Flanked by buddy Sparks Johnson (Mystro Clark) on the ground, and co-pilot Lucas (John Pennell) in the air, Major Jack Holloway (Dolph Lundgren) mans Uncle Sam's top secret Phoenix fighter jet. While Holloway's mentor, General William Jacobs (Robert Miano), keeps FBI agents Lock (Tony Hickox) and Load (Kimberly Davies) from snooping into his pet project, Holloway and Sparks enjoy some R&R with Holloway's wife Jessica (Kylie Bax) and daughter Nicole (Yvonne Zima).
Captain Jeff Dakin (George Montgomery) is shot down over Germany on a bombing raid as he sees his brother, Danny (Richard Graham) serving on the same aircraft, shot dead as he parachutes out of the stricken aircraft. Imprisoned in a camp, Dakin conspires with Alexandra "Alec" Zorich (Annabella), a beautiful Russian doctor, and Captain Paul Husnik (Kent Taylor), a Czech resistance leader, to mount an escape. They escape during an air raid and make their way towards safety, but the Czech is not who he seems.
The story is told in flashback, once from the perspective of the protagonist, and then a second time with a deeper understanding that is provided by the intelligence officer in London.
In 1928, Douglas Bader joins the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a cadet. Despite a friendly reprimand from Air Vice-Marshal Halahan for his disregard for service discipline and flight rules, he successfully completes his training and is posted to No. 23 Squadron at RAF Kenley. In 1930, he is chosen to be among the pilots for an aerial exhibition.
In German-occupied Paris, an announcer reports during a blackout that the Second Front has begun, with British forces invading the Continent, and that five Royal Air Force fighters have been shot down. The downed pilots split up and make their way to Paris to try to arrange their escape back to England. On the way, they break into a tavern in search of civilian clothes. When a German soldier shows up for a drink, Squadron Leader Paul Lavallier (Paul Henreid), a member of the Free French, knocks him out and takes his money. In Paris, Paul contacts an old teacher of his, Father Antoine (Thomas Mitchell), who agrees to hide the reunited men in the sewers underneath his cathedral.
Concorde Test Flight 820 is sabotaged which forces the plane to crash land in the ocean off coast of Martinique in the Antillies of the Caribbean. The only survivor is a Jean Beneyton (Mimsy Farmer), a French hostess on the flight. Two fishermen find her, but then are soon killed off by a group of suited corporate agents who ride out in a speedboat, because they were witnesses to the crash.
A Royal Air Force (RAF) airman who dies during a mission has left a letter to be sent to his mother upon his death. The letter is delivered to his mother. As the letter is read out by his mother in the airman's room, she looks through his things and remembers him as a youth. The letter tells of his reasons for joining the air force and going to fight, knowing full well that he could die.
Aspiring RAF pilot Pilot Officer Rawlings (Ralph Michael) fails to make the grade in training, and grudgingly accepts the alternative of joining the crew of Launch 183, an air-sea rescue craft skippered by Flight Lieutenant Murray (David Farrar). Rawlings is initially resentful and bored by the apparent mundanity and lack of excitement of the life, until the vessel is called on to rescue the crew of an RAF bomber shot down in mid-Channel.
In postwar Europe, while flying over the Swiss Alps, a Fox Airways Douglas DC-3 airliner experiences engine trouble and sends out a distress call. Pilot Captain Fox (Guy Rolfe) and co-pilot Bill Haverton (James Donald) set the aircraft down on a glacier with a minimum of damage, but know that they will not be able to radio for help with run-down batteries and a storm setting in.
An American bomber is shot down on the Norwegian coast during World War II. The airmen bail out and land at different locations. In spite of the German search for them, the Norwegian resistance picks them up and hides them in the attic of the local church, a center of operations. Things become tense, however, when the hideout is spotted by a notorious collaborator, and soon the protagonist, Hans (Henki Kolstad), has to get the airmen to Sweden.
Just after World War II, American Steve Pitt (Sterling Hayden) seeks out Father Paolo (David Leonard) at an Italian village. A new priest tells him Paolo was executed by the Germans. Steve recalls the events of 1944, when as a fighter pilot in Corsica, he flew on a last mission over Italy because his friend Captain George Peterson failed to complete his assignment: to blast a tunnel leading to a German ammunition dump. Steve is shot down, however, and parachutes into enemy-held Italy. Getting help from Nina (Joy Page), a young Italian partisan, she brings him to Bruno (J. Carrol Naish), the local partisan leader.
Sous l'Occupation, la rencontre fortuite d'un pilote américain tombé en France, Allan Morley, et de Thérèse Dutheil, une bourgeoise parisienne, mère de deux jeunes enfants dont le mari est prisonnier en Allemagne. Malgré elle, Thérèse l'accompagne en train à Toulouse, pour lui éviter d'être fait prisonnier par la Gestapo. Ils sont arrêtés puis relâchés par la police française. Au fil de cette poursuite, un amour naît entre eux, mais ils sont séparés par la Résistance dans les Pyrénées, qui fait "brutalement" passer Allan en Espagne, afin qu'il puisse rallier son unité en Angleterre. Après un bref adieu déchirant, la nouvelle du Débarquement est annoncée à la radio.