[ShankS]

I watched this film last night, and you pretty well sumed it up the same as me.

At first I did belive that the few soldiers had survived the battle, however the toxic gas they breathed, may have been something to do with the night turning to day so quickly, but then thought, thats just silly

Then as the film went on, I couldnt decide, whether they were actually alive or dead. They were one by one being taken out, buy the trench or by each other turning against themselves, until Shakespeare and the german were left on their own together. The german let Shakespeare free, who then went on to see the party of soldiers along side himself in the tunnels, he did believe he was still alive, but it was clear now, he and all the rest died in the battle.

This convinced me that the german wasnt actually human, just some sort of entity along with the trench, which was put there by some unknown force to test the Soldiers.

At the end of the film, as you mentioned, another party of soldiers approached the german trench in exactly the same way, the foot through the corpse etc...... the camera panning to the german, who grins, I concluded that this german, was put there to test the soldiers worthyness after their deaths, with some sort of 'right of passage' to some other place, be it heaven or hell.