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 ...
Lol. Not unless I go to northern Europe. I like them...mit viel schlag — bitte.
The Grease Gun. Lots of fun to shoot, wasted a lot of .45 ammo to take out a target, but scared the H*** out of anyone on the business end. Tankers used to have them as an issue item in the field.
Yes, The Thompson has the edge in accuracy with a longer sight radius, more weight for control, and sights which could be set for various distances.
My brother produced a YouTube vid about the differences between the Colt 1921 model Thompson and the much more common 1928a1 model.
“By the way, their sheep have these HUGE triangle shaped tails. WEIRDEST thing I ever saw.”
Fat tail sheep, I think. They use that to keep the kebab thing from drying out by placing it at the top so the mutton suet is continually melting over the spiced meat. I have heard.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat-tailed_sheep though the pictures don’t look like other pictures I’ve seen, which matched what you’ve described.
Thank you.
Patton thought so.
Not exactly the “last battle” of WWII. The Battle of Okinawa went into June. My father was wounded on Okinawa 10 days after this incident in Europe.
My husband and I snuck in early to see the goat grab layout. Just peeking at the food.
We BOTH noticed a big fat cockroach crawl into the goat food...and decided NOT to join the "Kapsa," goat grab that night. We ate at home.
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