Five days after Hitler died in a bunker, the world was still a mess. It was May 1945. Most people think the war in Europe just... stopped. It didn’t. While the high command was signing papers, a small pocket of the Austrian Tyrol became the setting for the strangest skirmish in modern history. We’re talking about the Battle of Castle Itter.
It sounds like a bad Hollywood pitch. You’ve got a medieval castle, high-profile French prisoners, a gang of American GIs, and—wait for it—a unit of the German Wehrmacht. All of them were shooting at the Waffen-SS. Yeah, you read that right. Germans and Americans fighting together against other Germans. It’s the kind of historical anomaly that makes you realize how messy reality actually is compared to the clean-cut stories we see in textbooks.
What Really Happened at Castle Itter?
Castle Itter wasn’t some strategic fortress guarding a mountain pass. Honestly, it was a luxury prison. By 1943, the SS had turned this 13th-century site into a place to stick "high-value" French prisoners. We aren't talking about foot soldiers. These were the elites. Former prime ministers like Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud were there. So was General Maurice Gamelin and even a famous tennis star, Jean Borotra.
By early May 1945, the guards were getting nervous. The Red Army was closing in from the east, and the Americans were pushing from the west. The commander of the prison, Sebastian Wimmer, realized the game was up and bolted on May 4. Usually, this is where the story ends. The guards leave, the prisoners walk free, everyone goes home.
Not this time.
The valley was still crawling with Waffen-SS units. These guys weren’t interested in surrendering; they were looking to "liquidate" traitors and high-value targets before the end. The French prisoners were sitting ducks in a stone castle with no way to defend themselves. They did the only thing they could: they sent a Serbian handyman named Čučković to find help.
An Unlikely Alliance
Čučković stumbled upon a unit of the 12th Armored Division of the US Army. But before the Americans even got there, the prisoners had already made contact with a local German resistance group led by Major Josef Gangl. Gangl was a decorated Wehrmacht officer who had realized the war was lost and decided his job now was to protect his people from the fanatical SS.
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Then came Captain Jack Lee.
Lee was your stereotypical cigar-chomping American tanker. When Gangl approached him with a white flag to ask for help saving French VIPs, Lee didn't hesitate. He took a single tank—boldly named Besotten Jenny—and a handful of men. He met up with Gangl’s German soldiers, and together they rolled up to the castle. Imagine the look on the French prisoners' faces. They look out the window and see an American Sherman tank, followed by a truckload of German soldiers wearing Wehrmacht uniforms but sporting white armbands.
It was a ragtag rescue. Lee had about 14 Americans, maybe 10 German soldiers, and a lone tank. They weren't exactly a massive relief force.
The Siege Begins
The SS didn't wait long. On the morning of May 5, a force from the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division began their assault. They had the high ground and better numbers. The Battle of Castle Itter turned into a desperate defensive stand.
Jack Lee was basically the conductor of a chaotic orchestra. He parked Besotten Jenny at the main gate to act as a pillbox. The French VIPs, who were supposed to stay inside and hide, refused. These were men who had run countries; they weren't about to sit under a bed while a 19-year-old from Brooklyn fought for their lives. Paul Reynaud, a former Prime Minister of France, reportedly picked up a rifle and started shooting from the ramparts.
It was brutal.
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The tank was eventually knocked out by an 88mm anti-tank gun. The Americans and "good" Germans were pinned back into the castle buildings. Ammunition was running low. This is where Major Josef Gangl became a hero, though a tragic one. While trying to move former Prime Minister Reynaud out of the line of fire, Gangl was killed by a sniper's bullet. To this day, he is honored in Austria as a national hero for his role in the resistance.
The Great Escape (Literally)
By the afternoon, the SS was preparing for a final push. They were moving in with Panzerfausts (anti-tank rockets) to blow the gates. This was it.
But Jean Borotra, the tennis star, had a plan. He volunteered to vault over the castle wall, sprint through the SS lines, and find the relief column that Lee knew was somewhere in the area. And he did it. He literally ran through the woods in a tracksuit, avoided patrols, and found the 142nd Infantry Regiment.
Just as the SS were lining up for the kill, the relief force arrived. The SS melted away into the forest. The battle was over. It remains the only time in World War II where Americans and Germans fought as allies in a major engagement.
Why Nobody Knew About This For Decades
For years, the Battle of Castle Itter was a footnote. It didn't fit the narrative. We like our history clean: Allied boots good, German boots bad. A story where the Wehrmacht (the regular German army) works with the US Army to kill the SS (the Nazi party’s paramilitary) complicates the "Good War" imagery.
Stephen Harding’s book, The Last Battle, finally brought this story into the mainstream about a decade ago. Before that, it was mostly just a "did you know?" fact for hardcore military historians. Even the survivors seemed a bit baffled by it. Jack Lee ended up getting the Distinguished Service Cross, but he was always pretty modest about the whole thing. He just wanted to get the job done.
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The Complexity of the Wehrmacht
We have to be careful here. It’s easy to romanticize Major Gangl and his men. However, most historians, including those who specialize in the German Resistance, point out that these "heroic" turns often happened in the final days of the war. Were they motivated by pure altruism or the realization that the Americans would treat them better than the Soviets would? It's usually a bit of both.
But at Castle Itter, the stakes were immediate. If Gangl hadn't stepped in, the SS would have almost certainly executed the French prisoners. That’s a fact.
Actionable Insights: Lessons from the Most Bizarre Battle
You don't just read about Castle Itter for the "cool factor." There are actual takeaways from how this played out under pressure.
- Pragmatism beats ideology in a crisis. Jack Lee didn't care that Gangl was a German officer. He needed boots on the ground. When your back is against the wall, you find allies where they exist, not where you want them to be.
- The "Fog of War" is real. Communication was so broken in May 1945 that these units were operating in total isolation. If you're a leader, realize that your team's biggest danger is often not the enemy, but a lack of information.
- Individual agency matters. Jean Borotra didn't have to jump that wall. Gangl didn't have to surrender to the Americans and then go back into the fire. The outcome of history often hinges on one person deciding to do something incredibly risky.
If you ever find yourself in the Austrian Tyrol, you can actually visit the castle. It’s privately owned now, so you can’t exactly go poking around the bedrooms, but you can see it from the road. Standing there, looking at those stone walls, it’s wild to imagine a Sherman tank parked in the driveway while French politicians and German soldiers shared a cigarette and waited for the SS to attack.
To get the full picture of this event, look into the following steps:
- Read "The Last Battle" by Stephen Harding. It is the definitive account and uses primary source interviews that aren't available anywhere else.
- Research the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division. Understanding who the attackers were—a unit known for its fanaticism—makes the defense of the castle seem even more miraculous.
- Study the "Vichy France" context. To understand why the prisoners (like Daladier and Reynaud) hated each other almost as much as the Nazis, you need to understand the internal politics of occupied France. Their bickering inside the castle during the siege is a whole other level of historical comedy.