A deeper relationship between the 'colonels'?

I went through the two pages, and didn't see a thread about this. Though, I assume, at some point, it may have been discussed.

At the end of the movie, Willis' character says that it would seem that they both "lost". Now, on a simplistic level, one could look at the fact that a munitions factory was just blown up, or, even that the two colonels had a respecting, even cordial, conversational accord with one another. So, if you use your imagination, you could say they were "friends". I don't believe they were friends, not at all, merely forced, due to circumstances, to have a bond, even, "love" for one another. I like to believe the two were cousins, or, had another blood relationship.

Given the huge percentage of German American living in the United States, well over 100,000 moving there just between 1930 - 1940, it is entirely possible.