The Triumph

Sir Murdoch Mackinder is placed in charge of a secret intelligence department. Their task is to drop saboteurs into occupied Europe. However, after a lifetime of leading his troops into battle, Mackinder finds it difficult to accept the role of despatching men and women to their probable deaths. When the commander of a mission into the Balkans suddenly dies, he cannot resist the temptation to go himself. As the Balkan situation heats up, Murdoch is forced to remain in Yugoslavia almost until the end of the war, fighting with Tito, and finding himself a comrade in arms of his old adversary, the beautiful daughter of Chand Bibi, who is now a Russian agent.

Meanwhile, Murdoch's son Fergus, now a tank commander with the Desert Rats, fights his war through North Africa, Italy and France. At the same time, he unwittingly rivals his own sergeant-major for the love of his dead brother's widow, Annaliese Reger. The finale divides the war between Murdoch’s clandestine struggle in the Balkans and Fergus’s armoured campaigns from North Africa to France, extending the regiment’s idea of service beyond conventional command.