The Battle for Castle Itter in the Austrian North Tyrol village of Itter was fought on May 5, 1945, in 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 Corpsled by Captain John C. "Jack" Lee, Jr., a number of Wehrmacht soldiers, a Waffen SSofficer who defected, and recently freed French POWs 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 and a tennis star. It may have been the only battle in the war in which Americans and Germans fought side-by-side. Popular accounts of the battle have called it the "strangest" battle of World War II.[2]
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