The Deadly Attachment

Mainwaring's lecture is interrupted by a telephone call from GHQ; the survivors of a sunken German U-boat have been picked up by a fishing boat and taken to Walmington-on-Sea.

However, Mainwaring receives another phone call from GHQ, saying the escort has been delayed and won't arrive until the following day, meaning the Home Guard will be responsible for the prisoners overnight, including their feeding.

Corporal Jones's suggestion of cutting the prisoners' trouser buttons off is dismissed by the U-boat captain as a violation of the Geneva Convention, thus earning Mainwaring's ire.

Mainwaring refers to Adolf Hitler as a tinpot dictator resembling Charlie Chaplin, annoying the captain, who starts to make a list of names of those he will seek out for retribution once the war ends.

Taking advantage of the distraction, the U-boat captain feigns illness and manages to steal Mainwaring's revolver, seizing Hodges as a hostage.

After a tense standoff between the Germans (housed in the vicar's office with their hostage) and the platoon (in the main hall with superior firepower), Mainwaring has an idea; he agrees to release the prisoners, confident that someone in the town will see them escaping.

The U-boat captain's plan is inadvertently thwarted by Mainwaring's senior officer, Colonel Pritchard, who chances upon the marching platoon en route to the harbour and, seeing the string in Jones' waistband, immediately pulls it.