Fact1: units of 35th Infantry Division are nearing French town of Nancy, Fact2: Kelly visits opportunistic Supply Sergeant Crapgame to obtain supplies and guns, Fact3: supplies and guns be needed for operation, Fact4: Oddball 's tanks fight way managing to destroy German railway depot, Fact5: American fighter plane mistakes forcing them to continue on foot
Output: During a thunderstorm in early September 1944, units of the 35th Infantry Division are nearing the French town of Nancy. One of the divisions mechanized reconnaissance platoons is ordered to hold their position when the Germans counterattack. The outnumbered platoon also receives friendly fire from their own mortars. Private Kelly, a former lieutenant scapegoated for a failed infantry assault, captures Colonel Dankhopf of Wehrmacht Intelligence. Interrogating his prisoner, Kelly notices the officers briefcase has several gold bars disguised under lead plating. Curious, he gets the colonel drunk and learns that there is a cache of 14,000 gold bars, worth 16,000,000, stored in a bank vault 30 miles behind enemy lines in the town of Clermont. When their position is overrun and the Americans pull back, a Tiger I kills Dankhopf. Kelly decides to go after the gold. He visits the opportunistic Supply Sergeant Crapgame to obtain the supplies and guns that will be needed for the operation. A spacedout tank platoon commander known as Oddball and his three M4 Sherman tanks from the 6th Armored Division invite themselves into the plan. With their commanding officer, Captain Maitland, busily pursuing opportunities to enrich himself and seriously neglecting the welfare of his troops, the men of Kellys platoon are all eager to join Kelly. After much argument, Kelly finally persuades cynical Master Sergeant Big Joe to go along. Kelly decides that his infantrymen and Oddballs tanks will proceed separately and meet near Clermont. Oddballs tanks fight their way through the German lines, managing to destroy a German railway depot, but their route is blocked when the bridge they need to cross is blown up by Allied fighterbombers. This forces Oddball to bring a bridging unit in on the caper. An American fighter plane mistakes Kellys group for the enemy, destroying their vehicles and forcing them to continue on foot. They stray into a minefield, and Private Grace is killed. Kellys troops engage an enemy patrol; Private Mitchell and Corporal Job, still stuck in the minefield, are killed. The two units rendezvous two nights later. They battle their way across the river to Clermont, losing two of the three tanks and leaving the bridging unit behind. When intercepted radio messages from the private raid are brought to the attention of the gungho Major General Colt, he misinterprets them as the efforts of aggressive patrols pushing forward on their own initiative and immediately rushes to the front to exploit the breakthrough. Kellys men find that Clermont is defended by three Tiger tanks of the 1st SS Panzer Division with infantry support. The Americans are able to eliminate the German infantry and two of the Tigers, but the final tank parks itself right in front of the bank and Oddballs Sherman breaks down, leaving them stalemated. At Crapgame’s suggestion, Kelly offers the German tank commander and his crew an equal share of the loot. After the Tiger blows the bank doors open, the Germans and Americans divide the spoils and go their separate ways, just barely managing to avoid meeting the stilloblivious General Colt, who is blocked from entering Clermont by the French residents who have been deceived by Big Joe into thinking that General Charles de Gaulle is coming. Not long after the freelancers have gone, Captain Maitland enters the bank, to find a Kilroy and the words Up Yours, Baby painted by one of Kellys crew on the wall.