American sergeant Daniel Thatcher serves with a British tank corps in North Africa. He and most of his unit are captured by the Germans and sent to an Italian POW camp.
Soon his guards learn about Thatchers identity as a man who once tried to assassinate Josef Goebbels, the German minister of propaganda, because his wife was killed in the concentration camps. Before he can be brought back to Germany as a trophy, Thatcher
leads his fellow tankers in an escape attempt. As they work their way through the Libyan desert back to friendly territory, they get caught by a sheik who is pro-Nazi. As the sheik takes too long contemplating whether or not to turn his newfound prisoners over to the Nazis, Thatcher leads his men on another escape, this time killing their captors.