History - The Battle for Schloss Itter
Schloss Itter & entrance pathway in 1979 - Steve J Morgan (W.Commons)
I’ve been planning to write about this incident for ages, and today seemed a good day for it.
As this battle occurred on the 5th of May, 3 days before the official end of the war in Europe, I haven’t titled it as part of the ‘This Day in History’ series.
Schloss, or castle, Itter, is a small castle near the village of Itter in Austria.
A fortress since at least the 13th century, it had been rebuilt in 1532, then renovated in 1878, finally becoming a hotel in the early 20th century.
Following the 1938 ‘Anschluss’, when Germany annexed Austria, the castle was officially leased in 1940 from its owner, Franz Grüner.
On the 7th of February 1943, SS Lieutenant General Oswald Pohl was ordered by Heinrich Himmler to seize the castle.
Oswald Pohl in US custody 1946-47 (W.Commons)
Pohl was not only the head of the SS Main Economic and Administrative Office, he was also the head administrator of the concentration camps and a key figure in the ‘Final Solution’, the genocide of the Jews.
By the 25th of April 1943, the castle had been transformed into a prison and placed under the administration of the Dachau concentration camp.
The castle’s location, overlooking a valley of rivers, forested hillsides, and mountains, combined with the castle itself still retaining its fortress-like walls and gatehouse made it ideal for its purpose.
Secure yet comparatively comfortable, Schloss Itter became home to several French high-profile political prisoners valuable to the Reich, including former prime ministers Édouard Daladier, 60 years old, and his rival and successor, 66-year-old Paul Reynaud; former commanders-in-chief Maurice Gamelin, and his successor, Maxime Weygand; the tennis player Jean Borotra; and Marie-Agnés Cailliau, the elder sister of Charles de Gaulle.
Some Eastern European prisoners from Dachau were also held there for maintenance work.
One of them was a Croatian electrician who also happened to be a member of the Yugoslav communist resistance, Zvonimir Čučković.
The French prisoners, despite sharing the same fate, were open in their animosity toward one another.
Jean Borotra, in his late 40s, had won Wimbledon twice, and the Australian, and French Open tournaments while in his 20s.
Jean Borotra (olympedia.org)
He’d been given a position as the Minister for Sport in the Vichy government, which was withdrawn after his refusal to collaborate fully with Nazi policies; soon afterwards, he was arrested while attempting to leave the country.
Maurice Gamelin, 72, had been the French Commander in Chief, but after the Dunkirk disaster, was removed from his position by Paul Reynaud.
Gamelin’s successor, General Maxime Weygand, 78, was tasked with somehow turning the French forces around, but instead blamed Gamelin for France’s defeat, then helped oust Reynaud from office for an armistice to be drafted.
Weygand’s role in the surrender of France, and his involvement with the Vichy government earned him the loathing of many of his countrymen.
There were also 3 women held at Schloss Itter who were there either by choice or because their presence had been requested.
Paul Reynaud’s mistress, Christine Mabire, at 35, the youngest prisoner, was also his office assistant, and she helped him write his memoirs.
Another prisoner, the trade union leader, Léon Jouhaux, requested that his secretary and partner, Augusta Bruchlen, be allowed to join him, and permission was granted.
General Maxime Weygand’s wife, Marie-Renée, chose to be with her husband, most probably because of their advanced ages, yet both survived and died in the 1960s.
Fast forward to 1945, and the days following the 30th of April, the day of Adolf Hitler’s suicide.
Even the prisoners in the castle heard the news of Allied victories, and this fuelled hope, as did the sight of high-ranking Nazi officials fleeing Germany via Austria.
One of these officials, SS Lieutenant-Colonel Wilhelm Eduard Weiter, the commandant at Dachau, had fled to Itter as US troops advanced.
On the 2nd of May, Weiter committed suicide at Schloss Itter.
On the 3rd of May, Zvonimir Čučković convinced the prison’s commander, Sebastian Wimmer, he needed to go to the village of Itter on an errand.
Carrying a letter written in English, he grabbed a bicycle and rode about 40 miles to Innsbruck, successfully talking his way through 2 German checkpoints.
Arriving at Innsbruck, Čučković encountered an advance party of the 409th Infantry Regiment of the American 103rd Infantry Division and gave them the letter.
A rescue was mounted at dawn, but was stopped by heavy shelling halfway to Itter, then recalled as the castle was outside their military jurisdiction, falling in the territory of the US 36th Infantry Division to the east.
Back at the castle, unnerved by Weiter’s suicide and Čučković’s failure to return, Wimmer, the prison’s commander, abandoned his post, as did the remaining castle guards.
Finding themselves unguarded, the prisoners took control of the castle and a small cache of weapons that hadn’t been taken.
But it was too dangerous to leave because of the presence of Waffen-SS troops in the area, still loyal to the regime, hunting deserters and enemies.
Having no idea if Čučković had been successful or if he’d been captured, the Itter prisoners, thankfully working together, decided to attempt again to get a message to US troops who they hoped were close.
Their cook, another Czech, Andreas Krobot, volunteered to go, cycling to the town of Wörgl, about 3 miles from Itter, recently abandoned by Wehrmacht forces but then reoccupied by Waffen-SS troops.
