Michael Avallone - Hornets' Nest

[kooshmeister]

It's 1944 and US Army Demolitions officer Captain Turner and his men have been given your standard, seemingly impossible mission - to blow up the Della Norte Dam in northern Italy to cut off the Nazis from their supply lines. Turner's commanding officer General Lewis is confident that he and his team can get the job done; after all, Turner's well-earned nickname is "The Dam Buster." He's also a fairly stern, taciturn and frankly kind of grumpy man who is rather tired of the whole damn war and killing people. But he does as he's told because he's a good soldier.

Following a trial run wherein the group takes an American-held dam with US soldiers posing as the enemy, the saboteurs board a plane and set off for Italy, where they're to be met and assisted by a local partisan force. But there's trouble afoot in sunny Italy. It seems that one of the partisans went and got himself captured, and spilled his guts. Now German forces led by one Captain Wilhelm von Hecht are lying in wait for both the partisans and the arriving Americans. What occurs when Turner's team parachutes in is a slaughter.

Only Turner survives because a freak gust of wind carries his parachute away into some trees where he gets hung up. He hits his head against a branch, severely injuring himself. Von Hecht noticed this during the one-sided killfest that passed for a battle and sends his best man, Schwalberg, to go and capture Turner alive. With the blackness closing in and the Germans approaching, Turner finds it in himself to get out of the tree and outrun the pursuing soldiers before finally collapsing.

Things look grim for Turner until his bacon is pulled from the fire by a group of young boys led by a teenage delinquent named Aldo. The kids are the sole survivors of a village named Reanoto, whose entire adult population was massacred by the SS for supposedly helping the partisans. Now the kids want revenge. Or at least Aldo does. And he's got a forceful enough personality to bend most of the other boys to his will and get them to follow him - all save Guillermo, who is older than him and by rights should be the leader, but with his much younger (toddler aged) brother and sister to look after, he's content to let Aldo run things for now and not rock the boat.

The kids abscond with the unconscious Turner, successfully evading Schwalberg's search party. Von Hecht is none too pleased to learn of the American's escape, giving Schwalberg a severe dressing down back at German headquarters. He's even less pleased about the presence of Gunther. Von Hecht and his men are all regular German Heer (Army), but Gunther is SS; a sort of watchdog placed with the notoriously unpredictable and anti-Nazi von Hecht to keep an eye on him. Von Hecht routinely goes out of his way to annoy the guy.

At German High Command, von Hecht butts heads with the man responsible for Gunther's presence, the SS' Colonel Jannings, who hates von Hecht's guts and the feeling is mutual. Jannings is also an idiot who for some reason thinks the Americans came to blow up a tunnel and isn't listening to von Hecht's idea about the dam being the target, despite the list of very good reasons the Captain has. Von Hecht is ultimately commanded to prove his theory by finding and questioning Turner.

Aldo and his Little Rascal troupe take Turner (who they can tell is an American because he's "so big") to the cave that has been their home since Reanoto was wiped out. The kids have lived so far by scavenging and stealing from the Germans. In particular, Aldo is in possession of Captain von Hecht's prized hunting rifle which he personally stole from von Hecht's office.

Turner isn't waking up, or even showing any signs of improving at all. With the American officer seemingly at death's door, Aldo resolves to go and get a doctor sympathetic to the partisan cause for him before he goes and dies on them. He leaves Guillermo in charge and takes pal Silvio with him; insistent upon accompanying them is an adorable, inexperienced little scamp named Carlo. Aldo objects at first, but finally elects to let Carlo come after some insistence from Silvio.

Things don't go well at the doctor's office. Partisan leader Scarpi is there looking for Turner, and it seems he and Aldo have some ugly history. Scarpi demands Aldo hand Turner over so that the mission of destroying the dam can go ahead as planned, but Aldo refuses; he has his own plans for the American. Before the argument can go any further, the Germans bust in shooting. Aldo escapes out the back, but Scarpi and the doctor are killed. With the doctor dead, Aldo and his friends are going to have to look somewhere else for medical treatment for their pet American...

