A manhole opens at night in an empty street and out climbs Lieutenant-Colonel Norman Hyde (Jack Hawkins) in a dinner suit. He gets into a Rolls-Royce and drives home. There, he prepares seven envelopes, each containing an American crime paperback called The Golden Fleece, half of a Â£5-note and an unsigned invitation from âCo-operative Removals Limitedâ to lunch at the Cafe Royal.
The envelopes are sent to former army officers, each in desperate or humiliating circumstances. When they all turn up looking for the other half of the Â£5 notes which are handed out, Hyde asks their opinion of the novel which is about a robbery. They show little enthusiasm but Hyde then reveals each person's misdemeanors.
Hyde has no criminal record but holds a grudge for being made redundant by the army after a long career. He intends to rob a bank using the team's skills, with equal shares of Â£100,000 or more for each man.
The gang meet under the guise of an amateur dramatic society rehearsing Journeyâs End to discuss the plan before moving into Hydeâs house and living a military regimen of duties and fines for being out of line. Hyde knows that a million pounds in used notes is regularly delivered to a City of London bank and has details of the delivery.
They raid an army training camp in Dorset for arms and supplies. Hyde, Mycroft, Porthill and Race distract soldiers by posing as senior officers on an unscheduled food inspection. The others steal weapons while posing as telephone repairmen, speaking in Irish accents to divert suspicion to the IRA.
The gang rent a warehouse to prepare. Race steals vehicles including cars and a truck which are fitted with false number plates. They are disturbed by a passing policeman who ironically offers to keep an eye on their premises as he patrols. In Hydeâs basement, the gang train with maps and models. On the eve of the operation, Hyde destroys the plans and recalls his former military glory.
The robbery is bloodless and precise. Using smoke bombs, sub-machine guns, and radio jamming equipment, the gang raids the bank, near St Paulâs. The money is seized without serious injury and the robbers escape. At Hydeâs house, celebrations are interrupted by the unexpected arrival of Hydeâs old friend, Brigadier âBunnyâ Warren (Robert Coote), who drunkenly recalls the old days. One by one the members leave carrying suitcases filled with notes. Then the telephone rings; Hyde is told that police and soldiers surround the house.
Leading the police is Superintendent Wheatlock (Ronald Leigh-Hunt) from whom Hyde learns the flaw in his plan. A small boy outside the bank had been collecting car registration (licence plate) numbers, a common hobby at the time. The police, discovering the number, found it had been noted by the policeman who visited the warehouse. The policeman had also noted the number of Hyde's own car. Thus a link was established between the robbery and Hyde.
Hyde is escorted to a Paddywagon in which the rest are "all present and correct", each having been captured as he left the house.
What do those stealing the weapons pose as?
As telephone repairmen