Passage to Marseille

In 1942, journalist Manning arrives at a British RAF base to learn about the Free French who are fighting the Germans. Alongside Captain Freycinet, he watches as French bomber crews prepare for a raid. The focus shifts to Jean Matrac, a gunner, as Freycinet recounts his story: Two years earlier, five men were found adrift in a small canoe in the Caribbean Sea by the tramp steamer Ville de Nancy. They claim to be French-Venezuelan miners returning home to fight for their motherland, but are actually escaped convicts from Devil's Island, led by Matrac. To Grandpère, the leader recounts Matrac's troubles in pre-war France, which led to his framing for murder. The group joins the Free French bomber squadron and takes part in missions over France, with Matrac maintaining ties with his wife Paula through a son he has never met.