Set in North Africa during the North African Campaign of World War II, it is a fictionalized story of members of the British Army's Long Range Desert Group (LRDG) and the Special Identification Group (SIG) who endeavour to destroy the fuel bunkers of Generalfeldmarschall Erwin Rommel's Panzer Army Africa in Tobruk. The movie is loosely based on the British attacks on German and Italian forces at Tobruk codenamed "Operation Agreement", though unlike the movie, Operation Agreement was a failure.