08/15 in Der Heimat on AllMovie

This 1956 German release was the final installment in director Paul May's WW II trilogy. As in the first two 08/15 films, the story concerns a group of German soldiers as they try their best to survive and endure a war that none of them wanted. The leading characters are a lieutenant (Joachim Fuchsberger) and a staff sergeant (Peter Karsten), both of whom exact a personal revenge on a pair of hated SS officers. All that saves the two from being arrested and executed for murder is Germany's defeat at war's end. The comedy elements of the earlier films are muted in favor of melodrama and "significance." All three of the 08/15 films were inspired by the novels of Hans-Helmut Kirsti.