Fact1: Headquarters sends single plane load of French paratroopers under command of Major de Clairefons, Fact2: paratroopers Despite are slaughtered as they land Raspeguy 's attempts to provide covering fire, Fact3: Raspeguy leads men in When released after treaty between Viet Minh and France demolishing delousing station, Fact4: Ben Mahidi Upon return home to is disgusted at treatment of people Algeria, Fact5: teenaged brother is machine gunned by police for spraying graffiti in support of independence from France
Output: In the final moments of the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu, a weakened French garrison awaits a last assault by communist Viet Minh troops. The garrison commander, Basque Lt. Col. PierreNoel Raspeguy Anthony Quinn, has called central headquarters for reinforcements. Headquarters sends only a single plane load of French paratroopers, under the command of Major de Clairefons. Despite Raspeguys attempts to provide covering fire, the paratroopers are slaughtered as they land. Major de Clairefons is killed when his parachute drags him into a minefield. Raspeguy is enraged that General Melies Jean Servais sent only one plane, and further believes that Melies intends to make him responsible for the entire debacle at Dien Bien Phu. The Viet Minh overrun the French, with the survivors captured and imprisoned. Among Raspeguys friends are military historian Captain Phillipe Esclavier Alain Delon, Indochinaborn Captain Boisfeures Maurice Ronet, surgeon Captain Dia Gordon Heath and Lt Ben Mahidi George Segal, an Algerianborn paratrooper who turns down a Viet Minh leaders Burt Kwouk offer for preferential treatment because he is an Arab. Raspeguys leadership keeps the men together in their captivity. When released after a treaty between the Viet Minh and France, Raspeguy leads his men in demolishing a delousing station that they see as a humiliation. Upon his return home to Algeria, Ben Mahidi is disgusted at the treatment of his people, especially when his teenaged brother is machine gunned by the police for spraying graffiti in support of independence from France. He deserts from the army to join the rebels of the Algerian National Liberation Front FLN, becoming a guerrilla leader. Upon his own return from Indochina, Lt. Colonel Raspeguy starts a relationship with Countess Nathalie de Clairefons Michele Morgan, widow of the Major who died while trying to reinforce Raspeguys garrison. The Countess military contacts result in Raspeguy being given command of the new 10th Regiment of Parachutistes Coloniaux, serving under General Melies in the Algerian war. The General briefs him that the command is his last chance in the military: if his Regiment fails, Raspeguys career is finished. Raspeguy recruits his comradesinarms from Indochina and trains his battalion with harsh methods, such as using live ammunition on an assault course to encourage speed and initiative. Soon after beginning counter insurgency operations in both urban and rural environments, Esclavier falls in love with Mahidis sister Aicha Claudia Cardinale, who is loyal to the FLN and uses her friendship with Esclavier to smuggle explosive detonators. The previously naive Esclavier begins to have a new view of his nations conduct as the FLN rebels and French parachutists try to outdo each other in breaking the rules of war. Raspeguy eventually turns on his old comrades who have become too sympathetic to the FLN. Promoted to general, his last scene shows him receiving a medal. Outside the compound where this is happening Esclavier, who has left the army in disgust, laughs when he sees a child painting a proindependence slogan on the wall.