World War II’s Strangest Battle: When Americans and Germans Fought Together

The Daily Beast ^ | 5/12/13

[Kartographer]

The most extraordinary things about this 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.

[Lancey Howard]

Interesting post.

Another TV / military connection I always found interesting was the story of Donald Bellisario, producer of Magnum, PI, Airwolf, Quantum Leap, JAG, and NCIS. He served in the Marines with Lee Oswald.

A baseball / military story I like is the one about Pirates Hall-of-Famer, Roberto Clemente. He served 6 years as a weekend warrior in the Marine Corps Reserve.