[dem bones]

Ah, glad to see this section seeing some action again. Well done, Mr. kooshmeister and let's hope you inspire some of our War Pigs to get busy!

[kooshmeister]

The boys' only other choice as far as medical treatment is concerned is a nearby hospital, which so happens to be controlled by the Nazis and staffed by German doctors. Aldo apparently thrives on risk; since all the doctors and nurses here are Germans it's unlikely they'll be sympathetic to the boys' cause, much less particularly eager to help an American. Meaning anyone they get to come with them they'll have to either use force or trickery.

The trio spy in on an operation being performed, and when it's finished, the chief surgeon removes her mask to reveal that she's a beautiful blonde woman. Thinking with his other head, Aldo chooses her as the one they're going to kidnap. To his credit, he at least can tell she did what looks (to him) like a decent job on whoever it is she was operating on. His cunning scheme to trick her into accompanying them is to make Carlo cry and have him approach her as she leaves the building with some sob story about his mother being deathly sick and needing a doctor. His method of achieving this showcases his ruthlessness; to get Carlo to cry convincingly, he smacks the younger boy hard.

Amazingly, the sob story works. The woman, German surgeon Dr. Bianca Freedling, takes pity on Carlo and agrees to go with him "across the road." She's quickly rethinking her decision, though, when "across the road" turns into "across the road and through the dark scary woods." However the endlessly whining boy keeps reassuring her it isn't far. Aldo and Silvio follow close behind.

Soon they arrive at the cave. To say Bianca is confused by the sight of a bunch of preteen boys living unsupervised out in the wilderness would be an understatement. Reanoto gets mentioned, and Bianca stiffens at the name; apparently what the SS did there is well-known. Aldo snidely asks her if she's heard of it, but she doesn't answer. Following the kids inside the cave, she takes one look at the unconscious Turner in his US Army uniform and realizes he's an enemy soldier. She tries to persuade the boys to turn him into the local German authorities, promising them they won't be punished. They refuse - or, at least, Aldo refuses for them. Except for the occasional comment from Guillermo, Aldo is basically the group's mouthpiece, although it's a little unclear how much of what he says is what the children as a whole want, or what he has convinced them they want, especially in the upcoming scene.

When Bianca refuses for the umpteenth time and tries to leave, Aldo attempts to stop her, and so she belts the little bastard and knocks him down (ha!). All hell breaks loose. All the children except the three youngest - Carlo and Guillermo's younger brother and sister Mario and Maria - pounce on Bianca at Aldo's command, Guillermo a little more hesitantly than the others. Aldo yells at Mario and Maria to leave the cave. Carlo hangs back nervously, not participating; it starts becoming increasingly obvious to the terrified Bianca what is about to transpire. Her worst fears are confirmed when Aldo reveals that SS soldiers raped their mothers and sisters in Reanoto before killing them, and that, in Aldo's words, "We're gonna make our own little Reanoto right here!"

Just as he is about to have his way with her, he's suddenly seized from behind and hurled aside like a rag doll. The other boys are startled and look up: Captain Turner is awake, and he is none too pleased with the scene he has awoken to. He wastes no time in knocking heads together and sending the boys scattering to all corners of the cave in terror from his fury, but then, it seems the exertion of coming to Bianca's rescue and putting the would-be rapists in their place has taken its toll on him, and he collapses. A relieved Bianca sobs openly, as an apologetic Carlo, the one who led her to this, whose conscience is nagging at him, hands her her doctor bag and meekly urges her to help the American who saved her. She agrees.

[kooshmeister]

The following morning, thanks to Bianca's medical skills, Turner is up and about once more. There's plenty of tension in the camp, though. For starters, a disgusted and guilt-ridden Guillermo lets Aldo have it over what they almost did to the German doctor, whilst Aldo simply reasserts that he's in charge and if Guillermo doesn't like it he can take his brother and sister and scram. Guillermo reluctantly knuckles under.

Bianca adopts a very professional and emotionally detached attitude towards him, and he, in turn, mistakes this for her just being a Nazi ice queen. In reality, she hates the Nazis, but she isn't exactly eager to open up to these people currently holding her hostage. Speaking of which, as far as what is to be done with her is concerned, for the time being, she'll remain with the group - Turner assures her the boys won't dare try anything like they did last night.

