Summary

Alfons traveled to the Rhine River area to help defeat the Americans at what was considered to be the last critical point in the war. Alfons remained confident in German victory but others were not so sure. Desertions were occurring more frequently in spite of executions for those captured. The officers of Hitler Youth ignored the order to shoot deserters, though, because they realized the war was a losing proposition and it would just mean the unnecessary loss of teenage boys.

The Germans began blowing up bridges on the Rhine on March 5, 1945, in an attempt to keep the Allies from further entering into Germany. Alfons was saddened when he saw the state of this once powerful army now beleaguered and in chaos. Alfons was dispatched to a town called Spang near Wittlich with a mission to save some expensive radar equipment from the...