"Battle of Schloss Itter " Topic

"Even as the lastcylinder of the German war machine burned out, the Division was tracking down big-name Nazis and rescuing prominent Allied leaders. In one forceful stroke of liberation an attached tank crew of the 12th Armored Division and four infantrymen of the 142nd Infantry released from German captivity much of the-glory-that-had-been-France in the personages of two former prime ministers, a former chief of staff, a leading general, a tennis star, and a labor leader.

The French were rescued when a task force, commanded by Captain John Lee, climbed the mountain to Itter in a midnight ride past parked hostile German vehicles, and reached the twelfth century Alpine castle of Itter. There the German commandant offered the castle in surrender, freeing the notables.
But all around the castle at the time were other German troops, retreating before the American advance. When they learned what had happened during the night and how insignificant was the American force, they attacked strongly in the morning, attempting to retake the castle and kill their former prisoners. An "88" firing from a railroad tunnel below, knocked out the lone American tank and blasted gaping holes in the old stone building.

Captain Lee organized his meager force for defense. The German major who had surrendered the castle likewise placed his men to ward off the fanatical, attacking storm troopers. Even the French leaders took part. Daladier was reported to have returned to the castle arsenal for ammunition more than once. The "Bounding Basque," Jean Borota, famed tennis player of former years, slipped out in peasant disguise, ambled down the road to contact men of the 142nd's 2nd Battalion, already on the way to help. The castle being well-sited on a high knoll, the few defenders were able to withstand at a minimum loss the repeated SS assaults. At the height of the action, while yet wondering if assistance would come, the German major was killed by a sniper's bullet.

At 1500 in the afternoon, long after the defenders had run out of ammunition, Lt. Colonel Marvin J. Coyle's 2nd Battalion of the 142nd drove through the SS ranks and opened the road to the castle, this time for good. Those liberated included: Eduoard Daladier and Paul Reynaud, former prime ministers; General Maurice Gamelin, former commander of the French Army; General Maxime Weygand, commander of the French Army at the time of the German defeat, and his wife; Mme. Alfred Cailliau, sister of General Charles de Gaulle, and her husband; Michel Clemenceau, son of the French statesman; Jean Borotra, tennis star; Leon Jouhaux, secretary of the Confederation General du Travail; and several secretaries."
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US and German soldiers along with French prisoners against SS troops. An interesting scenario for sure. There is also a great more in depth article in the Aug/Sept 2008 issue of World War II magazine.

Robert

12th Men Free French Big-Wigs

By Cpl. John G. Mayer
Co. B, 23rd Tank Bn.

American troops, soldiers of the Wehrmacht, and a handful of French personages slated for death by the SS, fought side by side in an alpine castle on the last day of the war in Bavaria.
Among the 14 French notables rescued by tankers of the 12th Armored Division were former Premier Edouard Daladier, aging General Maxim Weygand who commanded the French armies when the Germans broke through into France, tennis star Jean Borotra and his wife, and a sister of the present chief executive of France, General Charles de Gaulle.
Also in the strangely mixed pro-and-anti-Nazi group were former premier Paul Reynaud; General Maurice Gamelin, former commanding general of all the French armies; Mrs. Weygand; Colonel DeLaRoque, former French fascist leader; M. Caillaux, former member of the government; Leon Jouhaux, French labor union leader; and Michel Clemencau, son of the World War I statesman.
Top heroes of the scenario-scrap were Lieutenant John C. Leo, Jr., commanding officer of Company B of the 23rd Tank Battalion, and his gunner, Corporal Edward J. Szymcyk.
Across the Border

Their saga began the afternoon of May 4 shortly after their platoon took Kufstein, just across the Austrian border, after knifing through a well-defended roadblock. Into the town came a German major, under a flag of truce, who said that he was in position to surrender a large force of enemy troops and 14 notables once connected with the pre-Petain governments of France.
All, he said, were at a castle in Litter, eight kilometers away. Lee and Szymcyk immediately left with the major but when they arrived, the German colonel in command refused to surrender.
Back in Kufstein, Lee picked up his reinforcements -- two tanks from his own outfit and five more from the 36th Infantry Division's 142nd Battalion. With Lee and Szymcyk went Lieutenant Harry Basse, Santa Ana, Cal., maintenance officer and the tanks' crews. At the town of Worgl the force paused. Lee, leaving the others behind, took his own medium tank with five volunteers, said goodbye to his rear-guard, and rumbled on to the castle, the faithful major trailing in his car.
Then began the classic defense of the ancient "schloss", which had not known battle since the days of crossbow and boiling oil. The defenders numbered 41 -- there were 20 soldiers of the Wehrmacht (German regular army), 14 French men and women, and seven Americans.
At 4 o'clock on the morning of May 5, a small force of SS men launched an attack up the slope toward the castle. American rifles and German light machine guns teamed up to beat them back.
Tennis Star Helps

