← Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood
Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood
157. The Battle of Castle Itter
00:50:32
The Weirdest Battle of WW2
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Katy Charlwood
Why choose a Sleep Number Smart Bed.
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Katy Charlwood
Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler? Sleep Number does that cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your Sleep Number setting It's the Sleep number biggest sale of the year. All beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with any smart bed and adjustable base and ends Labor Day. All Sleep number Smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a Sleep Number Store or sleepnumber.com today.
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Acast powers the world's best podcasts. Here's the show that we recommend. Hi, this is Zibby Owens, host of Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly Moms don't have Time to Read Books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest or underrated authors and story creators whose I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to stay in the know. Get insider insights and connect with guests like Grammy Award winning singer Alicia Keys, critically acclaimed author Judy Blume and Academy Award winning screenwriter John Irving every single day. With Totally Booked, you aren't just listening, you're part of the story. So don't miss out. Follow Totally Booked with Zibby on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you're listening now. ACAST helps creators launch, grow and monetize their podcasts everywhere. Acast.com hello delicious friends, and welcome to who did what Now? The History podcast. That's not your history class with me, your host, Katy Charlwood, history harlot and reader of books. So yeah, this is definitely not your history class. Not. Not at all. One, there's too much swearing. And two, I get so many messages and comments. Stuff along the lines of if this was how history was taught, or if you were my teacher or if you taught history, I would be interested. I would have learned something, I would have done better in my exams, so on and so forth. Now granted, enthusiasm does count for a lot. Like if you have enthusiasm and knowledge, like if understand the subject and you're excited to talk about it. Yeah, people are gonna, people are gonna engage, there's gonna be better interaction with that and people are gonna learn better. And if you do get a really good teacher, like I had my leaving set, my leaving cert exams, my history teacher, Jerry shout out to Jerry really, really instilled that love of history for me. And yeah. Oh, my goodness. Like, here's the thing. Here's like, shout out to Jerry. Anyone who knows me in real life, who's actually listening to this podcast, and who knows Jerry. Yeah, I. I don't think he'd care that I've given him a shout out on it. Hey, Jerry. Jerry, I know that you are retired now and do a bunch of fancy, you know, history stuff with a bunch of colleges and unis in the country, but, yeah, that girl used to teach about 20 years ago for the leaving sale. Yeah, yeah, she gave you a shout out on a history podcast, by the way. I don't think you'd give a. But, no, Jerry was amazing. And when it comes to education, listen, schools and colleges and whatnot, they have a syllabus. There is a specific timeline or series of events they want you to cover, and you have a finite space of time, so you need to cover that, you know, and. And that means there are certain things that just won't be discussed or it will be seen as what is the most relevant to you. What do you need to know to understand the core points of this topic? Which is why when I cover stuff like, especially this month, this month, remind me never to do a full month on anything specific again. Especially anything this bad. Like, I. I don't know what I was thinking. This was a bad idea because it's. It's not good. It's very heavy. And do you know what it's like, actually, when you're like, six, seven videos and one podcast episode away to being finished talking about one of the most harrowing events in modern history? And then you think that you have, like, your finish line. You see the finish line. And it all started because people didn't understand the very basics of concentration camps. They didn't understand just the core parts. And that's how this whole thing, I kind of fell into it. And then I made a promise, and I don't go back on my word. So here we are. And so, yeah, I'm. I. I'm seeing. I'm approaching. I'm approaching that ribbon, guys. I'm approaching it. And then out of the corner of my eye, somebody says, slavery wasn't that bad. What? What? Slavery. Chattel slavery. The in which. In which not only you were enslaved, but the generations after you would be enslaved, where you had less rights than animals. Are you. Are you serious? I mean, I studied the slave trade and plantations and. And the elk. I also studied, like, the Trail of tears and, and how the United States of America is built on the blood and bones of the indigenous, the enslaved and the indentured. But anyway, like, a lot of people genuinely