# Combat! (1962)

> A squad of American soldiers fights through World War II in occupied France, living with the grim toll of combat week after week.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/4101

## Facts

- Seasons: 5
- Episodes: 152
- Episode runtime: 60 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: war, drama
- Network: ABC
- Cast: Rick Jason, Vic Morrow, Jack Hogan, Pierre Jalbert, Conlan Carter, Dick Peabody, Tom Lowell, Steven Rogers
- TMDB rating: 8.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055666/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: strong
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: grim, earnest, unsentimental, tense, gritty

## What critics say

Viewers broadly regard Combat! as an acclaimed, humanizing war drama whose grim portrayal of infantry life in occupied France earns respect despite its dated format.

## Synopsis

Combat! (1962-1967) is an American television war drama created for ABC and aired in the early 1960s. The series follows a squad of American infantrymen fighting the Germans across occupied France during World War II, centered on platoon leader Second Lieutenant Gil Hanley (Rick Jason) and the hardened Sergeant Chip Saunders (Vic Morrow). Its engine is the simple, relentless pressure of the mission: each episode drops the squad into a new objective, a new ambush or a new stretch of hedgerow country, and the men must hold their ground while the cost of every day wears on them. Across five seasons and 152 hour-long episodes, the show is built as an episodic run of standalone engagements rather than one continuing story, so viewers can enter at any point. Supporting players including Jack Hogan, Pierre Jalbert and Dick Peabody fill out the squad, giving the group a lived-in camaraderie that carries the weight of the war. The tone is grim, earnest and unsentimental, with a focus on exhaustion, fear and the blurred line between duty and survival. The show humanizes its German opponents, treating them as soldiers rather than cardboard villains. Fans of Band of Brothers and other grounded combat dramas will find resonance in its close attention to the ordinary men who fight the war.

## Shows like Combat!

- [Return of the Written Off (1978)](https://ember.film/tv/73465)
- [The Penal Battalion (2004)](https://ember.film/tv/54087)
- [Over There (2005)](https://ember.film/tv/4343)
- [Anzacs (1985)](https://ember.film/tv/19051)
- [A French Village (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/32245)
- [Dark Hearts (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/137707)
- [World on Fire (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/70853)
- [The Rat Patrol (1966)](https://ember.film/tv/12958)
- [China Beach (1988)](https://ember.film/tv/2175)
- [Unknown Soldier (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/72107)

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