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by Paul W. Alexi (Author)
Germany 1945. In the final weeks of World War II, five ordinary men find themselves coerced by the SS to fight on the Russian Front. Knowing that the war is lost, the five men devise a risky plan to escape being sent to the front and a needless death.
Germany is on the brink of defeat. The Ardennes offensive (Battle of the Bulge) in the winter of 1944/45 has failed and the Wehrmacht is retreating on all fronts.
Despite the dire military situation, the German High Command remains convinced that Germany can still win the war. Soldiers are exhorted to fight to the last man, including the old men and teenagers hastily conscripted as a last resort into the Volkssturm, the national militia. Desertion or defeatism are considered treason and punishable by death-usually on the spot.
The five men must find a way to safely surrender to Allied forces many miles away and at the same time evade capture by the soldiers of the SS. If caught they would be condemned as deserters and executed. Hungry, exhausted, but undaunted-would they all make it?