Regarding that little debacle, Bianca has forgiven most of the boys because she rightly sees how Aldo calls the shots. She proceeds to ignore him and pretend he doesn't exist, much to his annoyance and increasing fury. She's determined, though, that he won't get a rise out of her.

Turner - who hasn't disclosed his name to anyone, incidentally, so everyone just calls him "soldier" - is determined to complete his mission and destroy the Della Norte Dam. He inquires after Scarpi, and is a little disheartened when told he and all the other partisans are dead. He realizes he needs to let General Lewis know of what happened, so he asks the kids if they know where there's a radio he can use. Guillermo reveals there's one in Captain von Hecht's office at the nearby German headquarters, and they know its layout pretty well.

Naturally, Turner requests their assistance in getting in to use said radio, but Aldo finally reveals what it is they saved Turner for - in addition to von Hecht's prized rifle, the boys have also stolen a large cache of MP40 machine pistols and a massive MG34 machine gun. They intend to use them to go and kill themselves some Nazis - in particular, the SS troops now occupying Reanoto - but they have no idea how to use anything more complicated than a standard hunting rifle. Turner is reluctant, initially, but quickly realizes Aldo has him by the balls, so he agrees. In exchange for the kids helping him get a message off to his superiors, he'll teach them how to fire the purloined guns.

It turns out that Aldo is able to come and go as he pleases around the Germans' headquarters because he is a shoeshine boy. Whilst giving von Hecht's boots a shine, he pretends to turn traitor and reveal that the missing American is being held by some surviving partisans somewhere way out in the middle of nowhere and gives him a random location on a map. Von Hecht has been salivating for a chance to find the American. A big game hunter, he views the mission to find Turner as a challenge he must accept (he's also eager to stick it to Jannings and the SS). He eagerly accepts Aldo's lie hook, line and sinker, and takes Schwalberg and almost all their guys and heads off, leaving only a handful of guards behind. Now, Turner can sneak into von Hecht's office to use the radio.

First he needs to get past the sentries. Little Carlo and another boy distract two of them by offering to swap some freshly-picked strawberries for the soldiers' cigarettes. Turner takes out a third in a very... unusual manner; he has one of the boys walk up to the guy and take a piss in front of him. While the German is distracted being flabbergasted by the sudden intrusion of a young boy peeing into his line of sight, Turner comes up behind him and knifes him to death. Then, he and Aldo climb in through a window and locate von Hecht's office.

In here, they find not only the radio Guillermo spoke of, but also the C4 the Germans confiscated from Turner's dead men. He gets on the radio and is told the mission must go ahead - there is a major American offensive coming, and they need the Della Norte Dam destroyed so as to cut the German forces in half. Turner is... less than pleased. Even less so when two German radio operators who intercepted the message come busting in with guns at the ready. One shootout later, the Germans are dead.

Aldo starts freaking out and wants them to bail, but Turner insists they take the packs of C4. Just then, Gunther, the SS man assigned to keep an eye on von Hecht, who was left behind when von Hecht and his men took off, walks in. He pulls a gun, but Turner disarms him, and the two men proceed to have a fistfight which trashes the office and breaks the radio. Turner eventually wins by snapping Gunther's neck. Now it really is time to leave! Turner and the kids swipe the C4 and vamoose.

[kooshmeister]

Just a quickie post as I'm short on time at the moment.

After the successful completion of "operation get back the C4," Turner and the kids start headin' back. Aldo starts noticing that the American is beginning to win the other boys' admiration, and bristles at the concept of someone else being the leader. Nevertheless, he and Guillermo take Turner up to scout out the dam. Even though Turner doesn't explain why he wants to look at the dam, the boys aren't (that) dumb; explosives plus German-held dam equals boom-boom and the kiddos get all excited at the prospect of exploding the thing.

Meanwhile, von Hecht realizes he's been had and returns to his headquarters to find the C4 stolen. Not to mention all the guys Turner killed. He only cares about his own men, though; he explicitly doesn't give a f*rt in the wind about Gunther and is even glad he's dead. He angrily orders Schwalberg to send patrols out to get the explosives back, and vows revenge against the boy who tricked him.

