Once Enemies, Now Friends

It is winter of 1944/45 and World War II is coming to its end. Two teenage soldiers, one American, the other German, are caught up in its final battles. On the last Christmas of that conflict, they are within 5 miles of each other on opposite sides of the Rhine, while the Battle of the Bulge rages 100 miles to the North.

The German was drafted into the Luftwaffe Flak (anti-aircraft) Corps at barely 16, to help protect his hometown, Karlsruhe, against bombing raids of the 8th Air Force and the British Bomber Command. In January 1945, in his country's last effort to halt the advancing Allies, his unit crosses the Rhine in the "Operation Northwind" bridgehead attempt.

The American, typified by Bill Mauldin's "doughboy" cartoons, advances with the 63rd Infantry Division through Eastern France and Southern Germany. In April 1945 he is wounded outside a small German village during one of the last, furious clashes of that war, thought by many veterans to be the "Second Battle of the Bulge".

By chance they meet 56 years later, discovering that they live only a block from each other in a small New Mexico town. They compare their experiences and decide to write this book. Once enemies, they are now friends. Their stories become A Bridge to Brotherhood.

Chuck Miles was born in 1925 in Missouri and grew up on a small farm. He was drafted in 19944 and served in WW II in the infantry until he was wounded in Germany. He graduated from USC in 1950 and persued a merchandizing career until he retired in Las Cruces, NM where he is active in many civic affairs.

Felix Pfaeffle was born in 1928 in Karlsruhe Germany. At 16 he was drafted into the Luftwaffe Flak Corps in 1944 and went through difficult times at the closing days of WW II. He immigrated to the United States in 1951 and became a US citizen in 1957. He retired from the computer industry and lives in Las Cruces, NM where he met Charles Miles in 2001.