Thomas Hart was captured by Germans at the beginning of the Battle of the Bulge. He was taken as a prisoner of war and interrogated by a German. His boots were taken from him and he was left in a cold cellar during his interrogation. After the Germans get some information out of him, he is taken along with other Americans on a train to a prisoner's of war camp. On their way to the camp, some American planes started to fire at the train. They couldn't read the POW sign on the tops of it from the snow. After a struggle to get out of the train, the prisoners spelled POW with their bodies. Some of them got shot and killed by the friendly fire.
When all the prisoners arrive at camp, they are all placed in their different sleeping quarters. Thomas Hart talks to Colonel William McNamara. McNamara asks Hart if he cooperated with the Germans or not and Hart denied that he did. Colonel knew better though because he was told what exactly happened when he was interrogated. He places Hart in a barrack with lower rank soldiers instead of in one with officers of his own rank.
Two black men are brought into the POW camp and they are the only ones that are black in the entire camp. They get placed in the barrack along with Hart. They are also officers. A lot of racism is shown towards them. One of the worst men is Vic Bedford. He places a weapon in one of the black officer's bunk and that officer gets taken out and is shot. When Bedford is later found dead, the other black officer gets accused of the crime.
There is a trial for the murder of Bedford. Hart runs the case and tries his best to defend Scott (the living black officer in the camp). It's long trial and has a big twist to it. Hart finds out later on that the murderer is actually McNamara. He killed him so that the Germans wouldn't figure out about the escape route the prisoners were making. He tries to show everyone in the trial that McNamara is the murderer but he decides to be "sick" on that day.
The prisoners have a big plan for their escape and they must do it quickly before the Germans find out. Hart confesses to the crime so that Scott will be let off the hook. The Germans find out about the escape route though and plan on killing all the officers in the entire camp. They decide against it though when McNamara finally takes the blame. He then gets shot and all the other prisoners stay alive. Then they are all taken back home to freedom a few months later when the war was over and the POW camp was liberated.
I thought this was a pretty good movie but it was boring during some parts. It seemed like some of the POWs got treated fairly. Sometimes it didn't seem like they were in a POW camp at all. I thought it was very strange that a German helped out Hart at one point during the movie.
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