[kooshmeister]

Deciding it won't be too long before the Nazis discover the boys' hideout, Turner decides they ought to pack up and leave pronto. He'll teach them how to use the guns on the way to the dam. Bianca asks to be let go, but Turner refuses for fear of her being picked up and revealing the involvement of the boys. The Germans (as far as he knows) think they're only dealing with a lone American, and are mostly unaware of the children, and he'd like to keep it that way. He promises to let her go once his mission is complete. Bianca, for her part, has grown attached to Guillermo's siblings, and they to her; they see her as a sort of surrogate mother.

Aldo continues butting heads with Turner, this time over the rifle he stole from von Hecht forever ago. Although he insists it's a good gun, Turner disagrees and chucks it.

On the way to the dam, the troupe encounters a German patrol. They hide in the undergrowth. At this point, Turner wants to avoid any further open confrontation with the Nazis until they reach the dam, and intends for everyone to remain hidden while the Nazis pass them by. Things don't go as planned. Mario, frightened, begins crying despite Bianca's efforts to quiet him. Hearing him, one of the Germans approaches and discovers them. Silvio leaps to their defense and gets slashed across his face by the German for his troubles. Before he can finish Silvio off, Turner leaps in and knifes him to death, then snaps up his MP40 and mows the other ones down.

In the confusion, Bianca tries to escape with Mario and Maria. However, while clutching Mario to her breast protectively, she accidentally suffocates him. She abandons her escape attempt and manages to revive him. Aldo is pissed that she tried to get away, but Turner actually covers for her, insisting she was only trying to get Mario and Maria to safety. Aldo isn't buying it, and demands she be killed, even as she is tending to the injured Silvio. Turner vetoes this, and more or less tells Aldo to shut his trap and lay off of Bianca. Aldo backs down. For now. After Bianca finishes with Silvio, the group hurriedly moves on before another patrol happens by.

Elsewhere, Captain von Hecht is having a bad day. Colonel Jannings is hopping mad over Gunther's death, and uses it as an excuse for the SS to take over the hunt for the American. He assigns von Hecht and his men to the command of Major Taussig, the SS officer who ordered the massacre of Reanoto, which is now the headquarters for the SS troops in the region. This severely pisses off von Hecht both because he isn't keen on working with a mass murderer, and because he knows that since Jannings has it in his head that the tunnel will be Turner's target, Taussig will assign him to guard it, leaving the dam essentially unprotected. All his warnings about the dam's vulnerability fall on deaf ears.

Nevertheless, he reports to Reanoto as ordered, but feigns a war injury to avoid accompanying Taussig to the tunnel; as soon as Taussig and the bulk of the SS move out, von Hecht takes Schwalberg and two of his own men (who accompanied him) and sets off to hunt for Turner on his own. They find the dead patrol Turner killed earlier, as well as the abandoned cave, where von Hecht recovers his rifle. He wants to continue hunting Turner, but Schwalberg advises that they return to Reanoto before Taussig gets back and finds them gone. Von Hecht agrees and postpones his pursuit of the American for the time being.

[kooshmeister]

Turner and the boys make camp by a river where the boys practice swimming while wearing backpacks filled with the C4, in preparation for the mission to hit the dam. Turner also takes time out to show the kids how to properly wield the MP40s, making them drill until they can eject a spent magazine and then insert a fresh one in only three seconds. Bianca is watching him. She is disturbed seeing the boys with automatic weaponry, and, despite what they did to her back in the cave, she doesn't agree with the American teaching them how to use guns and kill people.

Turner heads off to scope out the dam again. This time, Bianca comes with him, under the pretense of feeling uneasy about being around Aldo. Turner couldn't care less. He doesn't notice her hide a pair of surgical scissors in her dress...

After they're gone, the boys grumble among themselves about how Turner seems more interested in destroying the dam than he is helping them avenge their parents. Aldo takes this opportunity to (as he sees it) regain control of the group. He reveals he swiped the detonators when Turner wasn't looking, and although his knowledge of explosives is limited, he knows enough to grasp that without the detonators, the C4 is as useless as Play-Doh. He regales the other boys with a lurid story about how he once shacked up with a hooker who told him that if he wanted to have sex with her, he "had to pay." This becomes Aldo's catchphrase - "Everybody pays!"

