The Bridge (1959)

[Neville]

I've been watching tons of war movies during the previous months. I started with more mainstream, but ended up with more obscure movies. Tonight I've watched one of those, a german film that tackles an unconfortable subject, the one of nazi-adoctrinated kids that were enlisted on the last days of WWII. It tells the story of half a dozen kids that are told to defend a small bridge, which they enthusiastically do while almost every adult in the film thinks of saving their own lives. Its topic makes it difficult to watch, but it's a very good film, and its approach makes it certainly unique. I'm told it was dubbed and released in the USA, so rent a copy if you can.

I know it's an obscure film, so check out ts IMDB entry for further details: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052654/

[peter johnson]

This looks like something right up my alley --
A friend of mine in Germany was a 16 year old drafted for the Luftwaffe to fly the plywood Salamander (He 163) jets in mass numbers at the US bombers that were overrunning the skies of Germany.  These were horrible planes that the Germans planned to send up in such numbers that the sheer weight of their onslaught was supposed to stop the American raids.
Luckily for him, as he says, he was captured by Jewish American soldiers -- who fed him Red Cross ham -- in Salzburg in April of '45 & thus was spared certain death.
You can visit the cemetaries in Berchtesgaden & view the ceramic photgraphs affixed to the tombstones of the War dead.  So many children in uniform . . .
peter johnson/denny crane

[Neville]

Looking up for some information about the movie on Wikipedia, it looks like the film is inspired on real events. Apparently a text at the end of the movie mentions it, but I couldn't understand it because it was in German only.

[Shadowphile]

The He 163 was a deathtrap from conception to prototype test flight.  The first one crashed only 4 days after it's maiden flight.  I can't imagine the terror of a sixteen year old forced to fly a wooden plane with a top speed of over 500 mph.....

[Neville]

Oh, I tried to find some info on that plane (didn't ring any bells to me), but didn't find anything. Do you know of any links with pictures?

[Shadowphile]

I googled it.  Not a whole lot of information out there that I could find.  Then again, I didn't look hard.

http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/AC/aircraft/Heinkel-Salamander/image.jpg

[Shadowphile]

Of course I was looking for the He 163.  

The Salamander was the He 162.  

The Me 163 was the Komet, a plane I wouldn't want to fly either.  To my knowledge, they had enough fuel to take off, engage the enemy in one high speed pass and that was about it.  Land?  If you were lucky.

I've just learned something.  I was always under the impression that Manfred Von Richthoven (The Red Baron) was the top scoring ace of all time.  Several of the pilots listed for the He 162 have an individual tally of over 200 kills.  Is that a holdover from Nazi propganda or is my ace information eighty years out of date?

[Neville]

I've heard very bad things of those planes. One documentary I saw on the Me 163 Komet went as far as saying that the fuel, did the fuel tank leak, could disolve the body of the pilot. Yuck.

[Scott]

THE BRIDGE is a very good German film. Saw it during a college political film month.



The German youth were good flyers as they learned to fly gliders at a very young age. Though my personal thoughts are quite the opposite of that era...........they did believe they were doing the right thing. THE BRIDGE is a good film.

[Neville]

Shadowphile Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Of course I was looking for the He 163.  
>
> The Salamander was the He 162.  


I see... then I was looking for the wrong plane. There's plenty of info on the He 162 at WikiPedia, check it out at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_162

[Shadowphile]

How do you think I found out that I was looking for the wrong plane?  

[peter johnson]

Eek!
Sorry about the wrong enumeration there -- I'm usually bang-on with my WW2 stuff, aircraft especially --
The planes that buddy Hermann was training for were indeed the Heinkel (He) 162, with the single jet engine carried piggyback & the body made of spruce plywood, with 2 X 30mm cannon.
There were to be manufactured by the hundreds and thrown up by the dozens with inexperienced Hitlerjungen at the controls, hoping to stem the tide of American B-17's in daylight by sheer numbers & free up the remainder of the Luftwaffe to use against the British Lancasters at night.  Fascinating stuff.
Yes, the Komet was a Messerschmitt, and had to have 2 different types of highly volatile fuels poured into separate tanks.  It was the combining of the components of the fuels that made them spontaneously combust -- there were no sparking mechanisms -- & either blow it all to hell or shoot it into the sky.
On German Aces in WW2 -- I'm doing this from memory, but there were dozens of Luftwaffe pilots that got over 100, outstripping Richtoffen by quite a large margin.  Adolf Galland, I think, got over 100 & the highest scoring ace -- whose name I forget -- had between 2 and 300 victories -- mostly on the Russian front.  This was due in part to the German practice of not retiring their best pilots from the front -- unlike the Allies, who would remove good fighter pilots after 30 to 50 sorties & send them back stateside to train new pilots, or make them squadron commanders behind desks in London.   Some Germans, like Galland, served in the same capacity, flying from 1939 to 1945 -- the entire 6 year duration of the air war.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Shadowphile]

The top German ace was somewhere in the mid 300 range but I think they played fast and loose with numbers.  A 4 engine bomber, for example was worth 4 points whereas driving one out of formation and forcing it to turn back was worth 2, I think.  Kind of makes me question their accuracy....

[peter johnson]

Oooh!
This is very interesting!
Really, I never knew that there was any other system involved than "one shot down = one shot down"
I do know that in obviously multiple situations like on a B-17. with waist gunners & whatnot, there would be a place for multiple claims and points, but not with an individual situation.
Check that again -- I don't think that's correct.
peter j./denny c.

[peter johnson]

Oooh!
This is very interesting!
Really, I never knew that there was any other system involved than "one shot down = one shot down"
I do know that in obviously multiple situations like on a B-17. with waist gunners & whatnot, there would be a place for multiple claims and points, but not with an individual situation.
Check that again -- I don't think that's correct.
peter j./denny c.