4 real historical locations · France
A 1970 caper film following American soldiers who go AWOL behind German lines in 1944 to steal 16 million dollars in Nazi gold. Part war film, part comedy, it satirises military hierarchy and the American obsession with profit even in wartime.
CinemaMapped has mapped 4 real historical locations where the story takes place, spanning France.
Rogue American soldiers behind enemy lines attempt to rob a German-held bank of gold bars. Alsace area, 1944.
Nazi Germany looted an estimated $600 million in gold from occupied countries, most of which was stored in the Reichsbank and distributed to German-held vaults across Europe. After the war, Allied forces recovered mas...
View location →Private Kelly interrogates a German officer and learns of a hoard of 14,000 gold bars held in a bank behind enemy lines, setting in motion the most outrageou...
Set in autumn 1944 during the Allied advance through France. The film is a satirical take on American individualism and the profit motive hidden beneath wartime heroism.
View location →Kelly's ragtag platoon infiltrates 30 miles behind enemy lines through German-held Alsace, commandeering fuel and supplies from their own army to reach the b...
The Alsace campaign of autumn 1944 saw US Seventh Army push toward the Rhine. Alsace had changed hands between France and Germany multiple times, giving the region a dual Franco-German identity.
View location →Kelly's Heroes converge on the fictional town where the bank holds the gold. Three Tiger tanks guard the vault. Kelly brokers a bizarre negotiation — cut the...
The film satirises American capitalism and battlefield individualism. Its anti-war, anti-authority tone made it controversial at release in 1970 during the Vietnam era.
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