Battle of Castle Itter

Battle of Castle Itter
Part of the Western Front of World War II
Itter Castle in 1979
Date 5 May 1945 (1945-05-05) Location Itter Castle, Tyrol, Austria 47°28′14″N 12°08′23″E / 47.47056°N 12.13972°E / 47.47056; 12.13972 Result German-American Victory
Belligerents
Nazi Germany Wehrmacht United States Austrian resistance French prisoners	Nazi Germany Waffen-SS
Commanders and leaders
John Lee Harry Basse Josef Gangl † Kurt-Siegfried Schrader	Georg Bochmann
Units involved
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	Unknown killed and wounded 100 captured
class=notpageimage| Location within Austria

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 Lieut. 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 French prisoners included former prime ministers, generals, tennis star Jean Borotra, and Charles de Gaulle's sister. 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.^[1]