Battle of Castle Itter
| Battle of Castle Itter | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the end of World War II in Europe | |||||||
Itter Castle in 1979 | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
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German Wehrmacht defectors United States Austrian resistance French prisoners Waffen SS defectors | Waffen-SS | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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John C. Lee Jr. Josef Gangl † Kurt-Siegfried Schrader | Georg Bochmann | ||||||
| Units involved | |||||||
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12th Armored Division 142nd Infantry Regiment | 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
|
36 personnel 4 tanks (1 engaged) |
150–200 personnel 3 flak guns | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
|
1 killed and 4 wounded 1 tank M4A3E8 destroyed |
Many killed and wounded 100 captured | ||||||
The Battle of Castle Itter was fought on 5 May 1945, in the Austrian village of Itter in the North Tyrol region of the country, during the last days of the European Theater of World War II.
Troops of the 23rd Tank Battalion of the 12th Armored Division of the US XXI Corps led by Lieutenant John C. "Jack" Lee Jr., a number of Wehrmacht soldiers led by Major Josef "Sepp" Gangl, SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt-Siegfried Schrader, and recently freed French prisoners of war defended Castle Itter against an attacking force from the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division until relief from the American 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th Division of XXI Corps arrived.
The battle is one of two known times during the war in which Americans and Germans fought side by side, the other being Operation Cowboy, and the only known time where an active member of the Waffen-SS fought on the Allied side. Popular accounts have called it the strangest battle of World War II.