Captain Joe Gallagher aborts twice in a row bringing him to the attention of General Savage. Savage feels that Gallagher has a chip on his shoulder and is not pulling his weight and assigns him a new plane ""The Leper Colony "" . He tells Gallagher he is going to get a crew of malcontents, ""a co-pilot who is all thumbs, a navigator who can't find his feet, a bombardier who could not hit his plate with a fork"". Gallagher applies for a transfer, but Harvey delays it. Gallagher will have to turn them into a crew. Captain Gallagher is tough on his crew but they start to perform well and after 5 missions, Savage says they have earned the right to change the name. They all decide to keep it, but Gallagher's transfer has come through and he still wants out. Before he goes he wants in on a special 2 plane mission. Savage agrees and they complete the mission but Gallagher's airplane is hit and co-pilot Blake wounded. He can not abandon the aircraft so he gets it home safe. Savage promotes him to

Savage wants the 918th to try a new technique, bombing on the leader. Instead of each bombardier sighting his own target and then making his own bomb-run, the entire group would synchronize with the lead bombardier and when he drops, the whole Group drops. Both Generals' Crowe & Pritchard are opposed to the idea but Savage presses for it. His lead crew consists of Bishop, Zimmerman & Mellon. Mellon has been recommended for the DFC for a previous mission. When his best friend the Navigator was badly wounded, Mellon stayed at his post and made the bomb run anyway. The run was successful but the friend died. Mellon is shaken and on the next mission, the entire group misses and bombs a school. Unsure whether it was faulty equipment or his error, Mellon does not want to be lead bombardier any longer. Savage pushes Mellon and they go up again and successfully bomb the target.

Tom Lockridge is a copilot, on a mission the pilot is killed, and he takes over allowing the crew to bail out. His best friend Captain Wade Ritchie disobeys orders and flies cover with his B-17. Back on the ground Savage tells Ritchie he is going to charge him with disobeying an order for leaving formation. When Lockridge returns and finds this out he turns his back on the General. Savage tries to explain to Lockridge the concept of formation discipline, but he is only concerned about his friend. Ritchie draws a court martial and is reduced in rank to 1st Lieutenant. Savage speaks to Libby MacAndrews, Lockridge's girl and she and Savage both keep working on him. On the next mission Lieutenant Ritchie flies as copilot with Savage and they get hit, Lockridge now an aircraft commander realizes he can't break formation.

Andy Lathrop is an unsophisticated Tennessee boy. Flying as Savage's lead bombardier, he saves Savage's life, gets promoted to 1st Lieutenant, and gets recommended for the DFC. On leave he meets and falls in love with Barmaid Mary Lean and asks her to marry him, she agrees. Later the pub she and her father have is destroyed during an air raid and Mary is killed. Crazed with grief he goes AWOL. He and Savage talk and he reconsiders and returns to duty a little wiser.

General Crowe is waiting for Savage to return from a mission, he notices that when the aircraft ""High Flyer"" lands an ambulance rush out to meet it. Out gets a pretty girl dressed in a hula skirt who welcomes the crew. He questions Savage about it. Savage explains he just approved the marriage of one of the gunners, a Hawaiian nicknamed ""Pineapple"" to an English girl, Dorothy Hall. Crowe tells Savage he wants him to meet some one, and whisks him back to his hotel where Savage meets resistance leader Nicole Trouchard. Crowe wants the 918th to bomb two targets on the next mission, first the Rouen marshalling yards, the second being a Gestapo building the French Resistance wants destroyed. Crowe feels this will make the resistance feel that the Americans are true Allies and points out that they need the resistance to help with downed airmen. Crowe also reveals that he and Nicole had a brief affair in the past. Savage is concerned that his men will get hit badly on the second run, Crowe te