When asked if he paid, Aldo replies of course he did. After all, everybody pays. Guillermo isn't buying it, and insists the encounter with the prostitute never happened and Aldo is just making crap up. Aldo responds that that's beside the point; the same principle applies to the situation with the American. When Turner "has got dam's blowing up in his head," then Aldo will make him pay; he'll reveal that he stole the detonators and give him the price for their safe return: revenge for Reanoto.

At the ridge overlooking the dam, Bianca openly confronts Turner about him using the boys to replace his dead soldiers for his mission. He reveals his father died in an oil rig explosion and for years, all he could think of was how much he'd like to destroy every oil rig he could find, so he understands the boys' directionless anger and desire for vengeance, and he intends to channel this to his advantage. Bianca decides to kill him, and attempts to stab him with the scissors. However, he sees her shadow and is able to get out of the way and wrestle the scissors away from her.

They fight, and she escapes and attempts to flag down a passing German armored car. The Germans don't hear her over the vehicle's loud engine, though, and Turner drags her into the bushes out of sight until the Nazis are gone. He wrestles her to the ground and in so doing realizes how beautiful she is. He kisses her, and reassures her that as soon as the mission is over and the dam destroyed, she and the children will be free to go. She finally submits and they make the beast with two backs in the undergrowth with the dam looming in the background.

When they return to the encampment, Aldo makes his move. He's hidden the detonators and won't give them back unless Turner helps them. The American tries to point out that by blowing the dam, they'll drown thousands of Nazis, including the ones in Reanoto. Aldo snaps back that it isn't about just killing their parents' murderers; it's about respect. And if they don't personally mete out vengeance to the SS in Reanoto themselves, they have no respect. Turner looks into the hard and determined faces of the boys. He remembers his own rage when his father died. And tells them to load up. Next stop... Reanoto.

[kooshmeister]

Although Major Taussig and a good chunk of his forces are elsewhere, there is still a sizable force of SS troops in Reanoto. However, they're mostly indoors and blissfully ignorant of the coming storm. Half the boys, led by Aldo, sneak into town, using their knowledge of their hometown's layout to avoid being seen. They cut the phone lines and then position themselves on the roofs with guns at the ready.

Outside of town, gagged and bound Bianca and one of the boys named Giorgio stand in the middle of the road and flag down an approaching troop carrier with two men in it. Bianca has been silenced and tied up despite being on their side just in case she decides to warn her fellow Germans. Giorgio hands the two Germans some sob story about how Bianca is his mother and needs to get to a hospital. When they hesitate, Turner springs from hiding and guns them both down and they swipe the truck.

The kids get in the back and Carlo rides shotgun with Turner. His job will be to pull the pins on grenades and slap them into Turner's hand so he can drive and throw them at the same time. Bianca is released and she, Mario and Maria remain with Silvio. Turner barrels towards the town gate, guarded by a lone SS sentry. Before the surprised Nazi can react or raise the alarm, Turner shoots him out the window and then smashes through the gate and drives into town. As the SS come pouring out to see what the matter is, they're hit simultaneously by unending machine gun fire from Aldo and his group and from the boys in the truck. The kids are essentially doing a drive-by on the SS! The Nazis die in droves. Carlo hands Turner grenade after grenade, which he chucks into open windows and doorways, blowing the Nazis inside to bits.

With the phone lines cut, they can't call for assistance, and even as the attack has begun it's over and something like a hundred Germans lie dead and smoldering in the town they'd massacred. Withdrawing quickly, Turner regroups with Aldo outside of town. The kids have taken to killing surprisingly well, hooting and hollering excitedly. But they're not out of the woods yet. A few of the SS survived and give chase in a Kübelwagen and another troop truck. Turner heads them off, driving across a bridge and then stopping. Getting out, he rigs the bridge with some C4, then runs back across as the pursuing Nazis approach.