believe that chattel slavery wasn't that bad. And I'm thinking, like, Jesus, do, do I need, do I need to explain this? And I'm thinking I might have to just like October maybe, because I'm giving September as a palette cleanser to myself, because I need something that's not as incredibly horrific as we have been discussing this month. Which brings me to today's episode, which lovely segue there. I. I have found what I believe to the be the most positive, positive concentration camp story in the entire Holocaust. And you're thinking, that is a weird way to say it. And it is, you're not wrong. But also it's technically correct. The Battle of Castle Ita is the weirdest, the weirdest battle in the entire Second World War. I maintain this. And also I think it would make a great, like three part miniseries. Like, I feel like it would just be an easy, an easy tale to tell because you've got like three different aspects and I feel like it all come together really, really, really well. I feel like that would be like a very good, good thing. But anyway, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Katie, quit your jibble, Jabba, and fact me and fact you I will. But first we've got to get our source on our sources. Prison Pour Homme d' A by Auguste Leon Joy. The Last Battle When US and German soldiers joined forces in the waning hours of World War II in Europe by Stephen Harding. World War II's Strangest Battle When Americans and Germans Fought Together by Andrew Roberts. The Last Battle by Donald Lattner. SS Alibi of a Nation by Gerald Reitlinger. The Battle for Schloss Eitzer by Richard Pendaving. The insane story of a German American effort to rescue French prisoners during World War II by Sebastian Roblin. Women and Yugoslav A History of World War II resistance by Jelena Baltinitz. The Austrian castle where Nazis lost to German US Force by Bethany Bell. Secret agents, spies and saboteurs. Famous undercover missions of World War II. Bojanis Pjalkovic. We also have contemporary articles from Hellcat News, the Saturday Evening Post and the New York Times. And of course, we have our old favourites, biography.com and history.com. are you sitting comfortably? Good. Then let's begin. The Battle of Castle Ita has to be one of my favourite stories from the entire Second World War. It is completely Wild and probably most likely the most positive story you will ever hear, like from the Holocaust, which is such an odd thing to say about something so horrible, but it is what it is. So let's get to basics. Let's get our context on. You know, I still prefer like, let's slip into some context. Like that's my favorite part. That's my favorite. So we've got the Allies versus the Axis powers. So Allies were like the big three, uk, usa, ussr. And then you've also got Poland and France like along with them. Then you've got the Axis powers, which is like the German Reich. So you've got Germany and Austria and then you've got Italy and Japan. So they're all part of the Axis crew. So the Federal state of Austria was annexed by Germany on 12 March 1938. They marched in, they invaded and they took it over, absorbing it into the Reich. This was known as the Anschluss. So this is like before the war starts in 1939 when Germany invades Poland and when Austria is forced into the Reich. Not everybody is cool with that. Some people didn't agree that joining Germany was a great idea or, or that going to war with some of the biggest powers in the world was super either. Which brings us to the Austrian resistance, which is one we don't hear about too often. Now you've probably heard a wee bit about like the Polish and Dutch resistance in recent years, but typically the French and British resistance is what gets shared. Like that's like the most popular out there. And around 100,000 people that we know of were involved in the Austrian resistance, with thousands imprisoned or executed. And of course there were different splinters within the resistance itself. You had armed groups like the Austrian Freedom Front, the Koralma Partisan and more, who attacked facilities, infrastructure, demolishing bridges, damaging railway lines and offices. Basically anything to bugger up the Nazi supply chain. Then you had the Abwehr Intelligence Agency, so General Erwin Lahausen, he was appointed chief of ABWA Section two, which mainly dealt with sabotage and Brandeburger. Lahausen wanted the agents to be trained mainly for espionage as the higher ups were focused on sabotage. And so this led to like double agents, triple agents, counterintelligence, etc, etc, Then you have another part of the resistance in the Wehrmacht, also known as the Brandybergers. And so they were to deal with sabotage and infiltration like, like the sas, but worse. So some resistance fighters worked their way up to the Wehrmacht in order to destroy it from the inside and send intelligence. Then you have, how to put this? So this kind of becomes an issue because this makes like the Nazis like super, super duper, like suspicious. And so you have like spies trying to weed out these spies and it's like espionage on espionage, right? You, you have Nazi officers going undercover in Austria and this meant more political prisoners. And political prisoners, they