During WWII, handsome young Italian sub commander and his crew torpedo Allied freighters and transport ships for the Axis then rescue the occasional survivor and treat them humanely while seeking a safe place to put them ashore.

A radio operator for the British Army is captured in a Nazi-occupied Dutch city.

In 1941 an Italian regiment known as the Savoy Cavalry is sent by Mussolini to Russia to assist the German invasion. After crossing an extensive area of Soviet territory the men arrive at a village that seems deserted. A patrol sent on reconnaissance comes under machine-gun fire from the top of a bell-tower.