Le peripezie di un plotone di fanteria USA in Europa, dall’estate del 1943 (lo sbarco in Sicilia) alla caduta di Berlino. Ebbe una candidatura ai Golden Globe nel 1964 per il miglior attore debuttante (Peter Fonda). (fonte: retro del dvd)

The story is told in a series of short vignettes, each having a beginning and an ending in itself, though all are connected to the others

An American infantry squad is sent to Italy, including Sergeant Craig, and Corporals Trower and Chase, and GI Baker. The squad take possession of a small town in Sicily. Craig has to stop his men from looting. Baker strikes up a relationship with Maria, a young mother whose soldier husband is missing. They talk to a Sikh soldier. At another stop, white American soldiers beat up black American soldiers in a bar.

The squad are then sent to France. Craig spends the evening with a Frenchwoman who is terrified by bombing raids.

The men help liberate a concentration camp. In Ostend, Trower meets Regine, a violinist, and falls in love with her. However she leaves him for a sleazy pimp, Eldridge.

One truckload of GIs is chosen out of a convoy to supply witnesses to the execution by firing squad of a GI deserter (inspired by the real-life 1945 execution of Private Eddie Slovik) in a huge, otherwise empty, snow-covered field near a chateau at Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines on Christmas Eve, accompanied by Frank Sinatra singing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas", and then a chorus of "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" after the fatal shots are fired. The New York Times film review stated "it stands out in stark and sobering contrast to the other gaudier incidents in the film".(This was an early example of "Soundtrack Dissonance", the juxtaposition of saccharine music with a frightful scene, and was emulated the following year by Stanley Kubrick in Dr. Strangelove, which was also shot in black and white.)

Chase has a relationship with Magda, who suggests he desert and join her in the black market. He refuses, rejoins his unit, and is wounded in the leg. A newcomer to the group, Weaver, adopts a dog. But when the unit pulls out, his fellow soldier, Grogan, shoots it dead. When Chase gets out of hospital in England he is stuck at a bus stop in the rain. A man, Dennis, invites him in to have tea with his family. He has a pleasant time, but when he visits Craig in hospital, he discovers Craig has had most of his face blown off.

The war in Europe ends. In 1946 Trower lives in the Russian zone of Berlin. He is in love with Helga, whose parents he provides with imported goods. Helga's sister has been sleeping with Russians. Trower gets in a fight with a drunken Russian soldier. Neither understands the other, and the two pull knives and stab each other to death. The placement of their fallen bodies suggests the letter 'V' for Victory.