I've been looking for this show for awhile, and recently found a episode and bits of other episodes on youtube, so I realize this review is not going to reflect a great deal of knowledge but I think I saw enough to comment. First off I'm a younger Baby Boomer who saw Combat! frequently growing up in reruns along with an infrequent showing of Rat Patrol on WGN during the 80's. I also got my hands on copies of Twelve O'Clock High and Garrison's Guerilla's so apart from the comedy War TV shows (McHales Navy and Hogans Heroes) that pretty much covers 90% of the TV War drama shows from the 60's. Let me tell you, they all are fun to watch (well maybe not Garrison's Guerilla's after you have watched more then two episodes), but I really think The Gallant Men stands out as my favorite. It seems like many reviewers compare this to Combat! and that they prefer it, I am the other way around. I watched the episode Signal's For An End Run and right away there were 7 American casualties, that NEVER happened in Combat except maybe in the pilot when they are in D Day (which I never saw). Combat boils down to 5 Americans or less facing 5 Germans or less in the woods in France somewhere usually with a French spy or Allie involved and a guest star American with coward issues or psycho issues, they put these guys in the same fake "Bonanza" woods and threw in a half track or two. It was cool to watch as a kid because lets face it, that was all there was being shown, and they had the best intro music and titles of all time, but even as a kid it got old for me. The Gallant Men has a horrible theme song and intro titles, but the rest of the show rocks! I mean in this one episode they had the Sergeant fall for an Italian partisan babe and they stood watch together at night and made out! I'd like to see Vic Morrow do that but I never did! So on top of all the friendly casualties (which adds to that thing called realism), there was an actual human factor of sexual tension involved, wow! The hardware I saw was really good, an actual Panther tank (it was made by Warner Brothers so they had some great props to choose from), plus lots of explosions not just M-1's firing, they threw in some enemy air footage (not the best stock footage but OK), and I mean there were a lot of elements involved (urban and rural warfare) not just 5 guys against 5 guys in fake woods! Only one season of this show was made but I'll be looking for all the episodes I can find. It's action packed like a Rat Patrol, has strong elements of drama like a Combat! and Twelve O'Clock High all in one package, plus the American carnage exceeds all three of those shows combined so it actually has more realism to it and isn't meant for kids. 10 of 10, I hope I can get my hands on all the episodes!
Review of The Gallant Men
