Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed 2012

In August 1944, the Allies have invaded German-occupied Southern France. German Second Lieutenant Erich Neumann Neumann executes two French men, setting a grim tone for the mission ahead. On the dawn of August 15, paratroopers from the 517th Parachute Regimental Combat Team descend into Provence, facing heavy fire from German forces. Two soldiers emerge from the drops: Corporals Harland ‘Bud’ Curtis Jasen Wade and James Rossi Corbin Allred, landing separately under chaotic skies.

Curtis is spotted by a German patrol and quickly surrenders, a tense moment that contrasts sharply with Rossi’s bold response. After hurling a grenade to distract their pursuers, Rossi weaponizes the moment, eliminates the remaining guards, and rescues Curtis from the danger of capture. The two push forward toward their intended landing zone, seeking safety as the shelling and pursuit intensify. They find an abandoned shelter, a temporary haven, but their path remains precarious as Curtis’s squad leader, Sergeant Caleb Jones David Nibley, closes in to aid them.

The trio moves through the French countryside with urgency, trying to stay ahead of the German pursuit. As they press on, they encounter Neumann and his troops in a confrontation marked by violence, yet Rossi and Curtis manage to overcome the threat and, in a surprising moment of mercy, spare Neumann rather than kill him. This mercy mirrors the earlier restraint shown by Jones, adding a quiet moral thread to the brutal march of war.

With their escape route uncertain, they decide to turn toward Les Arcs to aid a group of French Resistance prisoners in need of help. Along this dangerous detour, they free three prisoners: Philippe Loic Anthian, Gustave Erich Cannon, and Jacques Lance Otto. The act of liberation strengthens their resolve, even as German forces remain poised to strike. Upon reaching Les Arcs, the group spots a confrontation looming—a German Panzer III and a Sd.Kfz. 251 half-track full of infantry moving to hit the scattered paratroopers.

An ambush seems imminent, and the resistance stars edge closer to danger as the trio fights to delay the German advance. The battle leaves them badly wounded, and the toll is heavy: Curtis dies, a loss that hits Rossi hard as he struggles to stay conscious and continue the mission. Rossi, still alive but gravely wounded, is finally confronted by Neumann again; Neumann, wounded himself, does not deliver a fatal blow, returning the mercy Rossi and Jones had shown him earlier.

In a sobering turn of mercy, Neumann guides Rossi to an abandoned farm, where the German lieutenant tends to Rossi’s wounds and prepares a simple meal, bridging the chasm between enemies with a moment of fragile humanity. By the next morning, an American detachment discovers Rossi alive and Neumann dead, a stark reminder of the costs borne in the shadow of war. Back at a military field hospital, Rossi learns that Sergeant Jones remains alive but wounded, while Curtis has fallen. The body of Neumann remains at the abandoned farm, a quiet monument to a conflict marked by shared mercy amid violence.