The Kübelwagen makes it across but the truck doesn't. The bridge blows sky high, dumping the truckload of Nazis into the river. Turner, wielding the MG34 mentioned earlier, awaits the surviving German vehicle on the road ahead and sprays it with gunfire. The Nazis inside die instantly and the car simply swerves to a halt. That accomplished, Turner discards the overly heavy weapon (!) and returns to the truck. Aldo ribs Turner about what a good job they did. Turner angrily tells him to shut up and reminds him of their deal. That accomplished, they vamoose.

Sometime later, von Hecht and his men drive into Reanoto to find it littered with the dead. Taussig has returned and stands there in a state of shock at the sight of all of his dead men. He's completely spaced out. Using this to his advantage, von Hecht takes command as much as he can, instructing Taussig's lieutenant to fix the phone lines, and then steering Taussig into one of the bombed out buildings. Schwalberg goes with them.

Von Hecht tries to convince Taussig that Turner is behind the attack, and that his next move will be to hit the dam. Coming to his senses, Taussig believes the former but not the latter, and it soon devolves into a shouting match between the two men which ends with von Hecht angrily ordering Schwalberg to go and get the other guys they came with and prepare to move out to the dam. When Taussig attempts to stop him, von Hecht finally loses his temper, whips out his Luger and blows the SS commander away on the spot. He then casually puts the gun into Taussig's hand.

The lieutenant who was with Taussig comes running and asks what happened. Von Hecht tells him Taussig was overcome with despair at the deaths of all of his men and shot himself. He then says he'll be taking his three men and heading to the dam. Schwalberg neither confirms nor denies any of this, preferring to just keep his mouth shut. Waiting until the lieutenant leaves, von Hecht primly tells Schwalberg he has "misplaced" his gun and needs a new one. Schwalberg retrieves Taussig's from its holster, leaving his superior's in the dead SS officer's hand, and they depart.

[kooshmeister]

The story is barreling towards a climax!

As night falls on the Della Norte Dam, Turner and his four chosen boys Franco, Paolo, Arturo and Tekko strip to their skivvies, done the packs of C4, and swim across the river to the dam, where they use a handy outlet pipe to climb up. They're unseen because most of the rest of the boys skinny dip in the reservoir to distract the German and Italian soldiers (this is the only time Fascist Italian troops appear). Between this and the earlier scene where a boy distracts a guard by pissing in front of him, these kids sure have some unusual ways of getting enemy troops' attention!

So while that pedophiles' wet dream is going on, Turner and his troupe scale the dam. Once they're at a strategic point, they unsling their packs and start planting the explosives. Seeing that their role in the mission is done, the naked boys frolicking in the water hurriedly get out, don their clothes and vamoose. The confused guards return to their duties, none the wiser about the saboteurs currently rigging the entire place to go kaboom.

During all of this, Bianca has remained with Mario and Maria, with Silvio there to protect them armed with an MP40. They observe Turner and co. from afar, safely on one side of the river. Things are going just as planned, which, of course, means it's time for something to go disastrously wrong.

Captain von Hecht and his men show up. He browbeats Commandant Krueger, the German officer commanding the dam, into letting him basically take over. He sends Schwalberg and the other two somewhere to do something, and then orders Krueger's guards to switch on the searchlights. Krueger, suspicious, phones headquarters and is told that von Hecht is not supposed to be here, so he has him placed under arrest and relieves him of Taussig's Luger. Just then, the searchlights spy Turner and the boys, and the Germans begin shooting at them (the Italian troops seem to have disappeared; apparently Avallone forgot about them).

Aldo, accompanied by Carlo, Guillermo and another boy named Tonio, disobeying Turner's instructions, sneaks up to the top of the dam where all the Germans are located. His three companions are armed with MP40's. Aldo himself commandeers an unattended MG42. Before the Nazis even realize what is happening, the four boys are laying into them with a hail of automatic gunfire. They quickly forget about the American and the boys down below, and take up defensive positions. Aldo and co. do the same. The two groups begin exchanging fire. Turner and the boys below finish up with their work, and after setting the detonators, they dive into the river. Krueger shoots at them, but they successfully make it ashore.

