On May 5, 1945, just three days before the official collapse of Nazi Germany, one of the most improbable clashes in modern military history took place in the Austrian Tyrol: the Battle of Castle Itter. In this medieval fortress, converted by the regime into a high-security prison for illustrious French figures—including former prime ministers Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud—soldiers from the United States Army and personnel from the German Wehrmacht fought side by side.
Faced with the imminent advance of a fanatical Waffen-SS battalion planning to execute the captives before capitulation, Wehrmacht Major and anti-Nazi resistance member Josef Gangl decided to seek help from Allied forces. He contacted US Captain John C. 'Jack' Lee Jr., coordinating an unusual joint rescue.
The motley defensive force that withstood the siege consisted of:
- Fourteen American soldiers supported by a single Sherman tank named Besotten Jenny.
- About a dozen defecting Wehrmacht soldiers led by Gangl.
- The French dignitaries themselves, who took up arms to defend the fortress.
Despite the overwhelming numerical superiority of the SS attackers, the position held for hours until the arrival of reinforcements from the Allied 142nd Infantry Division. Gangl was killed by a sniper while shielding Paul Reynaud, sealing with his life the only battle of World War II where Germans and Americans fought in the same trench.
Source: Harding, Stephen (2013). The Last Battle: When U.S. and German Soldiers Fought Together in the Waning Hours of World War II in Europe. Da Capo Press.
