In 1944, Allied troops have defeated the Germans after the Battle of the Bulge. In Malmedy, Belgium, they find and uncover the frozen bodies of over 70 American soldiers who were held prisoners and killed by their German captors. Three weeks earlier, the prisoners, members of the 101st Airborne Division and 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion are rounded up and searched by the German troops while medic Steven Gould (Alexander Polinsky) tries to help a seriously wounded American soldier. One soldier tries to escape, and is shot dead, causing confusion and fear from the prisoners. The Germans open fire on the prisoners, in what is known as the Malmedy massacre, killing many troops as they try to run away. The soldier Gould tried to save is shot dead and Gould manages to escape with Corporal Nathan 'Deacon' Greer (Corbin Allred). Deacon disarms a German but doesn't shoot him, even at Gould's insistence.
The German war machine is in retreat. Two American M 18 tank destroyers are sent to root out a die hard group of Nazis holed up in the Harz Mountains.