were useful and they're basically bargaining chips, right? But of course, if you have political prisoners, if you're planning to use them at some point, you know, you have to be able to store them somewhere. And so they're figuring out where we're going to put them. And of course they had just the place, Castle Ita. So Castle Ita was in the North Tyrol and had been leased from the owner, Franz Grune in 1940. Now, least initially, three years later it was seized and it was converted into a prison in 1943. And then Camp labourers, they came up and like basically maintained it, did some work and it became a sub camp of Dachau. Its purpose was to hold high profile French prisoners that the Reich saw as valuable. But it also had like Austrian and Eastern European prisoners like Zominin Kukovic, a Croatian electrical engineer who joined the resistance when the Nazis invaded Yugoslavia, that used to be a country, for those of you who don't know, there used to be a country called Yugoslavia. And so he had a skill and that skill kept him alive. And so they kept him like, they kept like certain prisoners from the other camps, right? So these regular prisoners, shall we say, and they had them for like maintenance and labour because that wasn't something these high profile political prisoners were supposed to do. So it's quite interesting, right? You've got a motley crew in there. Like you have the right wing leader and closet French resistance fighter Francois de la Roque, trade union leader Leon Joy, tennis player Jean Beautran, like he's a famous tennis player as well. Right. Then you've got commanders in chief or former commanders in chief, Maxime regand and Maurice Ramlin, former prime ministers Edouard Dalidier and Paul Reynard. Then you have politician and diplomat Andre Francois Poncet, who was an ambassador to Germany pre war. So then you have politician Michel Clemenceau, son of the former French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau. And last but not least, Marie Agnes de Gaulle, resistance fighter and Charles de Gaulle's sister. So you also had like the wives and husbands of like the political prisoners there as well. So there's, there's a good chunk there. So for those of you who don't know Charles de Gaulle, was the leader of the Free French forces who were resisting Nazi German rule and occupation. And like, spoilers. After the war, he would go on to be like the Prime Minister, which is the English word. So effectively, actually he would be the premier Ministre de la Republique Francaise, so the Prime Minister of the French Republic. So it's like a. It's like a big title. So these prisoners, they are all high profile, they're important and the Nazis wanted them close enough, but, like, not too close. So they're sort of hidden away, but still within Nazi reach. So they're near Tyrol in Austria. It's scenic, it's beautiful. It looks like casino to the Sound of Music. Like, it really is a stunning place. And it's what, 140 kilometers, which is math. Hang on. 86 miles south of Munich. Ah, Munich. I miss your pretzels. You know what's weird when I was in Munich is there were so many, like, prawns, like shrimp. And my boss was like, I've never seen them eat as much shrimp as when we were in Munich. And I'm like, we're landlocked. I'm not sure this is the best idea. But nobody died, so I'm going to assume everything's fine. I'm fairly certain nobody got food poisoning. So this castle, it is Schloss Eitel. It is nestled in the Alps and it's actually about. Yeah, it's actually about the same distance from Munich to Eita as it is from Eita to Neuschenstein Castle. Right. So sidebar. Neuschenstein Castle was the home of Ludwig II of Bavaria, the Marschenkonig, the fairy tale king. Like, that's like, inside Germany he's known as like the fairy tale king, but outside Germany he's known as Mad King Ludwig. Anyway, so the Nazi had also claimed, like, Neuschwanstein Castle. And that's one of the places where they were hoarding stolen gold. Like, because you know how they looted and stole everything from the property of Jewish people, so they would like kill them and then like chisel out their gold teeth and things. But before they did that, they would reclaim. I say reclaim. They would steal all, all of their property and claim it as their own. I touched on this a little bit in the, the previous episode with Amon Goot. Like when the ghettos were, were emptied, like when they removed people from there and they, you know, herded them off into either camps or, or extermination centers, they would just take all of the valuables so jewelry, clothes, art, furniture, like, they would all be collected and become part of, like, the Reich pot, if you will. And, yeah, the thing about the art is, like, they collected, like, artwork, but they hid it because it was more like the dragon, the hoarding the gold. And Hitler, as a general rule, didn't enjoy art that was artistic. Like, anything that had flair or whimsy or anything or an expression or impression. He liked photographs, really. I think he'd be better just looking at a photo because, like, if you ever look at his artwork, it's like, mate, why aren't you just doing architectural drawings? Like, that's. That's kind of your jam. Like, there