10 Disturbing History Facts They Don't Teach You In School
1. The French, Americans, And The Germans Fought Together In WWII
Before reading this, you probably would have never believed that both Allied and Axis forces actually fought together, alongside a famous tennis player, two former French Prime ministers and the sister of Charles de Gaulle.
Schloss-Itter is a castle in Austria, where high profile POWs were held during World War II.
On 3 May 1945, a secret resistance member relayed a message to Allied forces about the castle. The American troops he found passed the message up their chain of command. The next day, they sent a heavily armoured division to help rescue the prisoners, but were stopped due to fierce resistance.
After hearing of the encroaching army, the SS forces manning the castle abandoned their posts. The prisoners, who were unaware of any rescue attempt, took over, arming themselves with the weapons from the armouries. They then sent the cook to ask for help from the Austrian resistance. He succeeded in this, contacting a group of Wehrmacht soldiers, who up until the last few days had been fighting for Germany, but had recently joined the Austrian resistance, soon joining forces with US troops stationed nearby.
The former enemies made their way to the castle, fighting SS troops along the way, whilst the POWs were increasing the defences in the castle.
Although grateful, the prisoners were disappointed by the very small size of the rescue force. Most vehicles could not make it to the castle and were turned around before getting there.
The next morning, 150 Waffen-SS troops attacked the castle. Facing dire odds the prisoners and defending soldiers contacted the resistance groups in the area for more support. But they could only spare two underprepared infantry men.
The American tank left at the castle entrance managed to hold back most of the assault, but was eventually destroyed. Tennis star Jean Borotra was sent to jump over the castle walls and run a message to any US forces in the area. eventually bringing a relief force around 4pm, taking over 100 SS troops prisoner.
Just two days after this battle, Germany signed an official surrender, ending the war in Europe.