5 O'Clock Charlie - Plot

Plot

For six weeks, an ammunition depot near the camp has been the target of a punctual but inept North Korean bomber pilot. Every day at 5:00 he flies overhead and attempts to hit the depot with a single hand-thrown bomb. The pilot, nicknamed "5 O'Clock Charlie," has been so reliably unsuccessful that the denizens of the 4077th have begun a betting pool based on how far away from the target his bomb will land. Only Frank and Margaret regard "Charlie" as a serious threat. Frank requests an anti-aircraft gun, and Brigadier General Crandall Clayton (Herb Voland) comes to the camp to assess the situation. Clayton, who has placed the ammo dump near the hospital so that the enemy will leave it alone (a tactic he says he learned from the Germans), is initially skeptical of the need for a gun; on the next raid, though, Charlie destroys not the ammo dump but Gen. Clayton's jeep. He agrees to send the gun, and Frank takes charge of it.

Hawkeye and Trapper argue that the presence of the anti-aircraft gun will attract more competent bombers, noting that "fire draws fire," but Frank is more interested in drilling his "platoon" of three Korean soldiers. Eventually, Hawkeye, Trapper and Cardozo (Corey Fischer) conclude that the problem is not the gun, but the ammo dump. They dye sheets and place them on the ammo dump to help Charlie find his target. When Charlie makes his next pass, Hawkeye and Trapper confuse Frank's men into aiming the gun directly at the ammo dump. Charlie misses his target yet again, but when Frank orders his troops to fire the gun, they hit the ammo dump, destroying it.