Five Cartridges 1960

Set during the Spanish Civil War, a small unit from the International Brigades is suddenly cut off in the frontline, abandoned with no water and no ammunition. Major Bolaños Fritz Diez orders his commissar, Heinrich Witting Erwin Geschonneck, to pick five volunteers who will stay in the trenches and hold the line while the rest of the battalion makes a retreat across the Ebro River. The chosen volunteers are Pierre Armin Mueller-Stahl, the Frenchman; Willi Ernst-Georg Schwill, the German; Oleg Manfred Krug, the Pole; José Edwin Marian, the Spaniard; and Dimitri Günter Naumann, the Bulgarian. Also remaining behind is Wasja Ulrich Thein, the Soviet radio operator who handles communications.

As the battalion pulls back, the five volunteers fiercely defend the exposed position for several hours, buying time for the retreat. After a tense stand, Wasja disappears, and when Witting goes after him, he is spotted by the Nationalists and shot. In his final act, Witting tears a page from a notebook into five pieces, sealing each fragment inside spent cartridges. He hands one cartridge to each of the five men and instructs them to carry the pieces back to the battalion, insisting that the fragments contain a crucial message that will only be decipherable if every piece reaches its destination.

With Wasja recovered, the group treks across the Sierra in blistering heat, finding scarce water and facing wells that are guarded by Nationalist forces. Their thirst fuels growing tension and small disagreements among them, testing their resolve. Wasja, driven to desperation, wanders into a village in search of water and is captured by the Guardia Civil. The others mount a risky rescue, pulling him back to safety. In a remarkable turn, Wasja volunteers to slow the enemy’s pursuit in a final act of self-sacrifice, approaching another unit with a grenade in hand and dying when it explodes.

Meanwhile, Pierre risks a final, fateful move: he emerges from cover to drink from a well and is shot dead. The remaining two men and the others manage to cross the Ebro and rejoin the battalion, nearly drained and exhausted but alive. When the sealed cartridges are finally opened, they reveal the true message from Witting: a simple, enduring reminder—Stay together, so you will survive. The stark truth of their ordeal underscores the cost of unity and the resilience required to endure in a fight that demanded more than mere courage.