8.9/1056 votes#1 - Gauntlet of Fire
Season 3 Episode 1 - Aired 9/9/1966
The 918th Group has just finished 21 missions in the 30 days since May 1, 1944. They have been bombing for Operation Point, the lead up to Operation Overlord, the invasion of Normandy. A 10 day leave is authorized then cancelled and instead they are assigned to fly the Overleaf missions, dropping leaflets all over the French coast. Everyone is exhausted from Gallagher on down. General Pritchard tells General Britt that they need all groups in the air. Britt explains he only has two flyable Groups left, 918th & 966th, he has used the 82nd to replace men & aircraft for the other Groups. Later at Wing, General Britt explains to Gallagher that this could be the ""real thing"". Gallagher says he has heard that before. Britt also tells Gallagher that the G-3 is moving up and the position could go to Gallagher if he wants it. On the first ""Overleaf"" mission to Youreville, they get hit by flak and Pat Barstow's ship gets shot down. Back on the ground, Lieutenant Col. Christy is upset over losing
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1036 votes
#2 - Massacre
Season 3 Episode 2 - Aired 9/16/1966
A shuttle raid is planned by 8th Air Force commander Lieutenant General Harry Owen. Bombers will bomb Ergen Oil Works land in Poltava Russia, then hit Berlin on the way back. A straggling Russian Bomber joins the formation and does not give any recognition signals nor does it respond to Baladin's radio calls. The aircraft is shot down by Major Baladin flying Major Simpson's plane (against Gallagher's orders). Later we learn that the aircraft was piloted by a hero, Major Tobulkan & Captain Chernikov. General Voredenko wants to know who is responsible for this and says that until the man is caught no supplies will be issued. It is the system. Worried that Voredenko will have him shot, Baladin asks Donald ""Doc"" Kaiser for help.
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: Carey Wilber
- 7.7/1044 votes
#3 - Face of a Shadow
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 9/23/1966
The 918th is now temporarily part of the 15th Air Force. They fly to a base at Bellagio Foggia Italy commanded by Colonel Yates. Yates is a drunk. Sabotage led by Major Holtzer. Shull is killed.
Director: Richard Benedict
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1042 votes
#4 - Fortress Weisbaden
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 9/30/1966
The RAF(& USAAF) is getting pounded by very concentrated flak over Weisbaden, the latest Squadron has been wiped out. General Britt visits Gallagher to tell him that RAF Air Vice Marshal Kingsford is out for Gallagher's head, the target must be destroyed or Britt will replace Gallagher. On the next mission the 918th looses 11 aircraft out of 21. It turns out that there is a radar directed Fire Control Station in the area. A team of 8 British commandoes, led by Major Mallory will parachute in and blow it up. After dropping the commandoes, Gallagher's B-17 is shot down, his co-pilot is killed, and only he and Komansky meet up with the commando unit. One of the commandoes, Pte. Cane is badly wounded by a German patrol and is left behind with an ""interrogation pill"" which is really an ""L(eathal) pill"". Mallory makes it clear to Gallagher that he and Komansky are unwelcome ""glamour flyboys"". Mallory, his remaining 6 commandoes, Gallagher & Komansky head to the home of Kurt von Heurtzel a Ge
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: Carey Wilber
- 8.6/1050 votes
#5 - A Distant Cry
Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/7/1966
A flight instructor goes to war.
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: N/A
- 7.4/1042 votes
#6 - Practice to Deceive
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 10/14/1966
Gallagher is shot down in a Mustang on a secret mission. Col Gibbons takes over command of the 918th. Conspiracy is led by Admiral von Kreuter (with Berthold, Shullendorf, Straser) to kill Hitler and negotiate a separate peace.
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: N/A
- 7.9/1036 votes
#7 - The All-American
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 10/28/1966
Ted Master's an all American Athlete is assigned to the 918th. He comes equipped with his own Press Officer. Wants to fly, Gallagher assigns him as Assistant Adjutant. Captain King makes an emergency belly landing and Ted poses in front of Captain King's downed aircraft. Gallagher checks him out, assigns him as an alternate co-pilot. He is assigned to King's aircraft operating the bomb run camera. During the mission most of the crew is wounded including the pilot and Master's lands the plane. He rescues the crew by pulling them from the burning aircraft. He also saves the bombing film.