Things go tits-up for the boys on top of the dam when Carlo steps in front of Aldo's line of fire to take some pot shots at an approaching Nazi car. Aldo keeps firing and cuts Carlo down, killing him accidentally. Guillermo and Tonio are horrified. A blood-drunk Aldo waves them off and keeps shooting Nazis, but the other two boys, sobered and disturbed, decide to quietly take off. Aldo joins them eventually - but only to save himself when the C4 goes off. In the meantime, von Hecht has managed to slip away from the lone guard Krueger left on him, grabs a rifle, and heads off, himself, severely pissed off and more determined than ever to get his elusive American. He too survives the dam's destruction.

The dam goes, spilling tons and tons of water down into the valley below. Krueger and all his men get washed away and drown, or so we're led to believe. Avallone is a little vague about their fate. We never do learn what befell Schwalberg and the other two guys von Hecht brought with him. Like the Italian troops it seems Michael Avallone just forgot about them, but I think it's safe to assume they and Krueger all die when the dam collapses.

On shore, though, there's trouble afoot. A few German soldiers survived and happen upon Bianca, Silvio and the little ones. Either in an effort to protect his charges, or simply to be a brave idiot, Silvio opens up on them. They shoot back. Bianca screams for them to stop, but it's too late. Silvio is mortally wounded and collapses. Enraged, the doctor grabs the boy's MP40 and fires back at her countrymen, killing several of them just as Turner arrives. He finishes off the dying soldiers, and then rushes to Silvio's side. The boy dies in his arms, and confronted now with one of the children now dead (he is unaware of Carlo), he begins to wonder if he did the right thing. Unable to help Silvio anymore, he takes Bianca and the two little ones and heads off to regroup with the others...

[kooshmeister]

Turner, Bianca and the little ones regroup with the others in the forest as morning comes. Aldo is in an excited, wild-eyed frenzy and soon has all the other boys gathered around him listening to him brag about how many Germans he killed. Turner, still reeling from Silvio's death, notices that Guillermo and Tonio are standing apart from everyone else. He suddenly realizes Carlo is missing. Tentatively, he approaches the two and asks what happened. They break down and tell Turner how Aldo accidentally killed poor Carlo. Turner's guilt over teaching the boys how to use guns and how to kill comes to a head. He doesn't reveal to the others about what happened to Carlo just yet, and indeed the kids are too jubilant over the successful destruction of the dam to notice his absence.

For now, Turner satisfies himself with confiscating the boys' guns - whereupon he angrily begins smashing them to pieces against a log one after the other, blaming himself for Silvio and Carlo's deaths, and for corrupting the boys' innocence more than it already had been. In his own way, he did worse to them than the Nazis who murdered their parents.

Everyone cooperates except for Aldo. Although he hands over his MP40, he refuses to give up the Luger he managed to get ahold of. He angrily accuses Turner of being jealous that he killed more Nazis than him. It becomes apparent that whereas killing their parents' murderers was enough to satisfy the other kids' desire for vengeance, Aldo has a hole in him that can't be filled. He's blood-drunk and wants to keep killing.

The argument over whether he should give up the Luger is interrupted by the sound of approaching vehicles. In the distance, everyone sees an approaching column of US Army vehicles. Excited, Aldo begins ranting about how the Americans will give him a medal or somesuch nonsense, and runs off towards them, still having not relinquished the handgun. Annoyed, Turner lets him go for no, and finishes busting up the guns, saving one MP40 that he keeps for protection. Signalling for the others to come with him, they head off after Aldo to try and stop him before he does anything stupid.

Not far off, Captain von Hecht stalks through the woods with his rifle. Aldo hears him coming and hides behind a log. As the German officer passes, Aldo springs up and fires. His aim is poor, and he only hits von Hecht's arm. Von Hecht collapses, but is more amused than afraid. He recognizes Aldo as the boy who deceived him before, and sarcastically tells him he needs a shoeshine. His amusement turns to fear, though, when Aldo grins insanely and shoots at him again. His sucky aim saves von Hecht's life, as he only succeeds in putting a bullet in a tree trunk.

