On D-Day plus two, the scattered men of Easy Company regroup with the help of Pvt. Albert Blithe (Marc Warren). Lt. Welsh (Rick Warden) then delivers their orders: they must take the town of Carentan.
In the dead of winter, the men of Easy Company fend off frostbite and hunger--in addition to the enemy--while holding the line in a forest outside of Bastogne. Meanwhile, exhausted medic Eugene Roe finds friendship with a Belgian nurse.
After battling across the island of Okinawa for over a month, Sledge and the rest of the 1st Marine Division are ordered to relieve an Army division that has been in combat against the most strongly defended Japanese position on the island. The primordial conditions and the moral dilemma posed by the presence of civilians put tremendous strain on the physical and psychological endurance of Sledge and the other Marines.