The Rat Patrol

The British 8th Army sends their desert expert -- Jack Moffitt -- to the Rat Patrol for one very special mission. But Sergeant Troy (the American head of the unit) is very uneasy about this new addition. Moffitt tells Troy that the Germans have buried ammunition and petrol at an abandoned oasis which only the Afrika Korps knows about. Its up to the Rat Patrol to find this oasis and destroy the cache before the Germans can reach it. Dietrich -- familiar with the Rat Patrols tricks -- devises a trap wherein he will follow the Patrol to the oasis. The Rat Patrol gets delayed, though, by a broken axle and, in the end, it is a race between them and Dietrich to see who will reach the supplies first.

As a prequel to capturing General Ernest von Helmreich, the Rat Patrol gets itself captured. They plan to use the general to stop an upcoming attack. However the general manages to attract the attention of a distant Nazi search party and the Rat Patrol ends up trapped in a ravine, cut off. To escape they construct a ""fake panzer unit"" of their own -- tricking the Germans into a retreat. They then make it to the largest of the Germans ammo dumps which they proceed to blow up.

The Patrol captures a German truck at the end of a partially destroyed convoy. In the process, though, Troy and Dietrich end up alone in the desert -- a stand-off until Arab slave traders arrive and capture both, hauling them deeper into the southern desert on the first leg of the slave trail. Troy and Dietrich escape but are chained together and must make their way back to ""civilization"" through the heat, the sand, and the enemy -- both enemies. They agree, after both are nearly dead with exposure, to cooperate. The truce ends when they arrive at Dietrichs column, but before they get down to the convoy, Troy trips and Dietrich ends up unconscious. Troy frees himself and Dietrich is picked up by his people. Troy rejoins Hitch, who has been driving along at the end of the column. They reach an oasis and Troy is able to place the explosives which were the purpose of this farce in the first place. The oasis blows up and the Rat Patrol, again, escapes.

During a skirmish with the Germans, Troy suffers a concussion from an explosion. He ends up alone and lost in the desert. By the time he is found he has a terrible case of sunblindness. Unknown to Troy, though, his ""rescue"" has been by a German unit that is pretending to be Americans so they can coax Troy to tell him where the rest of the Rat Patrol is. Dietrich is the engineer behind this ploy.In the end, recovering from the sunblindness in the nick of time, Troy escapes.

A very prized Germany radar station must be destroyed before a flight of bombers comes over. To do it, the Rat Patrol is given a new, special kind of explosives. Troy is apprehensive about carrying this dangerous cargo, which can explode with the slightest of bumps. Dietrich learns of the mission and tries to beat the Patrol to the area by utilizing an old Arabic legend of an unknown ""trigh"" (road) through the jebels (mountains). The Patrol is also in search of this trigh. But Moffitt gets them lost and Dietrich beats them there. Troy then manages to plant some explosives -- and bluffs Dietrich out of the radar station by telling him that hes willing to die himself rather than let the station do its work.

Moffitt and Tully allow themselves to be captured so that they can get information from Craig -- an American POW -- about Rommels new battle plans. However, Marston, another POW, tells them that Craig died. Dr. Phillips -- the camp medic -- supposedly has some information about the plan, though. When the medic treats Moffitts arm he puts the code name of the mission on the underside of the bandage : Operation Nachtigall. However, it soon becomes obvious that either Phillips or Marston is a traitor and it is up to the Patrol to figure out which, as they are both now giving the Patrol conflicting information.

Tully and Moffitt transport a liberated French underground general to a rendezvous in a deserted lighthouse. Hitchcock stands lookout, disguised as a German guard. Troy, though, is held captive inside the lighthouse -- betrayed by Mathias. Moffitt tries to reach him but ends up unconscious. In the ensuing fight, Mathias is killed and Troy manages to signal the trawler into the area to take the general to safety.

