To Hold Up a Mirror

To Hold Up a Mirror is the fourteenth episode of The Gallant Men. It was written by Charles Smith and directed by Charles R. Rondeau. It aired on January 5, 1963.

Plot summary
Able Company enters Teano, Italy, and notices it’s unusually quiet. A preliminary patrol confirms the apparent absence of German forces. Conley Wright tags along as Benedict enters town, despite a warning from the captain about the potential danger.

Two of the patrol soldiers, Pvt. Joe Salford (Paul Carr) and Pvt. Mike Wooster (Gary Campbell) are assigned to thoroughly check an apartment building for Wehrmacht. The sleazy Salford gets distracted by a female resident and enters her apartment, eating her food and seemingly taking satisfaction in scaring her. Wooster continues upstairs to the roof, where he surprises the three-man crew of a hidden German machine gun nest. One of them stabs Wooster, seriously wounding him.

Back on the still-deserted street, Hanson grows suspicious that the Americans are being led into a trap.

The machine gun team atop the apartment building open fire on the unsuspecting Americans below. The men of Able return fire, but several men are shot.

Seeing and hearing the carnage, Salford runs upstairs to the roof. He manages to kill the snipers with a grenade and finds Wooster. He asks “Where were you, Joe?” before he dies in Salford’s arms. D’Angelo witnesses the moment, and angrily vows to have Salford punished for dereliction of duty.

Lucavich is shot while trying to reach the relative safety of the temporary company headquarters and is assumed dead. Hanson tries to go back to collect the body, but is shoved into the aid station by McKenna. Before the sergeant can reach the door himself, he is shot in the leg. He makes it inside just as German tank emerges and isolates Benedict’s team.

From his vantage point outside town, Lt. Kimbro, leading another portion of Able Company, radios Benedict that they’re being hit by mortar fire and have been ordered to pull back. As the trap springs shut, Kimbro pulls out from his position and Benedict evacuates the aid station.

The German ambush leaves Able Company behind enemy lines. By sunset, Benedict’s squad reaches a farmhouse where the group hopes to ride out the night. D’Angelo selects Hanson, Saunders and Gibson for a patrol to check out the house. Benedict says Gibson is needed to operate the radio gear, forcing D’Angelo to take Salford instead.

A search of the farmhouse reveals only a terrified woman hiding in a closet. D’Angelo calms her and the Americans move in to seek shelter.

Hanson spots a vehicle coming toward the house. An SS officer, Maj. Woelfel (Karl Held), and nurse Uta Braun (Ilza Taurins), emerge from the car and are taken into the house. Woelfel says he is not “a real soldier,” but an administrator. Braun is pressed into treating McKenna, over her insistence that she doesn’t have adequate medical supplies. She thinks McKenna will not live unless he gets more substantial medical attention.

Gibson is left in charge of Woelfel while Benedict and the others rush outside to stave off a German patrol. Shooting breaks out, and Salford is wounded. He is deeply upset to learn his hand is seriously damaged, ending his dreams of a postwar boxing career. Braun tries to assuage his panic and anger.

Hanson reports more Germans are on the way. Benedict rounds up Gibson, Hanson, D’Angelo and Saunders to respond, leaving Salford in charge of the two German captives. An increasingly unhinged Salford blames Woelfel and Braun for the war, reflects on the value of his friendship with Wooster, and bemoans the collapse of his boxing aspirations. He blames Woelfel for Wooster’s death. Woelfel counters that Wooster died because of Salford’s negligence, further inflaming Salford’s ire.

As the sun rises, Salford tries to goad Woelfel into warning the coming German soldiers about the presence of the Americans. Woelfel falls for it, running out of the house and past the Americans. He is killed by gunfire. Salford, pursuing Woelfel, is also mortally wounded.

Gibson makes radio contact with Kimbro, and Benedict calls for support. American artillery units shell the approaching German company. The survivors surrender.

When a hospital truck arrives to pick up McKenna, Hanson is stunned and overjoyed to discover Lucavich in the back, bandaged but in otherwise fine shape.

As the company pulls out, Benedict notes Rome is still “a long way away” as he, Wright and Gibson climb into a jeep and leave the house.

G-2 Report

 * Teano is a real town in Italy’s Campania region, about 30 miles northwest of Naples and 92 miles southeast of the center of Rome. British forces, not Americans, captured Teano in 1943. No WWII skirmish took place there, as depicted in “To Hold Up a Mirror,” though there was a field hospital nearby from December 1943 to March 1944.
 * Lucavich’s observation skills in “Fury in a Quiet Village” led to the discovery of SS and Wehrmacht officers hiding in an apparently-vacated village. But in this episode, in a very similar situation, he brushes off Hanson’s suspicions about being led into a German trap.
 * McKenna’s wounds, which are described as life-threatening in this episode, are never mentioned in subsequent episodes. Lucavich, who was thought dead, was only zinged and a few bandages fixed him right up.
 * The episode's title refers to the phrase "hold(ing) a mirror up" to oneself or another person, a metaphorical way of revealing an uncomfortable truth. It refers to Salford's negligence, which got Wooster killed. Woelfel makes this point explicit in the third act.