A group of German boys is ordered to protect a small bridge in their home village during the waning months of the second world war. Truckloads of defeated, cynical Wehrmacht soldiers flee the approaching American troops, but the boys, full of enthusiasm for the "blood and honor" Nazi ideology, stay to defend the useless bridge. Written by Miranda Callahan A couple of days before the end of World War II, seven sixteen year-old German boys from a small village are recruited for military service. The idealistic Hans Scholten, Albert Mutz, Walter Forst, Jurgen Borchert, Karl Horber, Klaus Hager and Sigi Bernhard join the army on 26 April 1945, with great expectations and enthusiasm to defend their motherland Germany in the front against the will of their parents. Their English teacher, Stern, unsuccessfully tries to convince Commander Fröhlich to refuse the enlistment of the youngsters. After one day's training, the soldiers are summoned to the front, but the Commander of the 463rd Battalion of the 3rd Company assigns Sergeant Heilmann to stay with the rookies "protecting" a useless bridge in their village in order to spare the boys.
