The BEST episodes of Combat! season 2
Every episode of Combat! season 2, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Combat! season 2!
This WWII show centered on the lives of the men from King Company. For 5 1/2 years the men of King Co. faced the enemy starting with the landing on Omaha Beach-D Day June 6, 1944. You see how they evolved from a squad of men to a family.
#1 - The Party
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 12/24/1963
This episode is strictly for laughs. The squad is left in a French village to wait for a ride to meet up with Saunders and Kirby is placed in charge. Three good looking gals smile at our guys as they pass by. Kirby, Caje, and Billy immediately want to delay their ride so they can woo the gals. Three Explosive Ordinance Disposal sergeants already have dates with the gals, and our guys connive to beat the sergeants out of their dates.
#2 - Thunder from the Hill
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/17/1963
Lt. Hanley and the squad are en route to meet a commander of the Free French Army, but require a guide. Massine (Peter Whitney) is a strong-willed, determined man who has a small band of underground fighters. Before Massine will lead Lt. Hanley to Capt. Boulange, he has an agenda of his own to accomplish, and bends Hanley to his will.
#3 - Ambush
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/3/1963
When the Americans liberate a town, the French shoot a man for collaborating. His daughter, Marie Marchand (Marisa Pavan), is angry at everyone and leaves town. The Americans soon learn her father was actually an undercover allied agent, and Saunders' squad is sent to find her. Saunders needs her help more than he thought, and must overcome her bitterness.
#4 - A Distant Drum
Season 2 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/19/1963
A wounded Lt. Hanley is pursued by a squad of Germans, and takes refuge in a French farmhouse at great peril to the mother and daughter living there.
#5 - Rescue
Season 2 - Episode 29 - Aired 3/31/1964
This episode is all Lt. Hanley in a tightly constructed plot. Concussed during an artillery barrage and separated from his platoon, Hanley starts to come out of his daze to find he is being taken prisoner by an SS soldier. The surprising plot twists start immediately and keep on coming, so one needs to pay attention.
#6 - Glow Against the Sky
Season 2 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/5/1963
Sgt. Saunders and his squad become trapped in a cellar of a French village as the Germans sweep through and capture the town. Billy Nelson is seriously wounded, delirious, screaming, and endangering the squad. Saunders leaves him in the street in hopes the Germans will take care of him. German Captain Neubauer (Kurt Kreuger) is bent on making Nelson reveal the whereabouts of the squad, as Saunders desperately devises an escape plan.
#7 - The Long Way Home (2)
Season 2 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/15/1963
Interred in a German P.O.W. camp, Sgt. Saunders and his squad must find a way to escape before they all die in the hands of SS Capt. Steiner. Billy, who escaped, reaches Lt. Hanley, but no help is coming. Saunders plots a scheme to escape. He convinces Sgt. Akers and his men to work with them.
#8 - Doughboy
Season 2 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/29/1963
Phillip (Eddie Albert) is an American WWI veteran who survived severe shell-shock and lives on a farm with his French wife, Marie (Alida Valli). During shelling from a huge German gun nearby, he becomes confused and believes he is still fighting WWI. At first he takes Saunders prisoner, thinking he is a German spy, but he still has enough wits about him to help in the current war.
#9 - Gideon's Army
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 12/31/1963
Saunders' squad finds a concentration camp occupied by a few starving Poles. In their hurry to flee, the Germans left them behind. The squad has orders to move on, but few of the prisoners are able to walk. A German platoon is approaching. The men's leader begs Saunders to stay and protect them, while their former overseer, also a Pole, wants to walk out with the squad before the prisoners kill him.
#10 - Bridgehead
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1963
Hanley orders Saunders and his squad to take a bridge which is guarded by a heavily fortified house. Pvt. Mick Hellar (Nick Adams) is a self-centered, wise-cracking private who only cares about saving his own skin. He reveals that he is a jazz drummer and is soon to be leaving the front to play in an army band entertaining troops and wants to be sure he keeps himself in one piece. The mission demands heavy sacrifices from the squad.
#11 - Masquerade
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1963
Cpl. Arnold Kanger (James Coburn) and a lieutenant have a captive German colonel when their jeep hits a land mine. Saunders and his squad bring them to their Company HQ for first aid. Saunders slowly begins to suspect there is something wrong when Kanger makes slight mistakes while speaking and interacting with the other men.
#12 - What Are the Bugles Blowin' For? (1)
Season 2 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/3/1964
In the first of a two-episode story, amid an Allied retreat, Saunders and his men must get the retreat order to a British infantry unit behind enemy lines. After they fight through German lines to bring the message, British Captain Johns orders Saunders and his men to help him defend the rail depot. Does Capt. Johns value his reputation over the lives of his men?
