Every TV show has that one episode which everyone will point to when it comes to simply being the best. In the case of Combat, there are two (technically). Hills Are For Heroes is by far and without a doubt the best episode of this show for a few different reasons. For one thing, it's way more violent than basically every other episode, and it really feels like World War 2 this time around, which is the point of the show in the first place. Second, Vic Morrow directed it, and while he also did one which was in my view mediocre, he once again proves to be the overall best director this show ever had. Hills Are For Heroes starts with Hanley, Saunders and the others attempting to attack a pair of German bunkers positioned on a hillside. A road runs between them, and American forces need to secure it. Each bunker has a vision slit through which a machine gun with a seemingly limitless supply of ammunition is inserted. As they start firing at the americans, Saunders is wounded and everyone has to retreat to a nearby fortification for cover. As Saunders is being tended to, Hanley gets on the radio with his company commander, who says he needs to take the road by any means necessary. Hanley knows it's suicide to try and attack the bunkers with just soldiers, so he wants the Captain to lend him artillery guns to blast them to pieces. The captain says there's already a fire mission in progress, so all he can spare for now are mortars. While better than nothing, they're nowhere near powerful enough to destroy the german positions. Under covering fire from the mortars, Hanley and the others once again try to attack the bunkers, and are again pushed off the hillside. Hanley radios the captain again, explaining they can't push up without some kind of overwhelming firepower to tip the odds. Hanley requests a tank, and while the captain doesn't say that's out of the question, he orders Hanley to go up and attack again, with or without backup, since the road needs to be taken. With other nearby american battalions taking their objectives, everything rests on Hanley's ability to succeed. Hanley knows he has to make the best of what limited resources and men he has, so he instructs Caje and some others to shoot at the vision slits of the bunkers in order to suppress the german machine guns. Meanwhile, Kirby and two other squad members, Morgan and Kleinschmidt, will try to swing around from a different angle and set up a machine gun of their own. During the firefight, a german inside the bunker is killed, but is immediately replaced and the meat grinder starts all over again. Morgan is killed while trying to hit one of the bunkers, and Hanley tells everyone to fall back. For the third time, his forces are pushed off the hill, and everything appears totally hopeless. This is just the first part of a bloodbath that will carry over into the following installment. If they don't get reinforced soon, Hanley and the others are done for.
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