The Rat Patrol
SERIE • 2 Staffeln •
Krieg & Militär,
Action & Abenteuer,
Drama • Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika • 1966
Originaltitel
The Rat Patrol
Produktionsland
Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika
Originalsprache
Englisch
Untertitel
Nein
Besetzung
Christopher George, Gary Raymond, Eric Braeden, Lawrence P. Casey, Justin Tarr, Morgan Jones
Episoden-Guide
1. Staffel 1 (32 Episoden)
01
Episode 1
The British 8th Army sends their desert expert -- Jack Moffitt -- to the Rat Patrol for one very special mission. But Sergeant Troy (the American head of the unit) is very uneasy about this new addition. Moffitt tells Troy that the Germans have buried ammunition and petrol at an abandoned oasis which only the Afrika Korps knows about. It's up to the Rat Patrol to find this oasis and destroy the cache before the Germans can reach it. Dietrich -- familiar with the Rat Patrol's tricks -- devises a trap wherein he will follow the Patrol to the oasis. The Rat Patrol gets delayed, though, by a broken axle and, in the end, it is a race between them and Dietrich to see who will reach the supplies first.
02
Episode 2
During a desert battle, Hitchcock is badly wounded. Troy decides to risk taking him to a nearby German field hospital as their own hospital is too far away. Upon arriving at the hospital he and Moffitt nearly pull off the masquerade, except for a paranoid patient -- Captain Friedrich -- who tells everyone they are American spies. No one believes him but during the delay the doctor notices a tattoo on Hitch's arm from Ft. Benning, Ga. Troy forces him, at gunpoint, to finish the operation. They escape in a hail of gunfire after the surgery.
03
Episode 3
As a prequel to capturing General Ernest von Helmreich, the Rat Patrol gets itself captured. They plan to use the general to stop an upcoming attack. However the general manages to attract the attention of a distant Nazi search party and the Rat Patrol ends up trapped in a ravine, cut off. To escape they construct a ""fake panzer unit"" of their own -- tricking the Germans into a retreat. They then make it to the largest of the Germans' ammo dumps which they proceed to blow up.
04
Episode 4
Dietrich is presented with an old scrap of parchment which shows an ancient water source deep in the desert. Allied intelligence sends Moffitt to find the map before it can be translated; he must get it by masquerading as a German and Troy has orders to shoot him should he find the information (and destroy it) but then not be able to escape. Which is, of course, exactly what then happens. Troy must face the decision of killing his comrade -- and friend -- or finding someway to disobey the orders and rescue the mission.
05
Episode 5
The Patrol captures a German truck at the end of a partially destroyed convoy. In the process, though, Troy and Dietrich end up alone in the desert -- a stand-off until Arab slave traders arrive and capture both, hauling them deeper into the southern desert on the first leg of the slave trail. Troy and Dietrich escape but are chained together and must make their way back to ""civilization"" through the heat, the sand, and the enemy -- both enemies. They agree, after both are nearly dead with exposure, to cooperate. The truce ends when they arrive at Dietrich's column, but before they get down to the convoy, Troy trips and Dietrich ends up unconscious. Troy frees himself and Dietrich is picked up by his people. Troy rejoins Hitch, who has been driving along at the end of the column. They reach an oasis and Troy is able to place the explosives which were the purpose of this farce in the first place. The oasis blows up and the Rat Patrol, again, escapes.
06
Episode 6
A large Panzer unit has a map showing a strategic oasis occupied by the Eighth Armored. U.S. Intelligence wants the map exchanged for a phony one which would show the oasis as empty. Accompanied by a veteran map expert, Sgt. Griffin, Troy and his men start into the German HQ. At midnight, using bows and arrows for weapons, they go into the area but Griffin has a heart attack and the team is trapped in the commander's office. In the end, Troy bullies the ""expert"" into keeping up the effort until they are finally able to finish the mission, whereupon Troy ends up endangering his own life to get Griffin out of the town.
07
Episode 7
During a skirmish with the Germans, Troy suffers a concussion from an explosion. He ends up alone and lost in the desert. By the time he is found he has a terrible case of sunblindness. Unknown to Troy, though, his ""rescue"" has been by a German unit that is pretending to be Americans so they can coax Troy to tell him where the rest of the Rat Patrol is. Dietrich is the engineer behind this ploy.In the end, recovering from the sunblindness in the nick of time, Troy escapes.
