Battle of Castle Itter 1945
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Recorded location from Wikidata; battle sites are often approximate.
Key facts
| Date | 5 May 1945 | Wikidata |
|---|---|---|
| Year | 1945 | Wikidata P585 (point in time) |
| Era | World War II era (1939–1945) | derived from year |
| Location | Austria | Natural Earth (modern borders) |
| Continent | Europe | Natural Earth |
| War / conflict | World War II | Wikidata P361 |
| Participants | United States, Waffen-SS | Wikidata P710 |
| Coordinates | 47.4706, 12.1397 | Wikidata P625 |
About the battle
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 Lieutenant 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 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.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Battle of Castle Itter (revision 1380048016), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section; formatting and citations removed. No text added.
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All 178 battles of the World War II →
Browse more: battles in Austria · Europe · World War II era battles