By early May 1945 the war in Europe was all but over. Hitler was dead, having killed himself in his bunker in Berlin rather than let the Soviet forces capture him. Mussolini had died days prior, his body strung up by partisans. American and Soviet forces had already linked up and the remaining German government under Admiral Karl Dönitz was about to formally surrender. German soldiers were either trying to give up to the Allies or in the case of diehards, kill anyone they considered traitor.
Amidst all that, an American detachment somehow found itself under siege, holed up in an Austrian castle fighting off waves of SS troops. Their unlikely allies? Members of the Wehrmacht, who had joined them in an effort to secure high-value prisoners of war who were kept in the castle.
The Battle of Castle Itter took place 80 years ago on May 5, 1945. It was one of the last battles in the European theater, and by far one of the strangest. The fight at Castle Itter was the focus of “The Last Battle” by Stephen Harding, which chronicled the events that led to the bewildering siege and the frantic and daring combat that emerged during it.
Schloss Itter, or Castle Itter, was a relatively modern fortification, built in 1878 at the top of a hill overlooking the village of Itter in the Tyrol region of Austria. It had been a private estate and a hotel and eventually came under Nazi control. In 1943, Castle Itter was made part of the Dachau prison network. But unlike the rest of Dachau it was not a death camp. Instead, it was a prison for some of the Nazis’ most important VIPs.
There were French generals, Maxime Weygand and Maurice Gamelin. Former French prime ministers, Edouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud found themselves imprisoned there along with other politicians. Jean Borotra, A former French tennis star turned nationalist politician, also found himself there. There were also a handful of Czech and Yugoslav partisans who had been a thorn in the Nazis’ side, but hadn’t been put up for execution. And Charles de Gaulle’s sister was there as well. And for two years they stayed as the war carried on.
According to Harding’s detailed history of the fight, things took a turn in the spring of 1945. The Nazi regime was on its last legs and the prison guards were getting nervous. Various officers and units, including SS troops, were fleeing south into Austria, looking to escape the Soviets, get away or continue an insurgency against the Allies. By May 2, the guards and the castle’s notoriously brutal and arrogant commandant, Sebastian Wimmer, also fled. Before Wimmer left, he warned his former captives of the dangers from diehard German units in the area. Then, the prisoners were alone. Armed, inside a fortress of sorts, but alone, surrounded by possible SS units. One person had already tried to seek Allied help before Wimmer left, but now the former prisoners needed to try and reach the Americans again.
Andreas Krobot, a Czech prisoner who served as a cook, was sent out via bicycle to find support. He eventually made it to the town of Worgl, where he found the Austrian resistance and Wehrmacht troops that had thrown in with them. They were led by Wehrmacht Maj. Josef “Sepp” Gangl. Gangl, who had just under two dozen men with him, was looking to surrender to the Americans. Rescuing some high-value prisoners might help him avoid some heavy punishment. So he then set out to reach the Americans, with Krobot. Gangl found them in the town of Kufstein. Four tanks from the 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armored Division, led by Capt. Jack Lee. Gangl went up to Lee, who was chewing on an unlit cigar and ready to hear the German officer out on the bizarre rescue mission he was proposing.
As Harding noted, the Germans and the Americans were all tired. It was May, no one wanted to fight and die when the war was essentially over. But Lee pulled together a strange detachment. Three tanks, including his own called “Besotten Jenny,” their crews, some infantry and the Wehrmacht troops. They went ahead, leaving some tanks to guard the way to the castle. When they arrived at Castle Itter on the afternoon of May 4, Lee and his strange detachment found themselves with one more mission and the very real threat of an SS attack imminent. To many of the prisoners’ shock and horror, their rescue party was small, and Lee decided not to immediately leave. He did not have enough vehicles to move them, the SS was out there, and if they were attacked in the open, the old generals and politicians, not to mention Lee’s soldiers, would be easy targets. The plan was simple: Hunker down and wait for reinforcements to secure the area.
It was not a crazy plan. Castle Itter was old, but it was still a stone castle on high ground, with an open field in front of it. It could repel small arms. By design, there were several places the group could fall back to if attackers advanced, including what Lee dubbed “the keep.” The actual soldiers, German and American, were well armed; they had a tank set up as a defensive barrier, and the prisoners had also armed themselves with rifles and submachine guns from the abandoned armory. So as night fell on May 4, the odd collection of soldiers and captured politicians waited for reinforcements.
The morning of May 5, the SS showed up instead.
Against the SS
More than 100 SS troops appeared out of the woods that morning. Despite the state of the German military, they had plenty of guns, trucks, and even an 88mm gun, and they soon opened fire on the castle. American tankers, Black soldiers, members of the Wehrmacht and French politicians all fired back at them.
Any language barrier that existed fell away through a mix of hand signals, soldiers’ common sense, and a general understanding of what the other was shouting. Gangl, Harding noted, spoke English, which did help. Early in the fighting he and Lee agreed they needed to try and hail more backup. And because Castle Itter had been an important prison, it happened to have a working phone, so they dialed a nearby village to reach the Austrian resistance and tell them to get American help.
Meanwhile, the fighting was fierce. Lee’s tank, Besotten Jenny, was hit by the 88mm gun, taking it out of the fight as Americans scrambled to pull the crew out. The French officials who hadn’t yet taken up arms soon did, although Harding noted that not all of them had the best skill with an MP-40. But the SS continued on, and even with their solid arsenal of weapons, the defenders were soon low on ammo. They needed help.
As more SS appeared out of the woods, Lee and Gangl, high up at the defenses, tried to counter. Gangl spotted one of the VIPs exposed and stood to wave him away. The Wehrmacht major then fell over dead, killed by an SS sniper. Although the castle could withstand small arms, artillery rounds were soon pounding it.
Then Borotra, the tennis star who was a good deal younger than many of the other Frenchmen, proposed a possible suicide mission. He’d run out of the castle, reach any American units, and fill them in on the quickest way to reach the castle and what the situation was. Lee said yes. The phone was now dead, Gangl was dead, ammunition was low and the SS showed no signs of stopping. Borotra took off and somehow, against all odds, did not get shot by the SS.
He found reinforcements. An American unit that was also informed of the prisoners had been trying to make it to Castle Itter but had been slowed down by resistance. They listened to Borotra and sped towards the castle. At Castle Itter, Lee was ordering his strange mix of troops to fall back deeper into the fortifications. The SS was now advancing. And then the American reinforcements appeared, opening up on the Nazis with a wave of fire, backed by armor. They tore through the SS, who soon ran and abandoned the fight. Many were dead in the slopes around the castle. And the Americans linked up with Lee and his men.
By the time the fighting was over, the defenders had killed several members of the attacking SS. Only one of the defenders had died — Gangl. Four others were wounded. But the strange mix of German, French, American, Czech and Balkan fighters had held off an overwhelming Nazi force while holed up inside a castle on a mountain.
Now liberated, the VIPs were repatriated to their home countries. The American troops carried on with their occupation of Austria before eventually being demobilized after the war. Lee would eventually be awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. His citation noted his “extraordinary heroism” but did not get into the odd circumstances around it.
