The Crucible

The Crucible is the twenty-fifth episode of The Gallant Men. Its story was written by William Stuart and the teleplay is by Don Tait. It was directed by Charles Rondeau. It aired on March 23, 1963.

Plot summary
Pushing north toward Rome, Able Company and the rest of the 36th Division are stopped by strong German resistance. The men are told to hold fast as they wait for reinforcements. Lt. Kimbro and Sgt. McKenna spot a lone Wehrmacht soldier who appears ready to surrender. Capt. Benedict tells Kimbro to accept the surrender because the soldier may have valuable information the Allies need.

D’Angelo, who left the group to refill his canteen, misses Benedict’s message. Heading back from a nearby well, he sees the German soldier approaching and shoots him. He inspects the German’s body and finds a written pass explaining his surrender. With regret, D’Angelo realizes what he’s done. Kimbro hurries from his foxhole and scolds D’Angelo, who says he didn’t have time to think before he reacted. Kimbro administers first aid and asks the German if he can speak. The felled soldier moves his mouth, but no sound emerges.

The soldier is taken to a field hospital, where his initial aid is witnessed by Benedict, Conley Wright and D’Angelo. An impatient doctor, Major Ross, brushes past the men, finds out what happened and begins working on the soldier. Ross recognizes Benedict and their conversation reveals a tense past. Benedict pushes for intelligence from the wounded soldier, but Ross says the patient’s windpipe was pierced in the shooting. Benedict persists, and Ross finally dismisses him from the operating tent by pulling rank.

Benedict tells Wright he and Ross know each other from college. Wright enjoys hearing about Benedict’s past and quizzes him on his history with Ross. Benedict says they clashed over their differing socioeconomic backgrounds, a rift further widened when Ross was denied entry into a campus social club Benedict presided over. Wright seems to side with Ross because he similarly worked his way through college.

Maj. Ross and his nurse, Lt. Phoebe Pfeiffer, emerge from the operating tent and sit on a fallen tree outside the field hospital complex. Ross leans in for a kiss but Pfeiffer rebuffs him, reminding him he has a family and that he’s just lonely. He insists he has genuine feelings for her. They are interrupted when Ross is called away. Pfeiffer encounters D’Angelo. When she recognizes him as the man who shot the German soldier, she is irritated, saying the surrender documents were meant to assure safety for surrendering foes. D’Angelo bristles and tells her staying alive on the front requires quick actions. Pfeiffer ignores him and heads to her tent to retire for the night.

Benedict and Wright have joined Cpl. Marsh, a talkative medic, for coffee. Marsh flinches when shells fly overhead; Benedict and Wright remain calm, inured by their time on the front. Marsh begins to lose his composure as he talks about his fear. He is impressed by D’Angelo’s muddied jacket and M1 Garand, symbols of his experience at the front.

Benedict enters the post-op tent and asks Ross if an intelligence officer has arrived to debrief the German. Ross tells him it will be unlikely because battalion is occupied by fighting in a Velletri mountain pass. Benedict’s instructions are to learn what he can from the soldier and report to Lt. Col. Gates. Ross offers to act as an interpreter.

The soldier tells Ross he is a prisoner of war and doesn’t have to answer any questions. He says he surrendered because he wants to ride out the remainder of the war with the Allies and go home after the war ends. He claims he has no valuable information that will aid the Americans. Benedict persists, asking him to point out troop movements on a map. Ross asks to try a softer, friendlier approach and Benedict grants permission. The soldier begins divulging more information, but Benedict suspects he’s lying and making up details. Ross retorts Benedict is being hard-headed because of his lingering enmity for Ross. Benedict warns him the hospital will have to be moved as the Germans re-take the area, but Ross says he won’t move an inch until division tells him to.

Benedict contacts division HQ by radio and shares his hypothesis that the German shared misleading information. Col. Gates does not initially share Benedict’s skepticism, but Benedict sketches out a convincing case that the Germans will try to cut off the Americans and take the hospital. Ross speaks to the colonel and swears by the veracity of the wounded soldier’s intel. The colonel says he must act cautiously and sides with Benedict. He orders the hospital moved. Ross bitterly tells Benedict the move will be fatal for ten wounded patients and leaves the radio tent.

