The Bridge by Manfred Gregor

Near the end of WWII, a desperate Nazi party attempted to shore up the German army by forming the ‘Volkssturm’, a national militia of those not already serving in the military. Many 16-year-old boys, who were members of the Hitler Youth, were strategically placed at key locations to prevent the Allied advance. Seven such boys are the focus of this novel, all childhood friends, rounded up in a small village and ordered to defend a bridge at all costs from the oncoming Americans who are only twenty miles away. 

I haven’t read many WWII novels from the German point of view but this one makes it clear that people are people, no matter their nationality. While these boys want to follow orders, their fears are as real as anybody else’s. With the advantage of history we know these young men are likely doomed and indeed, the novel unfolds in much the same way as the Battle of the Alamo. The author includes flashbacks for each of the boys so we get to know them pretty well. They become individuals with personalities, flaws, and dreams. That makes it all the harder when they eventually fall one by one.  The battle action is intense and the boys put up a good fight, establishing machine gun nests, surprise traps, and even using bazookas to take out a couple of American tanks. When they are reinforced by another group of Volkssturm, this time a group of ten men all over 60 years old, those men take one look at the situation and promptly desert, knowing the war is in reality already over.

The author is Gregor Dorfmeister, writing under the pen name of Manfred Gregor. This novel, published by Avon in 1958, is largely autobiographical as the author was himself a 16-year-old member of the Volkssturm, assigned to defend a bridge against American tanks. He survived to tell the tale but the experience of seeing Americans as well as his own buddies killed in combat turned him into an anti-war pacifist. This is reflected in the novel which highlights the futility of the bridge defense effort. If you’re looking for a realistic portrayal of a last stand scenario in WW2, this is a good one.