The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission

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He's a little late.

We landed a bit early, sir.

You trust this guy, major?

I've never seen him.

U.S. Intelligence

says he's a champion.

What you might call

a "Good German."

All by his lonesome.

Beautiful.

Look...

we can't let them

take him alive.

Let's go.

Twenty-four twenty.

Twenty-four

twenty what, captain?

He was trying to

tell you something.

You do realize

that Captain Ludwig

was on the personal staff

of Admiral Canaris

and the pipeline into

German naval intelligence?

He was also a close personal friend

of my father's before the war.

Oh, maybe you two should have

left him on the admiral's staff.

No, we couldn't do that.

His information was too important.

We had to try to get him out.

Twenty?

Mean anything to you, Clark?

No.

But I've passed it on to British

and Free French intelligence.

They may have something

for us when we get to London.

Easy, girl, you can't leave

without Shorty.

Lieutenant, do you think you could

back up and get us out of this?

Now, hold it.

Our guy's got a great left hand.

Somebody do something!

Let me go.

Typical enlisted men's behaviour.

Getting themselves killed

in a bar fight

over the questionable favours

of some street whore.

I couldn't agree

with you more, sir.

Do I hear you right, major?

You, the champion

of the underdog?

Well, you know, a bum and a drunk in

uniform is still a bum and a drunk, sir.

Shorty? You okay?

- What are you guys doing?

- Champ, give me a hand.

Hold it there.

Hold it there, men.

Break it up.

I'll be back in a minute.

I want those men arrested.

You want them arrested?

Yeah. I'll bet a month's salary that they

were in the guardhouse this morning.

I just want to make sure they're

back in the guardhouse tonight.

You see that big guy?

Got a hell of a right too.

Come in very handy

on our next mission.

Forgive me, general, but I think the

major's gone on one mission too many.

No, colonel, not yet.

Not just yet.

In the viewpoint of

the German High Command,

the Japanese failed to follow up

their victory at Pearl Harbour

and are not now considered

to be trustworthy allies.

They are also aware that the Allied

war effort is now totally dedicated

to crushing Germany before

turning to the Japanese.

The High Command feels

the war might go on for years

and that Germany could still

conceivably lose the war.

Now, those generals were in no rush

to share all this with the fhrer.

Keeping themselves alive,

sort of.

Yes.

Ultimately, they swallowed

their Junker pride,

and they took the word

to this man:

SS General Kurt Richter,

a man whom Hitler

has come to trust implicitly.

They convinced Richter

that it was his duty

to inform the fhrer

about the truth.

He did so.

But he also worked out an answer

to the fhrer's next question:

"How does Germany

ensure a final victory?"

Exactly. With

Operation Valkyrie.

The Fourth Reich, gentlemen.

Richter had come up with a list

of a dozen men,

all top German geniuses

in government, science, the

military, police, education.

All of them under 35

and all of them loyal Nazis.

The existence of this

new shadow government

was confirmed by our contacts in

the German naval intelligence.

In the past few months

the German army surrounding

Stalingrad has surrendered

and the U.S. Navy remains

unbeatable in the Pacific.

The fhrer has

made the decision.

These 12 men

are standing by to be summoned to

Munich, Germany at a moment's notice.

From there, they

will go on by train

along the route of the

now suspended Orient Express.

Venice, Trieste,

Belgrade, Sofia...

and finally, Istanbul.

And there, they will establish

over 10 years,

20, a century, if necessary

all over the Middle East...

the new Fourth Reich.

You will take 12 general prisoners

convicted and sentenced to death

or to long terms of imprisonment.

You will train and qualify

the prisoners

and deliver them secretly

behind the lines.

You will attack and destroy

your assigned target.

Any breach of security,

any failure of discipline,

and the prisoners go right back

where they came from

for summary execution of sentence.

I want to speak

to Private Stern alone.

That's an order.

You looking for another

Dirty Dozen, major?

No, no, no. I'm just biding my

time until I become general

and get the war over.

Now, what happened?

Got into a fight with an officer

in a bar.

Hit him.

Broke his jaw,

sent him to the hospital.

Oh, that's very shrewd. Now,

what did he say to upset you?

We got into

a discussion about race.

I told him he belonged

on the other side.

I see. So you wind up

in a military prison again

and you're facing another

court-martial. Now, look.

You know...

I'll give you a chance to beat this

thing and get back to the war.

What do you say?

Do you want it or not?

I don't know, major.

You get a lot of men killed.

You kill a lot of good people.

And I don't know anymore whether

it's good versus evil with you.

Maybe it's just evil versus evil.

I'll find your keeper.

Let's go!

Take a walk with me, major.

I've got some important

information for you.

Yes, sir.

Nice morning, lieutenant.

Yes. Yes, it is.

You work for the general, huh?

That's right.

You've been with

Major Wright before?

That's right.

And I made it back.

War's over for me, lieutenant.

Well, I wouldn't say that the war

is altogether over for you, hmm.

Ain't war hell, lieutenant?

And when the Germans

surrendered in 1918,

the French brought them

down to a railroad car

in the forest of Compigne.

Little bit before

my time, I'm afraid.

And when the French

surrendered in 1940,

Hitler ordered that same railroad

car from the old Orient Express

brought back

to the exact same spot.

Oh, so that the French could

feel the bayonet this time?

Exactly. Now, that

car was number 2419

and it's in Berlin right now.

Now, the thinking is

that those Germans will blow up

that damn thing

before they'd ever

surrender in it again.

But how does?

After 2419 comes 2420.

The founding fathers

of the new Fourth Reich

will arrive in Istanbul

in car number 2420.

Now we know where this car is now?

Lt. Campbell's come up

with some new air recon

photos that indicates

they may be hidden

in a train yard in Munich.

Lieutenant Campbell apparently

is a very bright young lady.

Why, she's brilliant.

You know, she grew up

in this German aristocracy

because her father was a Foreign

Service officer for 30 years.

Hell, Marshal Rommel

used to bounce her on his knee.

Before or after she turned 18?

Now, now.

Demchuk, Dravko.

Death by hanging.

D'Agostino, Carmine.

Death by hanging.

Collins...

Frederick.

Unsentenced.

Ricketts, Tom.

Unsentenced.

Hamilton, Joseph.

Death by hanging.

Hoffman, Thomas.

Fifty years' hard labour.

Wilson, Lonnie.

Forty years' hard labour.

Echevarria, Roberto.

Fifty years' hard labour.

Get back in line.

The major said

there would be one more.

Well, maybe the major was wrong.

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