The cold rain is relentless. Huddled in the mountains, the Gis are soaked, weary, miserable. One might say it was hell on Earth but these men know better. They already walked through hell when they spearheaded the invasions of North Africa and Sicily. Waiting next is something worse: the brutal nightmare of Anzio.

In his first starring movie role, James Garner plays Col. William Darby and William A. Wellman (Battleground, The Story of G.I. Joe) directs Darby's Rangers, the heroic saga of the on- and off-battlefield lives of America's fierce World War II fighting forces. Jack Warden, Edward Byrnes, Stuart Whitman and others fall in as elite commandos trained in assault tactics. Exposed to greater front-line danger, their losses were high - but so was their courage.