Director: Joseph Pevney
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1035 votes
#8 - The Pariah
Season 3 Episode 8 - Aired 11/4/1966
Sandy almost runs down a Master Sergeant looking for the 918th. He has a German accent. Gallagher is briefing his Squadron commanders. Turns out to be a specialist. Muhlendorf Stetten factory in houses. 6 hours flying time, but fuel for 3 vector 343. land in a field in Russia captured by Germans, Lawson goes to destroy bombsight and is killed. Danzig Fighter Defense Command Reiniger Engine Works in Stetten Crew is interrogated, pick out Schultz because he stands out. They find out who he is, Gerlach is killed, and Brunner takes command. Brunner orders the men shot.
Director: N/A
Writer: Robert C. Dennis
- 7.2/1037 votes
#9 - The Fighter Pilot
Season 3 Episode 9 - Aired 11/11/1966
9 new planes & crews arrive at Archbury. Aboard are some WACS assigned to Wing HQ led by Staff Sergeant Margo Demarest who is an old friend of Gallagher. Three Ace fighter pilots (Clinton, Dejohn, and Rausch) from the Pacific are ferrying some new P-51 to the 511th Fighter Squadron. Two (Rausch & Dejohn) buzz the airfield to impress Margo and Gallagher is furious. They want to be assigned to the 511th, and the Squadron CO, Major Davidson, wants them but informs them that he is under Gallagher's orders. Major Davidson and the 3 pilots see Gallagher who asks for there orders. Dejohn explains that their orders are in their B4 bags. Gallagher assigns them temporarily (TDY) to the 918th. It turns out that they do actually have orders which split them up and they want to stay together, so they are trying to get assigned to the 511th . They need fake orders to assign them to England and Dejohn asks Margo to write orders for the trio. After he tells her that he loves her, she agrees. All 3 end
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1037 votes
#10 - To Seek and Destroy
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 11/18/1966
A V-1 rocket crashes in Sweden. The allies want to get it. They recruit a rocket expert Group Captain Anthony Carmichael. Carmichael is in civilian clothes in the Star & Bottle and he and Sandy have a tiff. Sandy finds him drunk later passed out on a bench. On the mission, Gallagher, Carmichael & Komansky fly to Sweden in an unmarked plane. They have engine trouble and the compass fails so they follow a German plane in. The German plane is a diplomatic courier which carries the designer of the V-1 guidance system, Dr Tanzman and Oberst Ulrich. They are also there to retrieve the rocket as well. Carmicheal drinks too much and reveals his mission to Swensen, a German operative.
Director: N/A
Writer: Glen A. Larson
- 7.8/1039 votes
#11 - Burden of Guilt
Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 12/2/1966
Major General Fox is putting pressure on Brigadier General Doud to bomb the Sub Pens at Nordensholm. They have bombed 3 times and hit the wrong targets, Doud as the Wing Commander takes responsibility and vows to get them. Colonel Hollenbeck has been leading the 52nd Bomb Group, Doud replaces him and reassigns him as G-3 and sends him to the 918th to prepare them for an attack against Nordensholm. Hollenbeck as senior Colonel wants to lead the mission and delays calling Gallagher back from leave. Gallagher arrives but General Doud agrees with Hollenbeck leading the mission. They bomb the correct target, but it is not the Sub Pens. The camera plane piloted by Major's Werth & Stovall is hit and Werth killed. Against orders Stovall breaks formation to photograph a sub he sees leaving a different area. Shot down, the camera & film are lost along with 4 crew members. Harvey Stovall & 5 men are picked up in the North Sea. Back at base, Colonel Hollenbeck wants Stovall court-martialed for ins
Director: László Benedek
Writer: N/A
8.2/1040 votes#12 - The Ace
Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 12/9/1966