After each Allied bombing of their harbor, the Germans use Allied POWs to rebuild it. HQ sends the Rat Patrol to liberate the POWs and halt the harbors usefulness. Troy must coordinate his plans with Major Indrus (John Anderson), an American who is inside the camp. They use an explosive-laden boat to get into the harbor but the Germans stop it halfway in. The captain, Bertaine (Will Kuluva), doesnt allow the Germans to board his boat. Troy and his men are able to fight off the boarding party and escape into town, but at the cost of Bertaines life. They are followed by El Gamil (Stanley Adams), a sympathetic Arab merchant and black marketeer, who provides a car and uniforms for Moffitt and Hitchcock to go to the German Officers Club in search of Bertaines daughter Marianne (Claudine Longet). She is regarded as a traitor by locals because she performs at the club, but Troy has no choice but to seek out her help. The episode ends with Moffitt and Hitchcock entering the club.

The plan is for the fishing fleet to bring out the prisoners, Dunkirk-fashion. However, a Nazi patrol boat has intercepted the boats. The fishermen believe that Marinanne is a collaborator. Sgt. Troy, though, disagrees and hes right. Marianne talks the fishermen into cooperating, and the prisoners make good their escape.

Valuable German ammo has been dropped by parachute to an Arab farmhouse, and the Rat Patrol is sent to destroy it. On destroying the building, Troy discovers that there is no ammo--but there is a confused teenage boy. The boy proves out to be the son of a German commander. Troy is going to kill the commander, but when the boy pleads with him not to, Troy remembers what it felt like to lose his own father, who died when Troy was this boys age. Troy arranges to capture the German instead of killing him.

Moffitt is seriously wounded in a raid on a German convoy. The Patrol is far from help and so Troy decides to obtain blood from a nearby German field camp. Dietrich is in charge of the base; Troy encounters him and orders him to help him find a donor. Dietrich sends for Corporal Pennell (guest appearance by teen idol Fabian Forte), a captured Yank deserter. Pennell refuses to cooperate but Troy takes him at gunpoint. On the way back to Moffitt, Dietrich catches up to them and it is up to Pennell to do the "impossible" to prevent them from all being recaptured. He rises to the occasion and they make it back to Moffitt and Tully in time to save Moffitts life.

Using a fake (German) Rat Patrol, Dietrich abducts an Arab holy man that he will then "rescue" so that the Arabs will give their help to the Germans. The real Patrol is captured by the Arabs, though, and when they convince the Arab leader--who is a friend of Moffitts--that they arent guilty, Troy and Moffitt go to find the holy man. To do so means a horse trip across the desert.

The Brits and the Americans are planning a high-level meeting in a desert town. On the day prior to the event, the Patrol sights a German motorcyclist and chases him--but he gets away. Assuming that the Nazis must now know of the conference, Troy tries to talk the commanders out of the meeting. But, instead, they assign him to be in charge of the security. Troy gets jumped, while in town, by a knife-wielding Arab. Sgt Roberts, one of the other "security" men, rescues Troy. Unknown to them, though, Roberts is a double agent and is planning to blow up the meeting--a fact that Troy learns.

The Patrol stumbles on a German staff car but before they can attack it, the driver and a guard are killed by a third man\u2014who is apparently an American major. The major orders the Patrol to take him to where a high-level meeting is being held in secret. They do so, unaware that he is a German officer and that Dietrich is trailing them. However on the way they stumble on a unit of Italians who were badly injured and their officer\u2014returning with the Patrol to get his men help\u2014recognizes that the Major must be a German. Whereupon the German attempts to kill the Italian\u2014arousing Troys suspicion.

After capturing Dr. Anderson, a skilled Allied physician, Dietrich ends up turning over his staff car in a ravine (during a blinding sand storm). Troy wants to attempt to rescue the doctor but cant because of the storm. He hears Dietrichs distress call but suspects it is a trick. In the end they do make the attempt as they hear that the Germans are going to do the same. They get Dr. Anderson--who is fine--but Dietrich is trapped under the car and badly injured. The doctor tells them that Dietrich is dead but the German groans just before the Patrol leaves. When Troy ends up saving Dietrichs life, the doctor was about to kill him with a murderous dose of morphine, Dietrich tells Troy that Anderson is a double agent. Anderson ends up getting killed just as the Germans arrive to help their captain.

