War usually has clear lines. You have one side, you have the other, and they try to kill each other until someone quits or dies. But the Battle of Itter Castle basically threw that rulebook into a bonfire. It’s easily the strangest engagement of World War II. Imagine, for a second, a scene where American GIs are sharing ammo with German Wehrmacht soldiers to fend off a fanatical unit of the Waffen-SS. It sounds like a bad Hollywood pitch. It sounds fake.
It actually happened.
The date was May 5, 1945. This wasn't the peak of the war; it was the messy, chaotic end. Hitler was already dead in his bunker. Germany was collapsing. Yet, in a tiny corner of the Austrian Tyrol, a medieval-looking fortress became the stage for a fight that defied every logic of the previous six years of combat. It was a moment where survival and basic human decency—or maybe just a desperate need to be on the winning side—overrode national allegisances.
The Weirdest Guest List in History
Schloss Itter wasn't just a picturesque castle. Since 1943, the Nazis had used it as a high-profile prison. But they didn't put regular POWs here. This was the "VIP" lounge of the Dachau concentration camp system.
The people locked inside were the elite of French society. We’re talking former Prime Ministers Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud. You had high-ranking generals like Maurice Gamelin and Maxime Weygand. Even a famous tennis star, Jean Borotra, was stuck behind those stone walls. These weren't friends; many of them actually hated each other’s guts due to political beefs back in France. But they were all united by the fact that the SS saw them as valuable bargaining chips.
By early May, the prison guards, sensing the end was near, fled. But the prisoners weren't free. The surrounding woods were crawling with SS units who weren't ready to surrender. These guys were the "die-hards." They were looking to "liquidate" the prisoners before the Allies could reach them.
The French VIPs were trapped. They had guns they'd scavenged from the abandoned armory, but they weren't soldiers. They were aging politicians and athletes. They needed professional help, and they needed it fast.
Enter the Defector: Major Josef Gangl
This is where the story of the Battle of Itter Castle gets truly bizarre. The prisoners managed to get a message out via a Yugoslavian handyman named Zvonimir Čučković. Eventually, the plea for help reached Major Josef Gangl.
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Gangl wasn't a Nazi fanatic. He was a professional German soldier, a commander of a unit of Wehrmacht troops who had decided that the war was lost and Hitler was a madman. Instead of retreating or fighting to the last man, Gangl had joined the local Austrian resistance. He was trying to protect local towns from SS reprisals.
When Gangl heard about the French prisoners, he knew his small group couldn't save them alone. So, he did the unthinkable. He hopped in a vehicle, waved a large white flag, and drove toward the American lines.
He ran into Captain Jack Lee of the 12th Armored Division.
You have to wonder what was going through Lee’s head. Here is a German officer, in full uniform, asking for help to go save a bunch of French politicians from other Germans. Lee, a cigar-chomping, tough-as-nails Texan, didn't overthink it. He volunteered. He took a single tank—nicknamed "Besotten Annie"—and a handful of men. Together with Gangl’s Germans, they rode toward the castle.
The Fight for the Schloss
The defense of the castle was a logistical nightmare. Lee had about 14 Americans, Gangl had roughly 10 German soldiers, and they were supported by the French prisoners who refused to stay in the basement.
Think about that visual.
You have an American Sherman tank parked at the main gate. You have German Wehrmacht soldiers perched on the walls, checking their sights. Beside them, a former French Prime Minister is clutching a pistol. They were surrounded by hundreds of SS troops from the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division.
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The SS attacked on the morning of May 5. They had superior numbers. They had anti-tank guns. Early in the fight, "Besotten Annie" was hit by an 88mm shell and destroyed. The defenders were pushed back into the castle buildings.
It was brutal. It was close-quarters.
Major Gangl, the German who had chosen to do the right thing, was killed by a sniper’s bullet while trying to move former Prime Minister Reynaud out of harm's way. He is today remembered as a national hero in Austria, one of the few German officers to be so honored by the people he once technically occupied.
The Tennis Player's Sprint
By midday, the situation was looking grim. Ammunition was running low. The SS were preparing for a final assault to storm the gates.
Jean Borotra, the tennis star, volunteered for a suicide mission. He didn't have a racquet; he had a plan. He leaped over the castle walls, sprinted through the woods, and dodged SS patrols to find the main body of the American 142nd Infantry Regiment.
He made it.
Just as the SS were setting up to blast the castle doors open with a Panzerfaust, the relief column arrived. The SS melted away into the forest. The prisoners were saved. The Battle of Itter Castle ended as the only time in the war where Americans and Germans fought as allies.
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Why It Matters Today
Most people have never heard of this. It doesn't fit the clean narrative of the "Good War" where everyone in a German uniform was a mindless villain and everyone in an Allied uniform was a flawless hero. It’s a story about the gray areas.
It shows that even in the literal last minutes of the most horrific conflict in human history, individuals still had the power to change their minds. Gangl could have stayed hidden. Lee could have told Gangl to get lost. The French prisoners could have stayed in the cellar and hoped for the best.
Instead, they formed this weird, temporary brotherhood.
Stephen Harding’s book, The Last Battle, is basically the gold standard for research on this topic. If you want the gritty, minute-by-minute breakdown, that’s where you go. He spent years digging through declassified reports to prove that this wasn't just a tall tale told by drunk veterans in a bar. It’s documented. It’s real.
The castle itself still stands in Austria. It’s privately owned now, so you can’t just wander in for a tour, which is a bit of a bummer. But the village of Itter knows the story well.
Practical Takeaways from the Battle of Itter Castle
If you’re a history buff or just someone interested in how humans behave under pressure, there are a few things to keep in mind regarding this event.
- Trust the Primary Sources: When researching the Battle of Itter Castle, stick to military records from the 12th Armored Division. Plenty of "history" YouTube channels sensationalize the numbers. The actual force defending the castle was tiny—less than 30 men in total.
- Geopolitics is Local: This battle happened because of local Austrian resistance movements (the Gaismair-Gruppe) collaborating with disillusioned soldiers. It reminds us that "the front line" is never as solid as it looks on a map.
- Acknowledge the Complexity: Don't fall for the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth—many German soldiers committed atrocities. However, Schloss Itter is a specific case where a German commander chose to protect civilians against his own government's elite executioners.
- Visit the Region: If you're ever in the Brixental valley in Tyrol, you can see the castle from the road. It’s a stark reminder of how close the "VIP" prisoners came to execution.
To truly understand the end of World War II, you have to look at these strange, isolated incidents. They show the crumbling infrastructure of the Third Reich and the desperate, sometimes noble, choices men made when the world was falling apart. The Battle of Itter Castle wasn't a turning point in the war—the war was already over—but it was a turning point for the people inside that fortress.
For further reading, check out the military archives of the 142nd Infantry Regiment, which provided the final relief. Their logs from May 5-6, 1945, provide the most objective, "just the facts" look at the arrival of the columns and the surrender of the surrounding SS units. It's a sobering read that strips away the Hollywood shine and leaves you with the raw reality of a very strange day in May.