Between battles an American infantryman on leave and a Women's Army Corps (WAC) officer fall in love.
Plot
The American 36th Infantry Division is fighting bitterly for every hill in the Allied advance on Rome during the Italian campaign of World War II. After hard combat in the Battle of San Pietro in mid-December 1943, the infantrymen of are given five days of much needed rest. Spurning reverie in town, battle-fatigued Sergeant Joe "Pete" Peterson wanders in the night in a cemetery filled with fresh crosses. He runs into attractive WAC Lieutenant Eleanor "Ellie" MacKay, but his attempts to break the ice are brushed off. Later, Pete's friend and commanding officer, Major Blackford, tells him he has been given a battlefield commission and promoted to second lieutenant.
When Sergeant McFee becomes upset because he has not received a letter from his wife in weeks, Pete takes him to the post office to investigate and finds Ellie working there. This time Ellie offers to buy Pete a drink to celebrate his promotion. Although he agrees, she again fends his advances, revealing that she almost married another soldier, now buried in that cemetery, and does not want to risk falling in love again. However, when the division's leave is cut short, her resistance fails. Pete gets her to agree to marry him on his next leave.
Blackford assigns Pete and his platoon to take out a German roadblock. Pete does, radios back it has been cleared, then spots two deadly German 88 antitank guns commanding the road on which American Shermans are advancing. When one of his men urges him to attack the guns, he becomes overcautious, thinking of Ellie. He calls in an artillery strike. Before it can zero in he realizes Blackford is directing the tank column from its lead. Helpless, he watches the 88s turn Blackford's tank into flaming scrapmetal. Pete is wounded by an artillery barrage and passes out.
He wakes up morose, knowing that it wasn't that his attack could not have reached the guns in time that kept him from trying. Blaming himself for his friend's death, and guilty about thinking of his own survival instead, Pete sinks into a depression, unwilling to see anyone. A visit from Ellie brings him out of it. Pete tells her that he has been given a three-day leave before being sent back to a replacement depot, safely out of combat. They go to the countryside and get married. However, Pete's guilt compels him to rejoin his unit. Ellie knows she cannot stop him, but she will be there when he comes back. Months pass and she discovers she is pregnant, which means a discharge from the army and repatriation stateside. She resists.
Pete is trapped while reconnoitering ahead of his men in some tough house-to-house action, unaware they have been ordered to retreat. He is listed as missing and presumed dead. Unwilling to accept that uncertainty, Ellie scourers everywhere for him without success. When the Allies occupy Rome, she finally finds him there; he had been taken prisoner, but was freed when the Germans abandoned the city intact. His leg injury has flared up, but being reunited again, with safety and a family ahead, trumps all.
Cast
William Holden as Sergeant/Lieutenant Joe "Pete" Peterson