#13 - The Bridge at Chalons
Season 2 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1963
Sgt. Turk (Lee Marvin) commands a small demolition team that Saunders and his squad is ordered to take behind German lines to destroy a bridge. Turk had a close friend killed on a previous mission, and does not believe the squad can handle the job. He is hostile and abrasive. As casualties mount, it begins to appear that his doubts may be well placed.
#14 - Barrage
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/10/1963
Lt. Hanley orders Sgt. Saunders up a hill to locate German artillery that has eluded all attempts to find and destroy it. But the hill is crowned by a dense ring of machine gun nests, and casualties have mounted. They separate and Saunders is wounded in the leg. He crawls until he falls into an abandoned mine, where he has an unusual encounter with Hans Oberst (Alf Kjellin).
#15 - The General and the Sergeant
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 1/14/1964
John Dehner and Vic Morrow have the title roles, but they play two characters from two wars nearly thirty years apart. Upon liberation of a French village by King Company, French General Armand Bouchard, a veteran of WWI, wants to take command of Saunders' squad. While Bouchard apparently suffers from some form of dementia and is the object of ridicule by some of the villagers, he obviously has personal pride and character.
#16 - A Silent Cry
Season 2 - Episode 23 - Aired 2/18/1964
Sgt. Saunders must deliver radios to the French underground with the radio expert, Sgt. Perkins. Perkins is arrogant, self-centered, and has never been in combat. With an endearing French family in jeopardy, Saunders and Perkins clash over duty and service to the greater good.
#17 - Anatomy of a Patrol
Season 2 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/26/1963
When a U.S. reconnaissance plane crashes, Sgt. Saunders' men race a German patrol to recover the pilot and his film. The Americans get there first, but carrying the wounded airman on a stretcher over heavily wooded hills slows them down. The wily German Sgt. Beckman (James Caan) and his squad counter Saunders' every trick.
#18 - Command
Season 2 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/7/1964
A wounded Hanley is replaced in the field by Lieutenant Douglas (Joseph Campanella), who is surly and opinionated even by Saunders' standards. At one point, he orders a soldier to burn a picture of his daughter, and then grinds it into the dirt with his boot. Saunders discovers what led to Douglas's leadership style and helps him get past it.
#19 - The Hunter
Season 2 - Episode 24 - Aired 2/25/1964
Saunders and Kirby search an abandoned French winery when they are spotted by two Germans who are using the tower for an observation post. Kirby is badly wounded and captured by Hauptmann Heismann while Saunders is busy dealing with the other German. Heismann, a professional hunter, uses and abuses Kirby, while tracking Saunders with his hunting rifle.
#20 - The Hostages
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 1/28/1964
After capturing a town, Saunders, Caje, and Doc briefly enjoy a hot shower, when they are captured by SS Captain Aptmeyer (Mark Richman) and Sgt. Ecktmann (Hans Gudegast aka Eric Braeden). Doc is called well beyond his duty again and again to save his comrades, almost losing himself in the effort.
#21 - The Eyes of the Hunter
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 1/21/1964
Private Jessie Burgess is assigned to guide Sgt. Saunder's squad to a hidden German artillery site because he has done detailed reconnaissance. Saunders is warned to keep a close watch on Burgess but he doesn't know why. Burgess is popular with people who don't work with him.
#22 - Mail Call
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/4/1964
Sgt. Saunders' squad blames his bad treatment of a likable new member, Trenton, on a foul mood caused by a letter he has just received. Actually Saunders believes Trenton is a coward who fakes injuries to avoid battle.
#23 - The Long Way Home (1)
Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/8/1963
While returning from patrol, Saunders and his men are captured by a German platoon. They are taken to be interrogated by SS Captain Steiner (Richard Basehart). Sgt. Akers (Simon Oakland) and his men have been prisoners there some time and are broken and resigned to their fate. Against Akers' wishes, Saunders plans to let Billy escape to get information back to Headquarters.
#24 - The Pillbox
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/7/1964
While falling back under intense pressure from the attacking Germans, Lt. Hanley stops to help a severely wounded man. The Germans are advancing rapidly, so they take refuge in a vacant pillbox. As the rain begins to fall, Hanley attempts to head for his own lines, but is stopped when three German soldiers enter the pillbox.
#25 - Counter-Punch
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 2/11/1964
As the Germans make a breakthrough, rear-echelon troops are ordered to prepare for battle. Never able to form into a fighting force, they become stragglers separated from any cohesive unit. Saunders and Caje are also separated and pick up several of the rear-echelon stragglers, now deep in German territory. While the rear-echelon troops have no combat experience, they each contribute in their own way in the effort to punch back and return to their lines.