The Misfit Brigade is a 1987 American television film loosely based on Sven Hassel's novel Wheels of Terror.
In 1943 Germany, a tank crew is searching for convicted soldiers assigned to penal battalions. They encounter a woman claiming her baby is trapped in a bomb-damaged building. Porta, Tiny, Stege, Old Man, and Sven discover she is referring to her cat. More wildly improbable situations follow, including Little Legionnaire beating Tiny in a fight, before they are sent to the Russian Front.
In their assault guns, Bertha I and Bertha II, they launch an attack on Soviet T-34s, each knocking out a Russian tank. Bertha II is hit by a self-propelled gun (SPG), and Bertha I is immobilized. The crews escape to German lines on foot, losing Freckles Fredericks who is killed by a shell.
After an escapade at a field brothel, the men are ordered on a mission to destroy a train hauling tanker cars of oil 160 kilometres behind enemy lines. The colonel says success will be rewarded with furloughs and promotion out of the penal unit. A fanatical Nazi intelligence officer is assigned to them and they sneak into a Russian barracks and take the enemy's uniforms, weapons, and explosives. A fight ensues with a Russian feigning death Porta is attacked, Seigfried is mortally wounded, the SS sergeant and the Russian kill each other. The next day they capture a Russian tank after killing the crew.
When they stop to wait for a thick fog to clear a Russian patrol spots them and forces them to continue, blundering into mine field and abandoning the tank. They continue on foot through a swamp, encountering two German deserters who take them to a co-ed group of Russian deserters at an abandoned mill. Porta and Old Man debate completing the mission or deserting and decide to continue, leaving the deserters behind.
Spoken languages: English
Subtitles: Danish,Swedish,Norwegian,Finnish
