On May 5, 1945, just three days before the unconditional surrender of the Third Reich, the Tyrolean Castle Itter was the setting for the most improbable clash on the European front: the only recorded battle of World War II where regular US troops and German Wehrmacht soldiers fought shoulder to shoulder as allies.
The medieval fortress served as a detention facility for prominent French political and military figures captured by the Nazi regime, including former Prime Ministers Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud, Generals Maxime Weygand and Maurice Gamelin, and even tennis player Marie-Agnès de Gaulle, sister of Charles de Gaulle. Faced with the imminent fall of Berlin, a detachment of fanatical Waffen-SS received orders to liquidate the prisoners before retreating.
Faced with the threat of mass execution, an unprecedented alliance was formed:
- German Major Josef Gangl, a decorated hero who had defected from the Wehrmacht to join the Austrian resistance, requested help from nearby Allied forces.
- US Captain John C. Lee Jr. arrived with a single Sherman tank (nicknamed Besotten Jenny), 14 American soldiers, and about a dozen Wehrmacht troops loyal to Gangl.
- The French prisoners themselves took up rifles and ammunition to take positions on the battlements alongside their former captors.
Around 150 SS grenadiers besieged the fortress with mortar and anti-tank fire for hours. Gangl lost his life while shielding Paul Reynaud from a sniper with his own body. The unusual coalition held out until the arrival of the US 142nd Infantry Regiment, sealing one of the most extraordinary wartime cooperations in modern history.
Source: Harding, Stephen. 'The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Fought Together in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe' (Da Capo Press, 2013).
