Plot
An aristocratic Prussian officer, Captain Stransky (
Maximilian Schell), is posted as a new battalion commander in the
Kuban bridgehead on the
Eastern Front in 1943. Stransky proudly tells the regimental commander, Colonel Brandt (
James Mason), and his adjutant, Captain Kiesel (
David Warner), that he applied for transfer from
occupied France to front line duty in Russia so that he can win the Iron Cross.
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Veteran, highly-respected Corporal Steiner (
James Coburn) leads his
Wehrmacht infantry platoon on a reconnaissance patrol, during which his men capture a young Russian boy-soldier (
Slavko Štimac). When Stransky meets Steiner for the first time, he orders Steiner to shoot the prisoner in strict observance of a standing order. When Steiner refuses, Stransky prepares to shoot the boy himself, but at the last moment, Private Reisenauer (Fred Stillkrauth) saves the boy by volunteering to do it. Later, Stransky informs Steiner that he has been promoted to sergeant, and is puzzled by Steiner's nonchalant response. Stransky also discovers that his
adjutant, Lieutenant Triebig (Roger Fritz), is a closet homosexual when Stransky surreptitiously sees Triebig stroking the cheek of an enlisted orderly, Josef Keppler.
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While waiting for an anticipated attack, Steiner releases the young Russian only to see the boy killed by advancing Soviet troops. While Stransky cowers in his bunker, the respected Lieutenant Meyer (Igor Galo), the leader of Steiner's platoon, is killed while leading a successful counterattack. Steiner is wounded in the same battle trying to rescue a German soldier and is sent to a military hospital to recover. There, he is haunted by the faces of the dead men and the boy (in a dream sequence prior to waking from a coma), and has a romantic liaison with a nurse (
Senta Berger).
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After he has recovered, Steiner is offered a home leave but decides instead to return to his men. When he arrives, Steiner is informed that Stransky has claimed that he led the successful counterattack, not Meyer, and has been nominated for the Iron Cross. Stransky named as witnesses Triebig (blackmailing him with his homosexuality), and Steiner. Stransky tries to persuade Steiner to corroborate his claim by promising to look after him after the war. Brandt questions Steiner in the hope that he will expose Stransky's lies, but Steiner only states that he hates all officers, even those as "enlightened" as Brandt and Kiesel, and requests a few days to ponder his answer.
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When his battalion is ordered to retreat, Stransky does not pass the order to Steiner's platoon, abandoning them. Making their way back through now enemy territory, the men stumble across and capture an all-female Russian detachment. While Steiner is busy, Zoll (Arthur Brauss), a despised Nazi Party member, takes one of the women into the barn for his own private pleasure, only to have her bite off his genitals. He kills her. Meanwhile, the young soldier Dietz, left to guard the rest of the women alone, is distracted and killed as well. Disgusted, Steiner locks Zoll up with the vengeful Russian women, taking only their uniforms to use as a disguise.
The platoon eventually reaches the German positions, sending a message ahead by radio so they can cross
no man's land safely. Stransky suggests to Triebig that Steiner and his men could be mistaken for Russians. Triebig orders his men to shoot down the incoming Germans; only Steiner and two others survive. After Triebig confesses, Steiner kills him and goes looking for Stransky.
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At this moment, the Soviets launch a major assault. Brandt orders Kiesel to be evacuated, telling him that men like him will be needed to rebuild Germany after the war. Brandt then rallies the fleeing troops for a hopeless counterattack.
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Steiner confronts Stransky and contemplates shooting him, but instead contemptuously arms him and turns his back. Stung, Stransky accepts Steiner's challenge to earn his medal, and they head off to the fighting. The film closes with Stransky trying to figure out how to reload his
MP40. When he begs Steiner for help, Steiner begins to laugh. The laughing continues through the credits and pictures of civilian victims from World War II and later conflicts.
