| Director | Arthur Hiller |
|---|---|
| Budget | $6 million |
| Box office | $2 million |
In September 1942, Rommel's Afrika Korps is only 90 miles (144 km) from the Suez Canal, but running dangerously low on fuel. The British approve a plan to destroy German fuel bunkers at Tobruk in an attempt to cripple Rommel's attack.
The author of the plan, Canadian-born Major Donald Craig of the Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) is a prisoner of Vichy French forces held prisoner with captured Italian soldiers on a ship in the French port of Algiers. Craig is rescued by a group of German Jews of the Special Identification Group (SIG) led by Captain Kurt Bergman. They rendezvous with commandos of the Long Range Desert Group, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel John Harker, at Kufra in southeastern Libya. They have eight days to destroy the fuel depot at Tobruk and the artillery protecting the harbour, before a scheduled amphibious landing and RAF bombing raid. Their infiltration plan is to pose as prisoners of war escorted by the SIG disguised as German guards. Craig is skeptical of the plan feeling they've waited too long and left the Germans time to create a strong defence. Harker warns Craig not to let personal differences of opinion interfere with the operation, revealing the revised plan is his.
The group encounters a patrol of Italian tanks near a rest stop in a gully. Sergeant Major Jack Tyne spots a German tank column approaching from the opposite direction and they trick the two units into engaging each other, permitted their escape. Craig safely guides them through a German mine field, before they are attacked by a British Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter. They shoot it down after losing eight men are killed, a one troop transport truck, their auxiliary fuel supply, and both of their radios. Harker orders a burial party, and the fighting and smoke from the burning truck and plane attracts Tuareg tribesmen who are friendly with the Germans. Craig parleys in their language and exchanges guns and ammunition for two prisoners: British traitors Henry Portman and his daughter Cheryl who were shot down while flying from Benghazi to Cairo. They carry papers signed by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and German Field Marshal Albert Kesselring: an agreement for Egyptian army officers to rise up against the British in a "holy war" and a stated belief that conquering Egypt will bring other Muslim states into the Axis.
The Portmans are told by a mysterious SIG member about the British masquerade. They take a gun and map to an underground telephone cable to contact the Germans in Tobruk and alert them of the upcoming British attack. When they're intercepted by an Italian patrol, Henry is killed and his daughter seriously wounded.
Bergman and Sergeant Krug retrieve Cheryl from the Italians, who reveals one of the SIG members is a traitor. Harker gives Bergman two hours to investigate, and the traitor kills Cheryl to protect his identity. Lieutenant Max Mohnfeld, Bergman's second in command, investigates the tunnel the Portmans used to escape, and finds the body of Corporal Bruckner, one of Bergman's closest friends. Cheryl's death from cyanide, and Bruckner's missing suicide tablet, fail to convince Bergman his friend was the traitor.
The group penetrates into Tobruk where Rommel has amassed two full panzer divisions undetected, placing the amphibious assault in jeopardy. Without radios, they are unable to report the situation and the RAF bomb Tobruk as scheduled. The LRDG blow up two of the harbour guns, Harker orders Sergeant Major Tyne to signal the ships to abort the landing, and sends Lieutenant Boyden (Anthony Ashdown) to capture the German transmitter. Boyden is killed in the bombing and Privates Alfie and Dolan are shot when they are caught trying to steal captured English pound notes.
Bergman and three men are killed while creating a diversion for Harker, allowing Craig and Krug to escape with two SIG men. They seize a German tank and destroy the fuel depot with it.
Harker and his men surrender and Mohnfeld reveals he is really a German intelligence officer named von Kruger, admitting Bruckern had found him in the tunnel. Asking Harker for the Kesselring document, Harker tells him he burned it before capture then draws his pistol and kills von Kruger. The German guards kill him in return. Craig, Krug and their two companions travel over 70 miles down the coast on foot and arrive at the alternate rendezvous with a Royal Navy ship at Sallum just over the Egyptian border.