08
Episode 8
The Patrol manages to ambush a German unit that is carrying US POWs. Three of these POWs are apparently out to kill each other. Sgt. Gribs -- whose cowardliness caused his men to become captured -- is fighting against Tex and Eddie -- who want revenge. Gribs bargains with Troy for protection, telling Troy that he has information vital to US Command. They start back to HQ, but one of the unit's jeeps breaks down. They continue to travel slowly across the desert until they can capture a German vehicle. Gribs parcels out small hints of his ""vital"" information to keep himself safe. It all ends in heroism -- or something close.
09
Episode 9
A very prized Germany radar station must be destroyed before a flight of bombers comes over. To do it, the Rat Patrol is given a new, special kind of explosives. Troy is apprehensive about carrying this dangerous cargo, which can explode with the slightest of bumps. Dietrich learns of the mission and tries to beat the Patrol to the area by utilizing an old Arabic legend of an unknown ""trigh"" (road) through the jebels (mountains). The Patrol is also in search of this trigh. But Moffitt gets them lost and Dietrich beats them there. Troy then manages to plant some explosives -- and bluffs Dietrich out of the radar station by telling him that he's willing to die himself rather than let the station do its work.
10
Episode 10
Fanatical Arabs -- wanting to end the war on their land -- attack both the Rat Patrol and the German convoy that Dietrich leads, trapping both in a small desert fortress. This forces the two teams into a truce. One of the Germans -- a liasion to the Arabs -- tries to talk Dietrich into betraying the Rat Patrol to the Arabs but he refuses. In the end the liasion tries to go over to the Arabs himself. He ends up killed, and Dietrich and Troy are able to construct a trap of their own -- killing most of the Arabs and escaping.
2. Staffel 2 (26 Episoden)
01
Episode 1
Captain Dietrich monitors a broadcast sent to the Patrol from HQ and then intercepts them on their way to meet and escort a supply convoy. With the odds decidedly against the Rats, Troy takes refuge in an oasis. A child, playing nearby, runs away terrified of the noise and falls down an old well. The Allies and the Nazis agree to put the war on hold and work together to get the child (who is still alive) out. A second German unit appears and shoots Tully. In the end, they are able to rescue the child and, in the confusion, the Patrol escapes.
02
Episode 2
The Patrol ambushes a German courier and finds that his papers contain charts showing desert waterholes and some oases which are unknown to the Allies or the Germans. Suddenly a German patrol attacks, wounding Tully and destroying the Patrol's jeeps, water and weapons. Troy and crew strike out for a waterhole mentioned on the chart. Hours later, near their end, Troy and his men stagger toward an inviting waterhole to find it has been poisoned. On a distant dune they see Dietrich. Tully is near the end, because of his wound. It is up to Troy to negotiate with Dietrich.
03
Episode 3
The Patrol attempts to destroy a small village that currently has a train in it that the Germans are loading with ammunition. However, there is a small group of Arabs (including women and children) being used to load the ammunition. One of the women stumbles upon Troy and offers to help by warning her people. But as Troy attempts to plant the explosives, Dietrich catches on to the plan and gives alarm. Troy ends up shot and captured. It is now up to the rest of the Patrol to cause enough diversion to get him free. The woman continues to plead with Dietrich to give Troy medical attention. As Dietrich is questioning Troy, though, Troy breaks free, shoots the German and is able—with the Arab woman's father's help—to get the explosives planted. The train goes up; the man is killed.
04
Episode 4
Troy determines that the Rat Patrol's only chance to destroy a supply depot inside an enemy-held fortress is by capturing a German tank and using it to get past the guards.
05
Episode 5
When the patrol ambush an Afrika Korps supply column, Troy accidentally wounds a German nurse. Feeling guilty, Troy decides to take her to a German field hospital. The only problem is that on the way she overhears a piece of vital information.
06
Episode 6
Troy infiltrates a German H.Q. posing as a blinded Afrika Korps officer to steal vital information.
07
Episode 7
En route to a meeting with an Arab agent, the patrol is ambushed by Dietrich. With the exception of Troy, they're all captured and taken to Dietrich's desert base. Troy eventually meets up with the agent, who turns out to be a teenage boy, and a female Irish teacher, but will she allow the boy to help Troy?
08
Episode 8
The Patrol is ordered to rescue pop star Mickey Roberts (singer Jack Jones), who is a P.O.W. in a small Afrika Korps compound, with the S.S. also turning up to make Roberts into a propaganda coup.
09
Episode 9
Hitchcock is supervising a transport convoy of new anti-aircraft shell fuses when the convoy is attacked by a German unit. Hitchcock is wounded by a deserter.
10
Episode 10
The young mute son of British General Simms is kidnapped in a commando raid by Dietrich and taken to Rhodes. The patrol must rescue the boy from the island's garrison with only the help of one Greek resistance fighter.