Sergeant-Major Charles Coward Dirk Bogarde is a seasoned British NCO held at the prisoner-of-war camp Stalag VIII-B. He wields a sharp tongue and an unyielding drive to escape, using wit and provocations to needle the German guards and rally his fellow inmates to push the boundaries of their confinement.
During a forced march toward another transfer, Coward evades capture and finds shelter in a French farmhouse and barn that are soon requisitioned by a German army unit setting up a field hospital. Believed to be a wounded German soldier, Coward is taken to a hospital where his identity is finally uncovered, but not before he is awarded the Iron Cross while lying in bed.
Coward is then sent on to Stalag VIII-B. On the way, he engineers the total destruction of an enemy ammunition train, tossing flaming bundles of straw—set alight with his cigarette lighter—into the passing rail cars.
Back at the camp, Coward and fellow prisoner Alfred Lynch as Bill Pope become deeply involved in an elaborate escape plan. The Germans uncover an old, abandoned tunnel, but Coward schemes to deceive the camp commander and Luftwaffe officials, hinting at knowledge of a secret allied bomb site. He uses these insinuations to obtain special favors and bribe guards for vital materials needed to fuel the coming escape.
When his ruse is finally uncovered, Coward and Pope are moved to a work camp in occupied Poland. The camp’s commanding officer brands Coward a traitor, hoping his fellow prisoners will turn on him. The Nazi scheme behind this deception ultimately collapses.
The prisoners then maneuver the Unteroffizier into believing he was responsible for a devastating fire that Coward actually engineered. With that ruse, Coward secures extraordinary privileges—allowing him to move to the nearby town without an escort. He forms a connection with a Polish resistance agent, Maria Perschy as Irena, who provides maps and crucial information. He also joins his fellow prisoners in acts of sabotage, including wrecking a massive supply train.
Returning to the Stalag, Coward and Pope regroup and press forward with the long-planned breakout. The escape plan unfolds with meticulous precision, and the day arrives for 100 men to slip away. Coward leads the way by breaking open the vertical access tunnel into a pine grove, but thick tree roots slow progress and delay the escape. The numbers swing dramatically: 20 men are stuck in the tunnel while 180 remain in the hut. A guard approaches, and to cover their retreat the prisoners break into song. The concertina player steps forward, pretending to be drunk, and is escorted away, allowing the others to push on toward safety (the performer is Tommy Elliott).
Coward presses onward, but the situation remains perilous. He finally reaches the edge of the woods as the searchlight sweeps the area. At the nearby train station, Irena appears again to help Coward board a train for Vienna. She goes to buy his ticket, but Coward chooses to surrender to the guards to protect her. He finds several of his captured comrades, including Pope, waiting under guard in the station’s office.
Coward and Pope are assigned to the IG Farben work camp, near the Belsen concentration camp. As the war progresses, they manage another escape. While posing as workmen clearing rubble, they encounter a jeep filled with American G.I.s who inform them that the front line is only a mile away, but a road crowded with German troops lies ahead. They seize an abandoned fire engine and don fireman uniforms, speeding along as a German convoy parts for them. They reach a corridor of freedom and, amid the final chorus of voices, drive toward liberty, singing a hearty farewell:
> There is a Tavern in the Town
The escape finally carries them toward the approaching front lines, and the pair slip away into the fading shadows of victory, their odyssey leaving a lasting mark on the memory of those who lived through it.