The others come running, and Aldo whirls around and holds them at gunpoint, still grinning like a loon. He declares he is going to kill von Hecht and nobody is going to stop him. Despite this, Bianca, concerned for her fellow German, runs forward and begins tending to his arm. Aldo screams for her to get out of the way. Turner, close to losing his temper with this kid finally, calmly tells him to hand the Luger over. They won. They blew up the dam, the only remaining German is unarmed and no threat, and there's no reason anyone else has to die. He's tired of killing and it's going to end now.

Aldo refuses, hellbent on killing von Hecht, and when Turner again demands the weapon, Aldo shoots at him. Once more, though, he misses his target by a mile. Stepping forward, Turner slaps the gun from the boy's hand and backhands him, knocking him to the floor and bloodying his lip. Aldo pitches a fit, and starts accusing Turner of being a traitor, of robbing him of what he sees as his rightful leadership position, and declaring that the other children are with him, not the American. Finally standing up for himself, Guillermo reveals to everyone how Carlo died, and that it was Aldo who killed him. When Aldo blames Carlo for not getting out of the way fast enough, the other boys all jump on him and begin beating him up.

Turner allows the beating to happen, but stops it before it goes too far. After forcing the other boys to stop, he wordlessly offers his hand to Aldo, but the bruised and bloodied boy, his pride hurt, slaps the hand away. Deciding to forget him for now, Turner turns his attention to the man who has been his enemy for the entire adventure, but who he is only how meeting face to face, and offers him his just as he had Aldo. Unlike Aldo, von Hecht accepts it, and tells Turner he admires him for accomplishing his mission against impossible odds, and considers him a worthy opponent.

The American soldiers arrive. Aldo angrily refuses anyone's attempts to help him up, so he's left behind. Turner, Bianca, von Hecht and the kids go down and meet the approaching soldiers. Turner speaks with a colonel and explains everything that happened, and asks for transport for the civilians. Von Hecht is given over as a prisoner, while Bianca and the children are loaded onto a troop carrier. Aldo watches from his vantage point nearby, seething with rage. Despite everything, the other boys call for him to come join them, but he refuses.

Grumbling, Turner heads up to get him. Aldo throws rocks at him, screaming that he's a traitor because he didn't let him kill von Hecht and because he stole away his leadership. The rocks hit their mark, bloodying Turner, but the American keeps coming. Running out of rocks to hurl, and seeing the towering soldier approaching so resolutely, Aldo finally snaps from his mania. He realizes what he did. And what he would've done. He breaks down and begins crying, reduced to the terrified and remorseful little boy that his hateful anger was always concealing, and begs for Turner's forgiveness.

Turner replies by scooping the child into his arms, hugging him, and carrying him down to the truck as the novel ends.

A novelization of the 1970 Rock Hudson film, Hornets' Nest is probably my favorite WWII novel outside of Alistair MacLean's books. Like the movie it's based on, it has a lurid and sort of sleazy feel to it, but has what I think is an ultimately satisfying conclusion, sappy though it is. And, making up for the teary sappiness, it does have enough violence in it to make fans of war thrillers happy.

Where it differs from the film, I'm torn thanks to two important plot elements. First, the massacre of Reanoto. We see it in the film. It's the very first scene. Michael Avallone never actually depicts it, though. We only learn about it secondhand. This is a mistake from a plot standpoint, I think, particularly where Taussig is concerned. In the movie, we want to see him die from the very beginning and it's very satisfying when he gets killed. Without the massacre scene, here in the book he's just some random jerk we don't care about, so his death has no impact.

Secondly, the scene near the dam where Turner and Bianca have sex. In the movie, it's outright rape. Turner forces himself angrily on Bianca and has his way with her, and it makes his character really unpleasant. Now, maybe this is what they were going for, that even the supposed hero can be just as bad as his enemies, but I thought that the central plot of him training children to shoot guns and kill people did this well enough all by itself, and the rape scene was unneeded. Others may disagree, and like the gratuitous seediness of such a scene, but it just personally left a bad taste in my mouth, so I believe Avallone made the correct decision to have it be rough but consensual.

All in all, a great read and I hope you guys enjoyed my recap of it.