Troy and his men plant explosives in a German ammo depot and while trying for a hasty getaway run into Dietrich, who orders them to surrender. Knowing they are safe surrounded by explosives, Troy and Moffitt defuse the charges and wait for nightfall to escape. Not wanting to blow the depot sky high, Dietrichs men use bows and arrows and end up shooting Hitch in the shoulder. The two are quickly taken care of by Troy. Moffitt tries to make it to a truck using smoke grenades, but is captured by Dietrich. With the help of the Arab winery owner, the Rat Patrol finally dash to safety. When the American grenade fails to blow up the ammo depot, the winery owner does it for them.

Captain Dietrich monitors a broadcast sent to the Patrol from HQ and then intercepts them on their way to meet and escort a supply convoy. With the odds decidedly against the Rats, Troy takes refuge in an oasis. A child, playing nearby, runs away terrified of the noise and falls down an old well. The Allies and the Nazis agree to put the war on hold and work together to get the child (who is still alive) out. A second German unit appears and shoots Tully. In the end, they are able to rescue the child and, in the confusion, the Patrol escapes.

The Patrol attempts to destroy a small village that currently has a train in it that the Germans are loading with ammunition. However, there is a small group of Arabs (including women and children) being used to load the ammunition. One of the women stumbles upon Troy and offers to help by warning her people. But as Troy attempts to plant the explosives, Dietrich catches on to the plan and gives alarm. Troy ends up shot and captured. It is now up to the rest of the Patrol to cause enough diversion to get him free. The woman continues to plead with Dietrich to give Troy medical attention. As Dietrich is questioning Troy, though, Troy breaks free, shoots the German and is able—with the Arab womans fathers help—to get the explosives planted. The train goes up; the man is killed.

When the patrol ambush an Afrika Korps supply column, Troy accidentally wounds a German nurse. Feeling guilty, Troy decides to take her to a German field hospital. The only problem is that on the way she overhears a piece of vital information.

En route to a meeting with an Arab agent, the patrol is ambushed by Dietrich. With the exception of Troy, theyre all captured and taken to Dietrichs desert base. Troy eventually meets up with the agent, who turns out to be a teenage boy, and a female Irish teacher, but will she allow the boy to help Troy?

Hitchcock is supervising a transport convoy of new anti-aircraft shell fuses when the convoy is attacked by a German unit. Hitchcock is wounded by a deserter.

Lieutenant West is on his way to stop a medical supply convoy, when hes ambushed by an Afrika Korps patrol. Wounded and rescued by Moffatt and Pettigrew, before he dies he informs them that hes got to stop the medical supplies, as some are poisonous. When Moffatt destroys the deadly supplies he is put under arrest by a British Army Major.

A British colonel is captured by the Germans after attending a staff meeting which centered on an upcoming Allied offensive. The Rat Patrol is ordered to either rescue or kill him before he can be interrogated. His Sikh aide insists on participating in the mission.

Troy hides aerial photographs of secret German installations before being captured by the Gestapo. Then a street urchin finds and tries to sell the photos.

A lieutenant is infiltrated by submarine to set up naval gunfire coordinates, but Troy gets suspicious when the officer appears more interested in mapping the Allied positions than the German ones.

A villages typhus serum is confiscated by the S.S. in order to exchange it for capturing the Rat Patrol. Dietrich questions their methods.

Troys brother is captured by a German colonel who was injured in an earlier raid by the Rat Patrol.

On the Eve of a dangerous mission, Moffitt receives word that his younger brother has been killed by a German bomb in London.

Troy and Hitchcock are captured by a German colonel who has a scheme to use them to radio false information back to their headquarters. Meanwhile, Moffitt and Pettigrews rescue attempts are complicated by an Italian officer who wants to surrender to them.