The Misfit Brigade is a 1987 American television film loosely based on Sven Hassel's novel Wheels of Terror. The film was released in some markets under that title.[1]
Germany 1943, a German tank is driving through the burning ruins of an unnamed city. The crew of the tank is made up of convicted soldiers who have been assigned to penal battalions for various crimes. They come across an hysterical woman, crying for her "baby" trapped in a partially demolished building. Ignoring an air raid warden, Porta, Tiny, Stege, Old Man and Sven rescue the woman's "baby" only for it to turn out to be 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. Bertha I, commanded by Wilhelm "Old Man" Beier, successfully knocks out a T-34. Meanwhile, Bertha II manage to knock out another T-34 before being knocked out themselves, by a self-propelled gun (SPG) hidden in a nearby wood. Bertha I is immobilized but still manages to knock out the Soviet SPG. They escape back to German lines on foot, losing only young Pvt. "Freckles" Fredericks who freezes when a shell comes down and kills him.Back at the German lines the platoon witness enemy propaganda before having a wild escapade at a field brothel, returning to their bunker only to find out they're being ordered on a suicide mission to blow up a train with oil filled tanker cars. The colonel says that they will be rewarded with long furloughs and promotion out of the penal corpsAn intelligence soldier, a fanatical Nazi, is assigned to them and the mission is to blow up a train 160kms inside the Russian lines. Tiny jokes that they will live on in Valhalla. They are to go in on foot.They sneak into a Russian barracks and take the enemy's uniforms, weapons, and explosives. Porta is attacked by a Russian playing dead and Seigfried is mortally wounded. The SS sergeant with them kills him as Porta is trying to rescue him, who then kills the Nazi and blows up the building. The next day they capture a Russian tank, killing the crew. They are caught in a fog and stop. A Russian patrol catches up to them, but they are caught out, and have to drive away. They end up in a mine field and abandon the tank, and continue on foot through a swamp where they meet two other German soldiers who have deserted. They are taken to meet a large group of male and female Russian deserters at an abandoned mill. Porta and Old Man fight about completing the mission or deserting. In the end they all go on with the mission leaving the deserters behind. They find the train station which is actually being guarded by many soldiers instead of the few the Colonel said. They sneak and take over a few guard posts. Tiny loses his pliers and has to set the fuses with his teeth. The Russian commander keeps ringing the guard posts but none of the Germans can answer. He sends a soldier to check. Meanwhile Tiny is trying to remember how to set the charges as the oil train gets nearer. He is almost caught but the others kill all the Russians.The train comes in but is not on the sabotaged track. Muller tries to blow the last car with a hand grenade but is blown up by the charge. Porta and Tiny go after the train in a car, finally blowing it with dynamite and a grenade. Back at the German base, the survivors are back on their tank. Bauer, Muller, Seigfried, "Freckles" the kid, and the Captain are dead, until he shows up at the medal ceremony minus an eye and wounded. The squad has been rewarded with iron crosses. At the ceremony, Colonel Weisshagen gets a promotion and a gold iron cross.When Old Man reminds him of his promise of time off, he tells them they will be sent for demolition training before being sent to the Eastern Front. They drop all discipline and present as quirky and unconventional as they were at the film's beginning. In a surprise cameo, the general (Oliver Reed) screams at them, telling them they will be court martialed and punished for their insubordination. At that moment, they are attacked from the air, and the honour guards and the base are killed and blown up. The colonel and the general go to the general's plane, but the pilot is dead and they can't take off. The squad follow them to the plane, form a line, and execute the officers as the whistling theme plays.
The film was produced under the working title Wheels of Terror and was shot in Yugoslavia.In Australia the DVD was released under the title Wheels of Terror.
The film has been described as "a German Dirty Dozen",[2] due to its story of military prisoners forced on a suicide mission deep behind enemy lines.