you out
in left field? Why don't you hang
around where a guy can get at you?
There are three ways to do things.
The right way, the wrong
way and the army way.
It's the army way to stick me in left field!
What you got, Joe?
Message from Tyne.
Wish I had my glasses.
Cut it. Cut it. What's he say?
Two patrols going
try go round farm via river.
I taking rest platoon over field.
When blow my whistle
synchronise watch 11:40 hours.
Five minutes after going upfield
on dot.
Give cover 15 seconds before.
Give cover upfield.
Remember, cover 11:44 and 45 seconds.
Hope ammo holds out.
We are going all the way.
That's all.
- How's he signed?
Tyne. Sergeant. USA.
Formal, ain't he?
If this thing is right,
it's two minutes to 11:45.
Have the patrols left yet, Joe?
- Yeah, before I came here.
OK. Hop back and say we're all set.
Tell Tyne I said good luck.
I'll tell him, Rivera.
Nobody dies.
How's the ammo?
- It's been worse and it's been better.
Tyne really cut himself
a piece of cake.
Hey, Friedman, what's this mean?
Five minutes after going
upfield on dot. I don't get it.
Let me see the note.
"Five minutes after going... "
Oh, I get it. It means that five
minutes after he blows his whistle,
they're going up the field.
He wants us to go to work
15 seconds before.
- Oh, is that it?
Suppose they'll give me
money for overtime?
- Sure.
It's a tricky business.
Looks like we'll be getting
a new platoon pretty soon.
Mary and Joseph, there's a lot
of good men going out in this war.
Why don't they let us alone?
I wish I had every Nazi right
in the palm of my hand.
I'd crush them to a pulp.
Why don't they let us alone?
You catch on slow, Rivera,
but you catch on good.
- Yeah.
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick.
What are you looking at?
Not looking.
Thinking.
Ward thinks we'll never
make it across the field.
Ward thinks you're
throwing yourself away.
- I don't care what he thinks!
I'm in command here.
Wish that Jack would get back.
Sorry I slipped, Sarge.
- Shh! See that you don't slip again.
You oughta write
a letter too, Tinker.
I forgot you're sprawled
out of that wall.
OK, pal. I'll write that letter
to your mom.
Dear Mom,
now sleeping against a wall
somewhere in Italy.
Isn't very comfortable but a man
has to lie where he can these days.
If you ever get to Italy,
you must come and see me
for I'm always going to be here.
Water's cold.
Funny thing on a hot day,
when the water's cold.
You've just come in under the wire.
How'd it go?
- Rivera said it's OK.
He said good luck.
- Nice of him.
All the watches are synchronised.
We only have to check with Rivera.
There's Tyne's whistle
right on the nose.
Even the second hand's
right on the nose.
I'm going to cut
that house right in two.
If the ammo holds out.
- The ammo had better hold out.
Five minutes before diversion.
- Yep.
I figure right behind that farm.
Quiet.
- That's good.
Hope it stays that way.
How do you feel about things, Arch?
It's a long war.
That's all I know about it.
- You still worried about Tibet?
Huh...
Sometimes I think we'll
never get out of the army.
Honest. That's what I think.
I used to think I'd never get in.
I figure I'll get out, some day.
Could be worse.
I don't know how.
You don't know!
You don't get all
the stinking details?
I've got a stinking detail right now.
Who hasn't?
Maybe we can sleep all day tomorrow.
Maybe Germany
will surrender tomorrow.
Who knows?
Who knows?
I'm going to check
with the men again.
When you hear the bridge blow, get up
and run for the farmhouse. Run fast.
Pass the word along.
When you hear the bridge blow,
get up and run for the farmhouse
and run fast.
Pass the word on.
What's the matter, Sarge?
Stomach.
It feels like it's screwed up
in a tight knot.
I'm feeling a little sick
and a little dizzy.
Who doesn't?
It's 45 seconds to go.
45 seconds before Rivera opens up.
Fix bayonets. Fix bayonets.
Sick and dizzy.
Hey, Arch.
Good.
Five. Six. Seven. Eight.
Nine. Ten. Eleven. Twelve.
Thirteen.
Fourteen. Fifteen.
Either those kraut gunners are dead
or they're just playing with us.
It's deserted. Absolutely deserted.
Let's wait till they catch up.
Another second
we'll blow it to kingdom come.
What are you laughing at?
It's so funny. We're going
to blow up the German bridge.
I feel just like a little boy
at Halloween,
stealing the parson's cake.
Come on.
'Nothing slower than crawling.
Nothing in the world.'
'How long would it take
to crawl around the world?'
'100 years? 1000 years?'
'Nobody dies.'
'Nobody dies.'
'We've come a long way.'
'Long six miles.'
'Six miles closer
to San Francisco, Hoskins.'
'Six miles closer to Joplin, Mack.'
'Six miles closer to Saint Paul,
Tinker.'
'It's a long way.'
'It's the shortest way home.'
'The only way home for
all the decent guys in the world.'
'It all adds up.'
'Nobody dies.'
'My head's spinning.'
'Everything's spinning.'
That house.
Field.
Sky.
TIBET!!!
Tibet...
The Kraut's stopped.
Blew enough loving lead
into that thing to sink it!
No wonder it's stopped.
You sure did!
They didn't find Baby.
- No. They didn't find Baby.
Dear Frances,
we just blew a bridge and took
a farmhouse.
It was so easy.
So terribly easy.
# It was just a little walk
in the warm Italian sun
# But it wasn't an easy thing
# And poets are writing the tale
of that fight
# And songs for children to sing
# Let them sing of the men
# Of a fighting platoon
# Let them sing of the job
they've done
# How they came across the sea
# To sunny Italy
# And took a little walk in the sun
# It's that walk that leads down... #