"Jean Borotra was the spark of the defense," Leo recalls. "He volunteered to jump over the castle wall and make his way to Worgl to summon help. It meant a run across forty yards of open field before he could reach cover. I refused."
But half an hour later things started looking tougher, so Lee permitted Borotra, whose name ranks among the immortals of tennis history, to make what was a brave but futile dash. Soon after he left tanks of the 36th were sighted far away.
Guessing that they hadn't received Borotra's message and regarded the castle as simply another German stronghold to be blasted out of the way, Lee and Weygand quickly teamed up on an American 30-calibre machine gun and opened fire sending long bursts crackling into the woods well ahead of the approaching tanks.
"It worked," Lee said. "Later I found that the tankers had their heavy guns trained on the castle ready to fire when they recognized the sound of the American 'thirty' and decided it was a signal rather than a threat."
So the possibility of being killed by their own rescuers was averted for Lee and his men, who included, in addition to those already named, Technical Sergeant William E. Elliott, Corporal Edward J. Seiner, and Pfc. Herbert G. McHaley, Linton RFD 1, Ind.
Sgt. Glenn E. Shermann of Cameron, Mo., served as radioman and gunner on Elliot's tank. Pvt Joseph Wall, Selma, N.C., was left to guard the bridge alone all night, armed only with a carbine, and took a number of prisoners.
The SS, however, had no compunctions about blasting away at the castle. Their 88 shells crashed through thick walls into several rooms, wounding a German.
Last Fight on Front
At 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the 5th, the cautiously-advancing tanks of the relief force, led by Elliott and Sherman, after 16 hours pounded through the opposition and arrived at the castle like mechanized cowboys in a new-style Western movie. Lee's saga was ended. His tank, "Besotten Jenny," as she was fondly dubbed by the Negro troops, was kaput. All the infantry peeps were filled with notables. So Lee and his heroes climbed onto a truck loaded with German prisoners and rode ingloriously back to their outfit. They arrived just in time to hear the radio broadcast that all German troops in the south had agreed to stop shooting that day at noon. Theirs had been the last fighting on the whole southern front. But there's a postscript: a few days later Lee's promotion to Captain was announced and his men have all been cited for decorations.

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Here is the full article from the World War II magazine.
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Robert

A real 'Castle Keep'. Astounding!

"A real 'Castle Keep'. Astounding!"

I thought so too when I first read it. Lots of different people too Including black troops. Would be an interesting mix of figures to game it. Robert

Is it possible to find the location of this castle?

Thanks!

Itter Castle (German: Schloss Itter) is a small castle standing on a high knoll in Itter, a village in North Tyrol (Austria), 20 km west of Kitzbühel.

The castle was used from 1943–45, during the Nazi occupation of France, to incarcerate prominent French prisoners. Inmates included the former Prime Ministers Édouard Daladier and Paul Reynaud; Generals Maurice Gamelin and Maxime Weygand, who had been prominent during the "Phoney war" era; Jean Borotra, a former tennis champion as later General Commissioner of Sports in the Vichy regime; Colonel de La Rocque, the leader of the right-wing Croix de Feu movement; André François-Poncet, a politician and diplomat; and Michel Clemenceau, politician and son of Georges Clemenceau. The fomer republic president Albert Lebrun was held at Itter for three months in 1943, before being sent back to France for health reasons; Marie-Agnès de Gaulle, Resistance member and sister of General Charles de Gaulle, was interned in the castle almost at the end of the war, in April 1945.

Administratively, Itter was a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp; the castle's detention conditions were, however, not comparable with those at Dachau.

Itter's prisoners were freed by units of the American 103rd Infantry Division of General Anthony McAuliffe on May 5, 1945. The next day, the American units fought alongside the German guards against attacking SS elements until reinforcements arrived, several hours after the end of the war.

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Here is where there is a Google Map satellite image.

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Robert

Very interesting! Thanks, Kaos!

Thanks, Robert. An interesting and readymade scenario that shows that fact is stranger than fiction. Thanks and kudos for sharing with us all!

Thanks. I thought it would at least be somewhat interesting to some here as something different. Robert

A couple more photos. I'm looking to see if I can find some WWII ones.

and the Private Bridge & Moat to Itter Schloss

Robert

Looks like the only two I can find so far from the war are in one of the articles and they are too small. Robert

Very interesting … probably one of the few times Wehrmacht vs. SS …

And they won too!!! Robert

Just found a PDF with photos!!! Robert

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So you can use SS,Heer,Civilian and US Army Figures to play this out. What would some of you suggest as to who would make the best for this? Robert

I also wonder what happened to the Heer and SS Troops afterwards. Robert

actually i wonder whether the SS force actually knew that prisoners were there? Were they under orders to capture them and shoot them. Also technically at that stage were the German troops effectively aidng the enemy (though actually think their actions laudable)

GNREP8. I think the SS did and were supposed to. At least according to this,

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Robert

Fascinating stuff. Thanks for that.

I also read in one of the British divisional histories (I think it was 53rd (Welsh) Division), where they were preparing to assault some SS 'die-hards' who were refusing to surrender. A German Fallschirmjaeger unit, which had just surrendered but was still fully-armed, then demanded to make the assault, as it was 'a German matter'. Sadly the account didn't record what then happened.

Thanks Robert, one of your best posts.

Thanks . Robert

I thought that the photos would be very helpful in an idea to what to use in a game. Robert

I forgot to ask too. What set of rules would work well for this scenario? Robert

For those who may have missed this before Robert

I'll ask again. What set of rules would work well for this scenario? Robert

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Castle Itter: Strangest Battle of the War (Part 1)

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Castle Itter: Strangest Battle Of The War? (Part 2)

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Though the story is old its nice to find a bit more on it. Robert

Taken about two months before the battle at Schloss Itter, this image depicts Company B commander Jack Lee (at right) with, from left, 2nd Lt. John Powell, one of Lee's platoon leaders, and 1st Lt. Harry Basse, Co. B's motor officer and Lee's closest friend in the unit. Within weeks Powell was dead and Lee and Basse had both been lightly wounded.

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Facebook page for the Book,Author and Battle,
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Robert

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Bug hit me again….as Usual . Robert