The field hospital is packed up and begins moving. As Ross checks out the final patients, Pfeiffer tells him subsequent attempts to interrogate the German yielded nothing useful. D’Angelo hitches a ride with Pfeiffer, Marsh and the wounded German. Wright and Ross are among the last to leave the now-empty site.

A short distance down the road, German mortars rain down on the jeep carrying Pfeiffer, Marsh, D’Angelo and the German. The quartet arrives in a wrecked village and find themselves caught with no easy way out. D’Angelo assumes control and assists Marsh in carrying the wounded German into a nearby building as they try to evade capture. D’Angelo says he doesn’t think much of their chances. He forces Marsh to hold a bayonet and tells him to use it if the wounded German gives them away. Marsh is horrified by the idea, but D’Angelo insists.

D’Angelo charges out of the building to distract a German patrol and draw their attention away from the medical personnel and the wounded soldier. D’Angelo and the Germans shoot at each other. While D’Angelo is focused on taking out a German with a grenade, a wounded German activates a potato masher and tosses it inside the building. Marsh grabs a mattress and throws himself atop the explosive. His courage impresses D’Angelo.

The Americans push the Germans out of town. Marsh is taken to an ambulance and brags to Wright about his actions. Ross finds Pfeiffer and tells her of his worry about her. Pfeiffer again rebuffs him and tells him to write to his wife. She tells Ross she’s applied for reassignment so she can be away from him. She departs, leaving a confused and disappointed Ross behind.

Ross apologizes to Benedict. The captain accepts, admitting he could have been wrong, too. He offers Ross part of a K-ration and, when Ross is less than impressed with the canned beef-and-macaroni, Benedict gives him another can and claims the beef-and-mac for himself.

“Greater love has no man,” Wright quips.

G-2 Report

 * The temporal and geographic context of this episode are fairly mixed up. In his opening narration, Wright mentions the Velletri foothills, a region immediately south of Rome. That would put Able Company very close to Gen. Mark Clark’s goal of taking Rome. But Wright also notes that it’s winter. The 36th Division, Able’s parent division, entered the hilly Velletri area in late May 1944. Clark’s Fifth Army did not enter Rome until early June. The specific valley of Il Crogivolo (“the crucible”), from which the episode’s title is derived, is a fictional place.
 * When the German soldier is prepped for surgery, Benedict says he needs to ask a few questions and calls for Wright. What for? To document what the soldier says? That would have been a highly unlikely role for a war correspondent.
 * This is the second Gallant Men episode in which D'Angelo mistakenly shoots someone. The first was "Advance and Be Recognized," in which D'Angelo accidentally wounded an old friend while on guard duty.
 * Ross reveals Benedict comes from a privileged background. He says he doesn’t recognize Benedict “without [his] white bucks,” a reference to white suede shoes typically associated with upper-class summer wear. He also says Benedict, who once dressed rather fancily, is indistinguishable from a typical GI when clad in an Army uniform.
 * We also learn Benedict and Ross met each other in college. Benedict’s refers to the school’s alumni as “Tigers,” implying they attended Princeton University.
 * This episode has three nice moments that color in Wright’s relationship with Benedict. Outside the operation tent, embarrassed and frustrated by Ross’ dismissal, Benedict asks Wright if he’s ever seen anyone “that pig-headed.” Wright, looking right at Benedict, replies, “Once or twice.” The remark sails past Benedict, who keeps complaining. Later, in the post-op tent, Wright derives obvious amusement from Benedict’s annoyance at Ross. And in the final scene, Wright is again amused when Ross turns down the beef-and-mac and Benedict ends up having to eat it.
 * The well where D’Angelo refills his canteen is the same one seen in “A Place to Die” and "The Warriors." The exterior of the building where Pfeiffer, D’Angelo, Marsh and the German take refuge is the town hall from “Fury in a Quiet Village.” The outdoor town set is extensively featured in the same episode.