Episode
Combat!: A Day in June
Overview
In a flashback story told as the men rest on a rainy night, Sgt. Saunders recalls the experiences of himself and several other men on the day of the D-Day invasion. This includes tales about Braddock, who won the platoon pool on when the invasion would take place; Doc Walton, who was reluctant to go into battle; Caje (called "Caddie" in this episode), who is accompanied by another Cajun; and Lt. Hanley, who at the time was still a sergeant and had little battle experience compared to Saunders. Following the landing, the men move inland and come upon a farmstead held by a squad of German infantry.
Details
- Series
- Combat!
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 11
- Air date
- 1962-12-18
- Runtime
- 60 min
Episode context
A Day in June is Episode 11 in Season 1 of Combat!. It aired on 1962-12-18. The runtime is 60 min.
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Episode 10: I Swear by Apollo
A wounded Frenchman has important information. He and another man are injured when a land mind goes off. The squad takes refuge in a Convent of Cloistered Nuns. When Hanley arrives, he brings information that the medic died of a heart attack on the way. Saunders and Caje go to the village in search of the local doctor. The only doctor they find is a German doctor. They take him back with them.
Episode 12: The Prisoner
Braddock, while on duty as Lt. Hanley's runner, is "appropriated" by a tough-talking, overbearing colonel as his jeep driver. Unfortunately the colonel decides to drive the jeep himself and his reckless driving results in an accident in which both men are knocked unconscious. When Braddock awakens he is captured by a German patrol, but since he happens to be wearing the colonel's coat--which he put on to keep warm while the colonel was zooming around the countryside--the Germans think that he actually IS a colonel, and nothing Braddock can say or do will convince them otherwise.
More episodes from this season
Episode 9: Cat and Mouse
A worn out Sgt. Saunders must lead Sgt. Jenkins and his men into an area that had already seen lots of casualties. All of the men except Saunders and Jenkins are killed before they reach their objective. After his capture Jenkins uses capture to enable Saunders to obtain the information needed.
Episode 13: Reunion
After the battalion pushes the Germans out of a small French town, Pvt. Paul Villers, a member of Saunders' squad, asks permission to look for his father, a French doctor. Villers' was born in France but his parents divorced when he was four and his mother, an American, took him back to the U.S. He knows the town they're in is where his father was born and looks for him there. It doesn't take him long to find his father, but it takes him a bit longer to find out some things about his father that he wasn't counting on.
Episode 8: The Celebrity
Del Packer is a famous baseball star who was drafted into the army. He winds up as a replacement in the squad. While Kelly looks for a way to make some money by setting up a baseball game with a neighboring outfit, Billy, a devoted baseball fan, is awestruck to be in the same squad as one of his heroes. However, Packer has his own demons to fight, and while the other squad members are too star-struck to notice that something may be wrong, Saunders isn't.
Episode 14: The Medal
D'Amato and Wharton, two close friends within the platoon, become separated from the rest of the men when the platoon comes under fire from a German tank and its machine gunner. D'Amato manages to flank the armor and capture the machine gun, which he then uses against the supporting German infantry. D'Amato is wounded in the process and by the time the rest of the platoon reaches the position, Wharton has taken over the machine gun making Lt. Hanley think that it was Wharton, not D'Amato, who singlehandedly captured the German armor.
Episode 7: Escape to Nowhere
While playing possum behind enemy lines, the wounded Hanley is captured, then interrogated. A When Hanley won't cooperate, General Von Strelitz takes Hanley away for further questioning. The German general calmly kills his chauffeur and forces Hanley to replace him. Von Strelitz refuses to explain what he's plotting, and Lt. Hanley doesn't appreciate the promotion to Kapitan in the Heer.
Episode 15: Just for the Record
Sgt. Saunders is taken prisoner by a German patrol. He is being transported with three other men, two Canadians and a French civilian, when they are freed by a group of Resistance fighters. The civilian turns out to be a Resistance operative as well. With the unwitting help of a woman named Annette, who provides ration coupons, Saunders is able to buy gasoline to transport the three Allied soldiers to Paris. Annette initially resists providing further help when they reach Paris, but reluctantly agrees to take in Saunders for a few nights, but it seems Annette has some secrets of her own ...
Episode 6: Missing in Action
Retrieving a downed pilot becomes even more nerve-wracking, because Lt. Hanley's battle-fatigued squad mistakenly shoots the messenger who delivered the U.S. war hero pilot's whereabouts to them. Lt. Hanley doesn't want this mission, but he's assured that a grizzled Maquisard truck driver will transport them safely to the farm where the French Resistance have hidden the wounded bomber pilot.
Episode 16: The Volunteer
A thirteen year old French boy wants to join the squad. After he is told he can't, he follows the squad. After Hanley is wounded, Caje tells him that he is now part of the group and his orders are to see that the Lt. gets back to town. When they get back to town, Lt. Hanley and the boy discover that the Germans are setting a trap for the Americans. Hanley sends the boy to find Saunders and the men and to tell Saunders about the Germans so he can radio the information to HQ.
Episode 5: Far from the Brave
The squad B.A.R. (Browning Automatic Rifle) man who is also Saunder's friend is killed. Kirby believes the Saunders will give him the B.A.R. Saunders decides to give it to the new man, a cook that had qualified on the B.A.R. in basic training. After the new man is killed his reasoning for giving the B.A.R. to the new man didn't matter.
Episode 17: The Squad
Saunders' and Hanley's platoon is joined by a replacement soldier from Georgia named Moseby Lovelace, who comes complete with a new set of boots that the other troops, especially Saunders, highly covet. Lovelace is eager to see action, but not interested in the ordinary work of soldiering such as digging foxholes. He jumps at the chance to join a night reconnaissance patrol headed by Hanley that will check to see whether the Germans have pulled back their lines.