Months after D-Day in northern France in the fall of 1944, there is a fire-fight between the Germans and Americans. Pvt. James Lewis sees his friend killed in the trench beside him. He freezes and does not return fire at the German soldier. As a result Captain Becket is wounded and he labels Lewis a coward. Nurse 1st Lt. Vera Cornish orders nurse 2nd Lt. Nancy Bell off a transportation truck to assist in the surgery of Capt. Becket. German soldiers return and kill the doctor and capture wounded Becket, Lewis, Lt. Maxwell and the two nurses. As the American POWs are moved, Paratrooper Griggs and Fisher rescue them. In the struggle Maxwell knifes a German guard. While planning their next move, an SS officer shoots and kills Fisher. Angered Griggs physically attacks and kills the German and SS-Obersturmfuhrer Dittrich surrenders himself to the Americans.