Krobot managed to make contact with the Austrian resistance in the town and was taken to Major Josef ‘Sepp’ Gangl, a Wehrmacht officer in charge of a small unit of German soldiers.
Major Josef Gangl (W.Commons)
Gangl, disillusioned with Nazi ideology, had defied orders to retreat, instead connecting with the local Austrian resistance to protect the residents from the Waffen-SS who were shooting at windows that displayed white or Austrian flags, and executing any males they found as deserters.
Gangl planned to hold Wörgl until American troops reached the town after which he would surrender to them.
But learning of the prisoners at Schloss Itter, he decided to take matters into his own hands and drove to Kufstein, roughly 8 miles away, where he hoped to find Allied soldiers.
Gangl was taking a huge risk for he could easily have been killed not only by advancing Allied troops, but also by the Waffen-SS.
He reached Kufstein safely to find a reconnaissance unit of Sherman tanks under the command of Lieutenant John C. ‘Jack’ Lee, Jr of the 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armoured Division of the US XXI Corps, waiting to be relieved by the 36th Infantry Division.
Lt. John C 'Jack' Lee Jr (Pure Good Wiki)
On hearing Gangl’s story, Lee said he’d return with the German officer to verify the story, reconnoitre the castle, then plan the rescue.
The unlikely duo headed back to Wörgl and Schloss Itter, where they reassured the prisoners help was on the way.
Gangl and Lee then returned to Kufstein where Lee radioed for reinforcements and was eventually given a detachment of tanks and infantry from the recently arrived 142nd Infantry Regiment of the 36th.
Meanwhile, in another strange twist, an SS officer agreed to help with the castle’s defence.
SS-Hauptsturmführer Kurt-Siegfried Shrader, while in Itter recovering from wounds, had befriended the French prisoners.
SS Hauptsturmführer Kurt-Siegfried Schrader (Real Life Heroes Wiki)
Like Gangl, he, too, had become dissatisfied with Nazism, and had stayed in Itter, throwing in his lot with the local resistance.
As Gangl and Lee made their way back to Schloss Itter, Lee decided against taking the reinforcements across a weak bridge, leaving one tank to defend the bridge and sending the rest back to help the resistance defend Wörgl.
With his own tank, ‘Besotten Jenny’, Lee and Gangl led 14 American soldiers, a driver and a truck carrying 10 German artillerymen to the castle, successfully defeating a party of SS troops attempting to set up a roadblock about 6 miles from the castle.
The prisoners, while relieved to see their rescuers, were understandably disheartened there were so few.
Lee positioned his tank at the main entrance, placing his men in defensive positions around the castle.
Front gate of the castle - Byrdmouse (Atlas Obscura)
In the early hours of the 5th of May 1945, around 100 to 150 Waffen-SS troops of the 17th SS Panzergrenadier Division launched their attack.
Lee’s tank, ‘Besotten Jenny’, provided machine-gun fire support until a shot from a German 88mm gun tore through her side.
The only occupant, the radioman, who’d been trying to repair the tank’s damaged radio, managed to escape.
Lee had ordered the prisoners to stay hidden, but they insisted on fighting alongside the American and Wehrmacht soldiers.
During the fighting, Paul Reynaud moved to a more exposed position.
As Gangl rushed to his defence, the officer was struck by a sniper bullet.
The 142nd relief force, having arrived in Wörgl, managed to contact Lee by telephone, but before he could give them all the information about the enemy, the line was cut off.
With their ammunition running low, and the enemy closing in, Jean Borotra volunteered to vault the castle wall and run to Wörgl to guide the relief force; Lee had little choice but to agree.
Successfully eluding the Waffen-SS troops, Borotra made it to the town where he was recognised by René Lévesque, a French-Canadian reporter with the 142nd (who would go on to become Premier of Quebec).
René Lévesque WWII with the US Office of War Information (W. Commons)
Borotra asked for an American uniform, and quickly led the 142nd back to the castle, knowing time was running out for the defenders.
As Lee, his men, and the prisoners retreated and prepared to fight room by room, the relief force arrived around 16:00.
The fighting was over in minutes, and about 100 Waffen-SS troops were taken prisoner.
The French former prisoners were evacuated, and reached Paris on the 10th of May.
Lieutenant John C. ‘Jack’ Lee, Jr was promoted to captain and awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the 2nd highest military decoration for soldiers who display extraordinary heroism in combat against an enemy force.
Incredibly, there were only 4 wounded and 1 fatality.
That fatality was Major Josef ‘Sepp’ Gangl who died after being shot by the sniper.
He was posthumously declared a national hero in Austria, and one of the main streets in Wörgl bears his name.
Today, Schloss Itter is, once again, privately owned and isn’t open to the public, neither is there a public monument to the battle, though I guess one could say the castle itself is the monument.
While the battle for Schloss Itter is quite remarkable in itself, for me, the most remarkable thing is the part played by Gangl and his men, and Shrader, fighting alongside the so-called enemy to protect ‘the enemy’ from their own side, knowing that losing would mean execution for treason.
It had slipped my mind while writing this that Sabaton has a song about this titled ‘The Last Battle’, which has one of my favourite stirring yet poignant lines: ‘… American troops and the German army joining together at last…’