Experienced British Maj. John Gresham leads the 76th Air Force Squadron. Most of his men are young pilots straight out of college who due to their inexperience and the stress of this new kind of battle, lose their lives sometimes within days.
Gresham also has the unwelcomed duty to visit colleges to drum up recruits, all the while knowing he's inviting them to an almost certain death. He keeps these new recruits at arms length to soften the blow to his mental health when they invariably get shot down. When he shows up at his own alma mater, an idealistic young man, Lt. Stephen Croft, signs up for Gresham's squadron.
On his arrival at the airfield, Croft sees the evidence of the turnover in pilots but fails to see the connection to his own longevity; a family photo and personal effects are whisked out of the room he's been assigned, right in front of his eyes. He is introduced to Lt. Crawford, a stony-faced pilot who by the end is finally driven insane by the awful, daily anticipation of his own death in battle.
The young pilots experience the respect that their station in the Air Corps elicits from the locals and from women, but at the same time they see how they are more likely to be killed than the average filthy foot soldier. Croft is taken with a local cabaret girl, who invites him to her room one night. The next night, when he expects her to be glad to see him, she ignores him and pays attention to an older, richer officer. The very next day the pilots are given the task of destroying German spotter balloons, which always have heavy gun and air protection, and the older pilots know this is almost a death warrant. Gresham and Croft are among the six pilots that go out.