D-Day the Sixth of June 1956

A few hours before D-Day, a tight, multinational commando team known as Special Force Six braces for a dangerous mission: to destroy a heavily fortified German coastal gun emplacement along the rugged Normandy coast. As the landing ship carries them toward the target, the ship’s uneasy tension is punctuated by a personal reckoning between two officers. On the eve of the assault, the English commander, Lt. Col. John Wynter, Richard Todd, and his American subordinate, Captain Brad Parker, Robert Taylor, find themselves wrestling with a shared, complicated love for Valerie Russell, Dana Wynter. Valerie is the daughter of Brigadier Russell, John Williams, a blunt, battle-scarred veteran who bears the memory of Dunkirk. Valerie’s heart is torn, as she is drawn to Wynter, a man who has fought through severe wounds and earned a place of uneasy respect in the eyes of her father.

Captain Parker, an American paratrooper sidelined by a broken leg from a parachute jump, is reassigned to the European Theatre of Operations in London. In the subdued glow of the Red Cross club, he meets Valerie and, despite being married, finds himself swept up in emotions that threaten to complicate loyalties on and off the battlefield. The layers of obligation—duty to country, duty to comrades, and duty to love—begin to press in from every direction as they all head toward the looming mission.

Back on foreign soil, both Parker and Wynter return to the field, and Parker volunteers to join what becomes the Special Force Six, now led by his former commander, Lt. Col. Timmer, Edmond O’Brien. Timmer carries the weight of past failures, including a bitter memory from the Dieppe Raid, and his leadership is tested when a late-night lapse results in an arrest for security breaches—an incident the film frames as echoing a real-life breach attributed to Major General Henry J. F. Miller. The clock ticks loudly as the unit moves toward dawn, carrying the burden of near-miss mistakes and the hope that their meticulous planning will hold under pressure.

With Wynter restored to command and the operation underway, the mission achieves its goal: the emplacement is neutralized, and the Germans’ coastal defenses are dealt a serious blow. Yet the victory is not without cost. Parker sustains grave injuries and is evacuated from the line, a painful reminder of the cost of war. Wynter, meanwhile, is wounded as the action unfolds and, in the moment of retreat and evacuation, is killed when he steps on a mine—a stark symbol of the deadly price paid in the name of the mission.

In the quiet aftermath, Parker lies in a hospital bed, awaiting repatriation and a return to civilian life. He encounters Valerie for what may be the last time, and she withholds the truth about Wynter’s death. After a final, tender embrace with Parker, Valerie leaves the hospital with her head hung in a quiet, mournful loneliness, leaving the living to grapple with the consequences of love, duty, and sacrifice in the shadow of war.