 Here's the fast marching exercise with your feet aching, the bones and muscles in your legs aching, your shoulders and back aching. Why, what's it for? Are they just hazing you? No, you're not being hazed. You're being conditioned, so you can march further and march faster and fight better than any army in the world. Pint Jap can cover 30 miles in a day. We can do 35. If this crack German regiment can march and fight for 72 hours without rest, we've got to do it for 72 hours and five minutes. It's that extra five minutes that wins battles. We've got to keep going when it's impossible to keep going. When we've marched and fought so long that our eyes won't stay open and our legs won't carry us any further. Roger, forward. That's when we've got to be able to stay awake one minute longer to take one more step and fire one more shot. That is the secret of victory. This is a war of impossible victories. Deep under the hills and fields of Alsace and Lorraine, the French built the Maginot Line, a system of buried forts that made France forever impregnable to German aggression. It was impossible to invade France from the north. It said so in the books. But the Germans didn't read the books or had books of their own, turned their might on Britain. But now the resistance was impossible. A group of British air fighters went the overwhelming German Luftwaffe, always outnumbered, always outgunned, but never out-fought. Those men, those few to whom so many owe so much, drove Hitler's fliers back by sheer courage and determination. The odds were impossible, but they fought and they won. For seven years, China has been holding off a ruthless and powerful aggressor. China started with none of the modern implements of war. No tanks, no planes, no anti-aircraft, and the Japs had everything. The Chinese have fought a modern army with rifles and bayonets. Yes, and with their bare hands. Stalingrad, a city under siege, a city half encircled, more than half occupied by a powerful German army. By all the rules of war, it was time for the city to give up, but the Russian army wouldn't give it up and the people wouldn't give it up. They all fought together, soldiers and old men, women and children. Building by building and street by street, they fought and drove the enemy out of their city and far beyond. Impossible? Certainly it was impossible, but they did it. What is it that produces miracles in war? What is it take to make an army that can walk into an impossible situation and come out on top? A general ship? Yes, back of every successful military action, or the experience, the imagination, the daring of the men at the top. But the plan is not enough. What then? Masses of tanks and mechanized equipment? Well, they help artillery to blast the enemy's positions and soften him up. It's handy to have, all right, but it's not the answer. Secret weapons maybe, a death ray, some Buck Rogers contraption from the 25th century. No, here's the answer. Here's the guy that makes miracles happen, the common soldier, the guy with sweat in his eyes and blood on his hands. Maybe he hasn't chowed for 24 hours. He hasn't slept for three days. He's bone tired and his body is one big ache. He's running on nerve and nothing else, but he can outlast the enemy by one step, by one shot. Enough guys like that fighting together and miracles just naturally start to happen. Oh, he's got a secret weapon. It's issued to American soldiers when they're born. It's called guts. But what can one man do? One poor, tired, beat-up dog face. He can win or lose a battle, that's what he can do. There's a starting point for every breakthrough and every advance. If you cut it fine enough, it's got to start with one man. What this man does in the next five minutes can determine the outcome of a battle. All his training was just to prepare him for this next five minutes. In the confusion of battle, he'll never know that his was the key position, the starting point. If he fails, this one soldier, it may cost his army a regiment, a division or even a battle. This is Bill Harvey. His outfit's been fighting all day and they're ready to drop. Most of them are getting some rest. But Bill and Dizzy Feldman drew this listening job and they're taking turns catching up on their shut-eye. Dizzy's asleep just now and it's up to Bill. He's got to stay awake and he's so damn tired he can't keep his eyes open. A guy can only take so much. That's what Bill's thinking. Gotta get five minutes sleep. The difference is, there's one guy making a whole army. That five minutes? A hell of a lot. If Bill had been awake, he'd have seen this raiding party and he'd have warned his outfit. But Bill's outfit didn't get any warning before the raiders smashed into their combat outposts. Lost some good pals that night. A lot of them. That's what one guy can do.