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WWII’s Strangest Battle: When Americans and Germans Fought Together
War history Online ^ | January 19, 2014

Posted on 01/19/2014 5:43:24 PM PST by Jacob Kell

Days after Hitler’s suicide a group of American soldiers, French prisoners, and, yes, German soldiers defended an Austrian castle against an SS division—the only time Germans and Allies fought together in World War II. Andrew Roberts on a story so wild that it has to be made into a movie. The most extraordinary things about Stephen Harding’s The Last Battle, a truly incredible tale of World War II, are that it hasn’t been told before in English, and that it hasn’t already been made into a blockbuster Hollywood movie. Here are the basic facts: on 5 May 1945—five days after Hitler’s suicide—three Sherman tanks from the 23rd Tank Battalion of the U.S. 12th Armored Division under the command of Capt. John C. ‘Jack’ Lee Jr., liberated an Austrian castle called Schloss Itter in the Tyrol, a special prison that housed various French VIPs, including the ex-prime ministers Paul Reynaud and Eduard Daladier and former commanders-in-chief Generals Maxime Weygand and Paul Gamelin, amongst several others. Yet when the units of the veteran 17th Waffen-SS Panzer Grenadier Division arrived to recapture the castle and execute the prisoners, Lee’s beleaguered and outnumbered men were joined by anti-Nazi German soldiers of the Wehrmacht, as well as some of the extremely feisty wives and girlfriends of the (needless-to-say hitherto bickering) French VIPs, and together they fought off some of the best crack troops of the Third Reich. Steven Spielberg, how did you miss this story?

(Excerpt) Read more at warhistoryonline.com ...


TOPICS: History; Military/Veterans; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: 12tharmoreddivision; 17thwaffenss; 23rdtankbattalion; american; austria; battle; captjohncleejr; eduarddaladier; germany; maximeweygand; military; pages; paulgamelin; paulreynaud; readinglist; schlossitter; ss; stephenharding; thelastbattle; wehrmacht; worldwareleven; ww2; wwii
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I never heard of this until quite recently. Has anyone?
1 posted on 01/19/2014 5:43:24 PM PST by Jacob Kell
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To: Jacob Kell
I haven't but then you know Hollyweird: they HATE Germany, Germans and anything remotely German.

Gee, can't imagine why.

2 posted on 01/19/2014 5:56:04 PM PST by cloudmountain
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To: Jacob Kell

Forget Spielberg, this one is right up Mark Wahlberg’s alley. He would do it justice.


3 posted on 01/19/2014 5:59:27 PM PST by jwalsh07
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To: Jacob Kell

Nope, never heard this b4.

4 posted on 01/19/2014 6:03:03 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: Jacob Kell

Should have teamed up and fought the Soviets.


5 posted on 01/19/2014 6:03:56 PM PST by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: Jacob Kell

Bump.


6 posted on 01/19/2014 6:04:19 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
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To: jwalsh07

Tarantino, if he realizes by now that he doesn’t need to pad his cool credentials anymore, would do well with this. Inglorious Bastards was actually a pretty good movie.


7 posted on 01/19/2014 6:07:06 PM PST by bakeneko
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To: jwalsh07

he couldn’t even get Tony Stark right in the screen tests..


8 posted on 01/19/2014 6:08:04 PM PST by max americana (fired liberals in our company last election, and I laughed while they cried (true story))
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To: Jacob Kell
aren't there some incidents, where some German soldiers/pilots either ignored/or actually
disobeyed orders to harm/imprison allied soldiers?..not many but they're out there.

9 posted on 01/19/2014 6:08:20 PM PST by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi :-)
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To: Jacob Kell
"The M3 was an American .45-caliber submachine gun adopted for U.S. Army service on 12 December 1942, as the United States Submachine Gun, Cal. .45, M3.[5] Compared to the Thompson submachine gun, the M3 was cheaper to produce, lighter, more accurate, and was also chambered in .45 ACP."

Never seen this one before either..


10 posted on 01/19/2014 6:09:12 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: cloudmountain

They do like to make black girls drive those Hitler jeeps from VW at holyweird in many of their movies.


11 posted on 01/19/2014 6:12:40 PM PST by lavaroise (A well regulated gun being necessary to the state, the rights of the militia shall not be infringed)
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To: Paladin2

never seen one? we had 2 per tank in my unit in germany in 1975


12 posted on 01/19/2014 6:15:43 PM PST by bravo whiskey (We should not fear our government. Our government should fear us.)
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To: skinkinthegrass
Ye Olde Pub.
13 posted on 01/19/2014 6:18:21 PM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: bravo whiskey
That one needs a better PR agent.

It's a whole new "Cowboy" action event (1911 & M3).

14 posted on 01/19/2014 6:20:14 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: lavaroise
They do like to make black girls drive those Hitler jeeps from VW at holyweird in many of their movies.\

There were no blacks to speak of. ONCE IN A WHILE, there would be some African blood that snuck in but it was very rare. If I saw two black Saudis in FIVE long years that would be a lot. I can only remember one. And we could see the skin on their hands so color was obvious.
The Saudis are brown to white-white, lots of mixtures of middle eastern browns to white-white. No black.
Hollywood is fantasy. I learned JUST how fantasy there were when I saw WITH MY OWN EYES, what lies I learned from good ole Hollywood.

I kept waiting for Lawrence of Arabia and Omar Shariff to come by on camels....no such luck. They all drove Fords, especially pick-ups. We saw them load their sheep and goats on the back and drive away.
By the way, their sheep have these HUGE triangle shaped tails. WEIRDEST thing I ever saw.

Also, all the camels they use are females. The male camels are too unpredictable, noisy, mean and nasty.

Hubby and I went down to the Red Sea port of Yanbu and also saw the camel races. But, that's another story!

15 posted on 01/19/2014 6:29:38 PM PST by cloudmountain
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To: bravo whiskey

A friend had one in his tank recovery vehicle in the Gulf War.


16 posted on 01/19/2014 6:31:20 PM PST by eartrumpet
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To: Jacob Kell

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3018686/posts


17 posted on 01/19/2014 6:35:13 PM PST by Southack (The one thing preppers need from the 1st World? http://tinyurl.com/ktfwljc .)
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To: bakeneko
Tarantino, if he realizes by now that he doesn’t need to pad his cool credentials anymore, would do well with this. Inglorious Bastards was actually a pretty good movie.

He could resurrect Hugo Stiglitz.

18 posted on 01/19/2014 6:35:18 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: cloudmountain
"I haven't but then you know Hollyweird: they
HATE Germany..Gee, can't imagine why.
that's easy; until June 22, 1941(Operation Barberosa) NAZI Germany
& Soviets were "great buddies" after that they're were fierce enemies.

as you know, neither country had any use for the western
democracies, except financial/technical aid (the soviet).

19 posted on 01/19/2014 6:35:25 PM PST by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi :-)
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To: Paladin2

That’s the “grease gun”, no?


20 posted on 01/19/2014 6:37:56 PM PST by Argus
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