Raid on Rommel - Richard Burton - (Classic War Movie)

Raid on Rommel is a 1971 American war film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Richard Burton, John Colicos, Clinton Greyn, Danielle De Metz and Wolfgang Preiss.

In Libya in 1942, Captain Alex Foster, an intelligence officer with the British Army, allows himself to be captured by a German Afrika Korps convoy transporting British prisoners, pretending to be injured. Once integrated with the prisoners, consisting of a medical unit and remnants of a commando force, Foster outlines his plans to take over the convoy, with the help of the prisoners, and redirect it towards the Libyan port town of Tobruk.

On the way, they find an unexpected concentration of German tanks, and they surmise that a fuel depot must be hidden nearby. Foster, in Afrika Corps uniform, and Major Tarkington, the medical officer as his 'prisoner', gain access to the depot and meet Field Marshal Erwin Rommel. During a friendly dispute over philately between Rommel and Tarkington, Foster notices a map which indicates the location of the fuel depot.

They make excuses, leave, capture a tank, and blow up the fuel dump. They escape towards Tobruk, where they destroy a coastal battery. The prisoners are embarked in boats launched by attacking Royal Navy warships. However, Foster and Tarkington are captured by German soldiers. The film leaves their fates unexplained.

The only female character in the film, Vivianne, is a woman previously attached to an Italian general. Vivianne is held against her will because of her presence on the official letters of transport for the convoy. She is drugged and eventually abandoned at the side of the road before the final battle in Tobruk.