The villagers plead for mercy and the doctor, a civilian correspondent named Max and the padre angrily protest at Langford's decision, but the captain is unmoved.

The map contains plans for a major Japanese flanking attack which aims to cut off the British army from its supply lines and leave it surrounded.

Langford orders Sergeant McKenzie to execute the informer and then announces that the British wounded are to be left behind so as not to impede the group's progress back to Allied territory.

Just before the village falls, the radio operators manage to send out a weak signal from the repaired set to alert headquarters of the enemy's plans, although it is not clear if the message gets through.

The Japanese commander, Major Yamazaki, who speaks English, demands to know about the missing colonel and the map, suspecting that Langford knows about the attack plans.

Yamazaki lines up all of the prisoners in front of a firing squad and informs Langford that unless he agrees to talk, the major will order his troops to shoot them.

Impressed by Langford's courage, Yamazaki bows to his corpse, saying "I would have done the same", whilst outside the padre calmly leads the other prisoners in the Lord's Prayer as they await their execution.

Terence Pettigrew (writing in 1982) wrote "Yesterday's Enemy was criticised at the time for its depiction of British Army cruelty to the natives in a progressively desperate fight to survive.

A kind of proto Peckinpah anti-hero, he'll commit war crime for the greater good of the operation.....but he'll risk his life to save men he's never civil to.