Signals for an End Run

Signals for an End Run is the tenth episode of The Gallant Men. It was written by David Giler and Bernie Giler, and aired on December 7, 1962.

Plot summary
Lt. Tyrell of the Army Signal Corps leads a patrol into the hills above the Liri Valley to deliver a radio set to a band of Italian partisans. The impatient, untested Tyrell orders Sgt. McKenna to send two men ahead to scout, overruling McKenna’s doubts about the group’s safety. There are indeed German soldiers hiding in the rocky uplands, but the Americans don’t know this and conclude the path ahead is clear and safe.

Moments later, the German patrol opens fire and a skirmish breaks out. Tyrell orders McKenna to protect the radio equipment. Seven members of the patrol are killed, including the lieutenant. McKenna, Conley Wright and a wounded Pvt. Gibson survive and try to make radio contact with Capt. Benedict. Wright discovers the radio set at the center of the whole mission now sports a bullet hole. McKenna encourages Gibson to attempt a repair.

The Italian partisans assigned to meet the American patrol appear atop a rock outcropping, angry about the German attack and insensitive to the dead Americans. They are also none-too-pleased to learn of the damage to the all-important radio.

Arriving at the partisans’ camp, the tough-talking Dina shows a flicker of respect for McKenna. Another partisan, Lupo, notices this and looks disapprovingly at them. The Americans are introduced to the leader of the group, Bassano. He expresses his frustration over the mission’s apparent failure. McKenna loses his cool and blames the partisans for tipping off the Germans. Dina breaks up the argument and escorts the Americans to a nearby cave to hide out. Bassano wonders aloud who leaked the plans, and Lupo responds defensively.

Inside the cave, Dina dresses Gibson’s leg wound and defends Bassano’s behavior, calling him a good man who might find common ground with McKenna. The sergeant is more interested in getting to know Dina. She lets her guard down and tells McKenna about her charmed life before the war.

That night over an impromptu dinner in the cave, Bassano, Lupo and Wright argue over the merits and drawbacks of American capitalism. Lupo picks a fight with Dina over the attention she’s paying McKenna. The sergeant gets into a scuffle with Lupo and bests the partisan. Later that night, Dina and McKenna consummate their nascent relationship while on guard duty above the camp.

Back at Benedict’s base camp, D’Angelo, Hanson and Lucavich return from a patrol, handing the captain Tyrell's helmet and saying there’s no sign of survivors at the ambush site. Without radio contact from McKenna or the partisans, Benedict begins to suspect all met a grisly end.

Dina and McKenna re-enter the partisan camp hand-in-hand; she brushes off teasing from other partisans. Gibson is on the mend and is busily working to fix the radio. Bassano expresses dismay over Dina falling for McKenna, and says her rejection of Lupo has created enemies for both of them and weakened his cause. He reminds her that as long as fascists are around, they have to keep fighting.

Bassano summons McKenna with news from a partisan scouting mission: the Germans are massing in hills to the north, indicating they anticipate an Allied attack. But Bassano says the German forces are much larger in number than the Americans realize, and the clash will be disastrous for the Fifth Army if they don’t receive reliable information. After the two discuss strategy, Bassano warns McKenna about the hot-headed Lupo, whom he feels would kill McKenna if given a chance.

That evening, Lupo confronts Dina at the guard post above the camp. Dina rebuffs him yet again. McKenna shows up and scares Lupo away. McKenna pledges to come back for Dina after the war, which she suspects is an empty promise but appreciates anyway. In conversation with Wright, McKenna comes to terms with the fleeting nature of his dalliance with Dina.

Gibson successfully repairs the radio and makes contact with Benedict, who sends a patrol and new radio. The jubilance is cut short by a scream. The group discovers a distraught Dina crouching over Bassano’s body, the recently-fixed radio smashed nearby. Gibson says Lupo was the only other person in the room. McKenna discovers the partisan made off with maps and intel. It’s immediately clear that Lupo is the mole and is on his way to inform the Germans.

Gibson uses his own portable radio pack to contact Benedict’s patrol. Before they can say much, German planes appear and begin bombing the partisan camp. As Benedict tries again to establish contact, McKenna, Gibson, Wright and the partisans move out and discover Lupo leading a German patrol toward the encampment. A firefight breaks out, and the noise attracts the Able patrol’s attention. They arrive in time to help dispatch the Germans. Lupo runs between the two groups and professes his innocence. Dina, aware of his double-crossing, shoots him dead. McKenna rejoins Able Company and Dina sadly realizes it’s the last she’ll see of him.

G-2 Report

 * Wright’s narration mentions Monte Cassino, focal point of a lengthy, tragic and costly series of battles in early 1944. Those battles, though significant in the Italian campaign, are not depicted or mentioned in any other Gallant Men episodes.
 * As is typical for a Gallant Men episode, the stated timeframe and location don’t match history. Wright says the episode takes place in the winter of 1944 in the Liri Valley. Germans picked the Liri River as a major defensive position called the Gustav Line, but the major Allied assault on the line came in mid-May 1944, after major operations at Monte Cassino ended. During the winter of ’44, the real 36th Division was battered during an attempt to cross the Gari River and tied up helping fight at Cassino.
 * Paul Jones, television editor for the Atlanta Constitution newspaper, visited the set during the filming of this episode. Robert McQueeney commented on how the cast had acclimated to the unique demands of acting in war series with each episode. He told Jones, “When we began, we had to do most scenes four or five times before we could get into the swing of it. Now when we move through a town, we move like cats. The effect is completely realistic.”
 * Father-and-son team of Bernie and David Giler co-wrote this episode. Bernie was a stage and screen writer nearing the end of his long career. His previous work included Warner television staples 77 Sunset Strip, Cheyenne, Lawman and Bronco. David was just getting started on his career; this episode of The Gallant Men is his first writing credit. He went on to make a mark in the world of science fiction and the macabre, including Tales From the Crypt, Perversions of Science and the successful Alien film franchise.
 * In case anyone was wondering, put Conley Wright down as a staunch capitalist. The purpose of his argument with Lupo and Bassano in act two isn’t really clear, but may have been an anachronistic reflection of Cold War debates about the merits of communism and capitalism as embodied by the Soviet Union and United States, respectively.
 * In the same scene, Wright says in ten years in journalism he never had a story killed or censored. That last claim is hard to believe, given that censorship was built into the reporting model during World War II. Journalists working in the European theater often fought with Army censors over what could be included in a dispatch and what got cut. Wright reported from North Africa before coming over to Italy, so it’s likely he was familiar with these battles, and may have even had a few himself.
 * The scene in which Dina zones out while listening to a music box in her makeshift quarters and pretties herself up for McKenna reflects a Gallant Men theme. The scene, like the episode “Some Tears Fall Dry,” posits a woman’s fondest dream is to find a strong man and sink into soft femininity. The script for both episodes were written by men.
 * The scene immediately following begins with Dina and McKenna passionately kissing, the cuts to a shot of the moon. That image dissolves to find the two characters seated near each other at dawn, looking kinda dreamy. We’re supposed to assume they had sex, right? This was the 1962 network television way of saying they had sex, isn't it?
 * Wziecewski is typically Able Company’s radio operator in Gibson’s stead. He’s seen running the set in act one, but D’Angelo acts as radioman on the patrol in act four.