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When the Germans and Americans Teamed Up in World War II

Even if you don’t know much about World War II, you probably know that the United States and Germany were on opposing sides. And for the most part, you’re right. Still, a look at the waning days of the war prove that even this assumption is, at least in one instance in Austria, incorrect.

If you travel to Austria today, you may visit a small castle dating back to approximately 1240. This structure, known as Castle Itter, is just south of the German border. After Germany annexed Austria prior to the beginning of the war, the Nazi regime leased the castle from its owner, and in 1943 they seized it outright. Shortly thereafter, the German military converted the castle into a prison for about a dozen high-profile French prisoners, including Charles de Gaulle’s sister, two former French military leaders, and two former French prime ministers.

The prisoners’ freedom seemed likely when, on April 30, 1945, Adolf Hitler took his own life. Four days later, the commanding officer of the castle fled and his soldiers followed shortly behind. Despite the soldiers being gone, the prisoners knew that they were hardly free; the area was still under German military control, and many other fleeing soldiers would still seek shelter at the castle. Instead of making a run for it, the prisoners collected the arms that were left behind and resolved to defend themselves when the SS troops returned to retake the castle. The hope was that a liberation force would arrive in time to rescue them. In order to increase those odds, a Yugoslavian prisoner named Zvonimir Čučković—an electrician reassigned from Dachau to assist in the castle’s repairs—risked recapture (or death) and set out beyond the castle’s walls to find help.

What he found during his trip away from the castle were two things: Germans and Americans. The latter was welcome—but surprisingly so was the former. German commander Major Josef Gangl had already been convinced that his country was going to lose—during the weeks before Hitler’s suicide, Gangl and his troops were already assisting the Austrian resistance against Hitler’s forces. So, when the Castle Itter prisoner found Gangl, Gangl decided to move his unit to the castle, with the express intent of freeing the prisoners by surrendering to the Americans. Along the way back, Čučković and Gangl’s group met up with a small American tank unit led by Lieutenant Jack Lee, whom they welcomed into the castle with them. The castle was now under American control.

On May 5, 1945, however, Gangl’s country mates made it clear that the major did not speak for his nation. An SS unit opened fire on the castle, first with machine guns and later with anti-tank weaponry. The joint US-German forces (with support from the French captives) struggled to hold the castle, and, as HistoryNet notes, the Nazi loyalists seemed poised for victory. As a last-ditch effort, French tennis star Jean Borotra, one of the former prisoners, volunteered to run to a nearby village in hopes of directing reinforcements. Borotra’s run was successful; American reinforcements arrived just before the Nazis made their assault on the castle’s front gate. The SS troops fled, and the Americans—assisted by German soldiers for the first and only time in World War II—won the Battle for Castle Itter.

BONUS FACT

Many medieval castles feature spiral staircases that, from the point of view of someone going up the stairs, run clockwise. Why? The design makes things difficult for would-be attackers. Assuming the attackers are right-handed (as most people are), they’d be at a distinct disadvantage; as they came up the stairs, their swords would be positioned on the inside of the staircase and, therefore, would be blocked by the central pillar. Meanwhile, those defending the castle would have their swords unencumbered as they came down the stairs.