The Big Red One

The movie follows the exploits of a squad in the First Infrantry Division (The Big Red 1) and their veteran sergeant (Lee Marvin) during World War 2. The story centers around 4 of the men: Pvt Giff (Mark Hamill), Pvt Zab (Robert Carradine), Pvt Vinci (Bobby Di Cicco) and Pvt Johnson (Kelly Ward) who heroically survive combat in Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Belgium, France, and Czechoslovakia. Along the way, the men have many interesting encounters including helping a woman who is about to give birth, right in the middle of a German ambush, a mission that leads to a battle against Nazi soldiers among the inmates in an insane asylum, and the liberation of a Jewish concentration camp. The four privates learn the true horrors of the war as they watch an endless stream of replacement soldiers get killed (or even castrated), have to trade a fancy casket for a boy's mother in exchange for information, and eventually wind up finding a Nazi concentration camp. And must the sergeant, who has been living with the shame of having killed a German soldier after World War One officially ended, re-live the experience all over again in the 2nd World War?