A small portion of the book also takes place in other parts of America and discusses various locations in Utah and the United States as training camps.

Dieter Hedrick, once a small and timid person, over time becomes a member of an anti-aircraft gun battery that scores at least one kill during Allied bombing raids.

Moving steadily higher in rank in the Hitler Youth (in German Hitlerjugend, abbreviated HJ), Dieter is promoted to lead a group of 180 boys, who are part of the enormous project to build the Westwall (Siegfried Line) before the Allies arrive.

Two fellow HJ's are less fortunate: Ernst Gessel is killed when a British Spitfire fighter strafes the site, and Willi Hoffmann is shot for attempting to desert.

He constantly criticizes Dieter's blind devotion to Hitler, truthfully saying that the war is lost for Germany and that simply living to see the end of it is the best thing any German soldier can hope for.

When the Germans advance on the Americans' positions, Dieter charges up the hill, making it further than anyone else, but is shot several times and is left by the surviving men of his unit as they retreat.

Spence, against orders from Sergeant Pappas, his squad leader, decides to crawl out onto the open ground where the Germans lost in the charge had fallen.

As Spence tries to get Dieter back to his own lines so he can reach medics, he is shot by German soldiers, who have decided to come get him, saying later that they could no longer stand to hear his cries for help.