When an inexperienced American marksman is thrust into the Second World War’s most ferocious battle, he overpowers the enemy using unorthodox means.

SYNOPSIS:

CAPTAIN JOHN WILLIAM HALL leaves Dust Bowl Oklahoma to win a chest-full of championship shooting medals. He then ships out to Europe to lead his troops during the Second World War’s fiercest battle.

On the troop ship, the young captain meets ROGER LINCOLN SHINN, an infantry officer with a divinity degree. The bond they form changes the way Hall and Shinn look at the human cost of war and guides their actions in the subsequent conflict. Although they are separated during the action, their stories intertwine and culminate at the Battle of the Bulge.

After the war, Shinn, now a prominent college professor, relives their experiences during his lectures as America becomes embroiled in another bloody conflict: the Vietnam War. His students and his faculty question his attitude to war, so Shinn reveals more about his exploits in Europe to justify his teachings.

When Hall is thrown headlong into battle during the German counteroffensive through the Ardennes forest, his troops are overwhelmed and Hall is badly injured. With the enemy closing in, he escapes to a safe position and uses sharpshooting skills honed since his youth to lay down devastating fire on German positions. Then, in an unorthodox military turn, Hall refuses to allow his men to destroy an exposed enemy unit, and instead forces the Nazis to surrender under the threat of force.

Hall regroups but his entire battalion comes under relentless pressure as the Nazi counterattack gains momentum. He then defies his superior officer, COLONEL COLLINS, and leads a cobbled-together task force in a desperate mission to rescue Shinn’s stranded company. Although he is successful, Shinn is eventually captured and tortured by the sadistic, quixotic MAJOR VON BOHN.

Collins reprimands Hall for disobeying orders and dispatches him to help save Bastogne. If the town falls to the German pincer movement, the gains made at D-Day will evaporate. Hall’s unit faces fierce resistance but he again chooses to let enemy soldiers surrender rather than risk more American and German lives by finishing them off in a pitched battle.

Hall then petitions his superiors not to destroy a German-held village in his path. Collins overrules him and orders Allied bombers to level the village. With time at a premium, Hall again defies the colonel and uses his diplomatic skills to force the enemy commander holding the village to surrender peacefully.

With the Third Reich crumbling, Hall faces his gravest ethical challenge yet when he discovers the emaciated survivors of a concentration camp. Now he must decide whether or not to engage the German unit guarding them. Despite the overwhelming urge to annihilate the enemy, Hall again chooses the humanitarian option and saves lives on both sides.

Word then reaches Hall that the Germans have surrendered and the war in Europe is over. Shinn is finally released from the prisoner-of-war camp and both men return home.