In late April, 1945, the German army is facing defeat; Nazi officials are deserting their posts; and the Wermacht is in a state of disorganized retreat. Nevertheless, German schoolboys are still being drafted in a last desperate attempt to halt the Allied advance. In one small German village, seven 16-year-old boys proudly leave their homes and families for military duty; and after only one day's training, they are ordered into combat. Their former schoolteacher intercedes on their behalf, however, and they are assigned to a corporal, who places them on guard duty at the small bridge at the edge of their town. The bridge has no military importance, and the corporal knows, as the boys do not, that it is to be destroyed by a demolition squad in the morning. That night the corporal is killed by two SS men, and the boys, left on their own, dig in to defend their post. The youngest and smallest boy, Sigi, is killed by a strafing plane. Moments later, American tanks arrive. Though one of the boys scores a lucky hit, their little victory is short-lived: Jürgen, who proudly went to war carrying his late father's army pistol, is shot down by a sniper; Karl, who innocently and naively loved his father's mistress, is killed by shrapnel; Klaus, who thought only of his beloved Franziska, cracks under the strain of battle and runs into the line of fire; and Walter, who despised his Nazi father, is crushed to death by the falling debris of a bombed-out farmhouse. When the Americans retreat momentarily, a German demolition squad arrives to blow up the bridge, but the two remaining boys, unwilling to accept the idea that their comrades may have died in vain, refuse to yield their position and open fire on the squad. Though the squad withdraws, it also opens fire and kills the sixth boy, Hans, a handsome idealist. The sole survivor is young Albert; dazed and bewildered, he staggers alone across the bridge. The next day the war in Europe ends.