Colonel Harry Connelly is up for the Medal of Honor for the pinpoint bombing of a Radar station without hitting the church next door in Italy. Connelly has done 43 skip bombing missions in Europe and the Pacific. In Adelberg the Germans have a group of scientists working on the Atomic Bomb. All around them they have placed POW's including high ranking officers. Connelly is currently doing Transitional Training in London and is called on do one last precision bombing mission. Connelly & Gallagher decide on a plan. One man mission in a B-25 will bomb the target while the rest of the Group acts a diversion. In training Connelly misses the target twice then hits it 6 times dead on. On the mission the pond Connelly was using as his IP is missing, he drops on wrong house killing some Allied officers. Axis Sally broadcasts the news, Connelly cracks, hits Gallagher. General Britt orders Gallagher to ""get that building"" by saturation bombing which will kill the POWs as well. On the second missi
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: Oscar Millard
- 7.0/1037 votes
#13 - Six Feet Under
Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 12/16/1966
52 Division 3rd Bn captures Argenteau Air Six Air Defense HQ in cellar, Sandy & Gallagher are in France scouting forward bases. Is ordered to investigate . Harvey & Rand from CIC fly in to examine documents. Major Dimscek is killed defending position. Captain Maso and the Willard Germans are closing in. Doud leads mission that successfully bombs the town.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 7.6/1039 votes
#14 - The Duel at Mont Sainte Marie
Season 3 Episode 14 - Aired 12/23/1966
Gallagher parachutes onto a Mountain to get a group of Nuns to move so the Mountain can be bombed.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1043 votes
#15 - Graveyard
Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 12/30/1966
On a Shuttle Mission to bomb Fredricksburg then land in Foggia Italy, General Chandler leads the whole wing. Gallagher's plane is hit and the Bombardier, Navigator, and the Ball Turret Gunner are killed, and General Chandler & the Radioman are wounded; Another gunner is killed bailing out. They crash land at Sabina Island Control. They are aided at the base by it's commander, Major Glenn Luke a medical officer, and the sole enlisted man, Staff Sergeant Conklin. The base also has 4 German prisoners. On the ground Chandler, Komansky, Pargon and the Radioman are picked up by Major Luke. Gallagher and one of the waist gunners Sergeant Shadrack Ellis are still unaccounted for. A German fighter pilot, Hauptman Holtke, is shot down as well. He sneaks into camp following Sergeant Shadrack Ellis and kills him along with Pargon & Conklin. Holke takes Chandler hostage and takes over the base. We learn that Major Like is really a former signal corps officer named Jim Prince, a pacifist who was red
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1045 votes
#16 - A Long Time Dead
Season 3 Episode 16 - Aired 1/6/1967
Captain Dula, a pilot who is flying as Navigator, Harvey flies as co-pilot wounded. Gallagher wounded, Dula takes over, argues with Komansky, Komansky saves Harvey from bleeding to death charged with mutiny. Komansky talks with Jeanne who gives him a letter from Jimmy Sinclair saying that Dula abandoned the crew.
Director: Gene Nelson
Writer: N/A
- 8.2/1053 votes
#17 - The Hunters and the Killers
Season 3 Episode 17 - Aired 1/13/1967
Commodore Leon Crompton is the leader of USN Task Force 10. His job is to find and sink Wolf Pack Laika , 8 German u-boats operating off the Azores. The 918th is assigned under Gallagher as the Hunter portion of the team and Compton's ships will be the killers. Gallagher assigns 9 B-17's , Cromptons force is 4 DD's, 1 CVE Flights of three searching, Gallagher's get attacked. Two bombers are shot down. On the next mission Gallagher carries bombs, carrier sunk bombers sink subs. He gets shot down, picked up by Destroyer. Gallagher is wounded and goes home on Crompton's new flag ship.
Director: Robert Douglas
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of 12 O'Clock High Season 3
Every episode of 12 O'Clock High Season 3 ranked from best to worst. Discover the Best Episodes of 12 O'Clock High Season 3!
This series chronicles the adventures--in the air and on the ground--of the men of the 918th Bombardment Group of the U.S. Eighth Air Force. First...
Genres:DramaWar & Politics
Network:ABC
Season 3 Ratings Summary
"Gauntlet of Fire" is the best rated episode of "12 O'Clock High" season 3. It scored 8.9/10 based on 56 votes. Directed by Joseph Pevney and written by N/A, it aired on 9/9/1966. This episode is rated 1.0 points higher than the second-best, "Massacre".