wasn't imagination or Fleer and. Yeah, but listen, we're not here to talk about Hitler's artwork, but I just feel like that would have been a more constructive path for him to go down, as opposed to, you know, the current situation we are currently in, in this very short domino effect. But, yes, so they were just hoarding all of this stolen gold. And it's like, just up the road, right? It's like, so close. And Castle Ita. It's in the Alps. And the Nazi counterintelligence had been spreading the idea that the Nazis last stand. Like, they were like, if we're losing the war, if things go down, the last stand's going to happen in Austria. And, like, nobody wanted that. Because the thing about Austria, geographically, if you look at a map, right, it's landlocked, it's inland, it's landlocked, and you're right in the heart of Europe. Like, you've got rocky terrain, you've just got. It's not the most accessible of locations, and it would draw troops away from, like, other prominent areas. And so there was always this idea that, you know, oh, they'd go inland and then we'd have to follow them and then it's going to be a big pain. Like, that was never actually the plan, but that was what the seeds they were sowing. And so because it would be pulling people in from all over other parts of the war, the Allies already had their eyes on the area. And this led to the idea as well that the place would have this entire network of underground bunkers. That's. That's. No, that's not to say there were no underground bunkers in the Alps. They had them. They had them. That's where they put, like, the. Like the forgery stuff initially from Operation Bernard. Like, that's where they had smuggled it. And that's why they were like making them do a bit more counterfeit in there. But yet. There were bunkers in the Alps carved underground, but there was not a network of them. There wasn't like a secret Nazi city underneath the Alps. Like, that's conspiracy theory time. But yeah, there's, there's a couple of things there, but nothing really to write home about. And like around this area as well. Hitler's we hide about. Sorry, his home was around this. The Eagle's Nest. Oh, fuck, he's such a prick. I mean, mass murder aside. The Eagle's Nest, how fucking pretentious. Like, ugh. Anyway, Eagle's Nest here, Wolf's lair in Poland. Like, I just, I just, it's, it's, it's just screaming. I'm an alpha male energy. I simply cannot, friends. I simply cannot. So you've already got this area like under surveillance anyway for like the smorgasbord of reasons. And then you've got these VIP prisoners who were tucked away in the Alps and like, it's also pretty handy in case they needed to clean up. Like, like, like listen, listen. Kind of like the Bolsheviks and the Romanovs, if they need to cover some tracks, you know, they've got them contained. They can just pow, pow, pow, pow. You know, it's, it's. Yeah. There was never really any actual attempt or suggestion to use them in any kind of trade. It basically went from we're warring to oh no, last hand. Listen up. You can get the new iPhone 16e with Apple Intelligence for just $49.99 when you switch to Boost mobile. We pulled so many all nighters to give you this deal and ha. Stop messing with the mic.
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Katy Charlwood
I'm just helping us catch people's attention.
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This is a great deal. Exactly. So it doesn't need all that. Fine. Get the new iPhone 16e available at Apple store locations and the Apple store online.
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Katy Charlwood
Visit your nearest Boost mobile store for full offer details. Apple Intelligence requires iOS 18.1 or later restrictions apply. Why choose a sleep number Smart bed?
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Can I make my site softer?
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Katy Charlwood
Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler? Sleep number does that cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your sleep number setting. It's the sleep number biggest sale of the year. All beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with any smart bed and adjustable base ends labor day. All sleep number smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com. today.
- [25:17]
Podcast Advertiser/Announcer
Unlike concentration camp prisoners, these VIPs, they got meals, they got to stretch their legs and talk to the guards. And the dynamic here is also, it's also really interesting because you had these like Vichy collaborators like Maxime Regand and Jean Beltran and members of the Resistance all hold up together and while they're imprisoned, things are not going well for the Reichstag. The Allied counter offensive was happening and liberation was near. And you've got this really weird mix actually, because not only do you have these people that are on opposite sides, especially initially, but you've also got this group that are VIPs along with their like various husbands and wives, their partners. And then you have these like ex labour camp prisoners who are there just to do like maintenance and labour and all this stuff that the political prisoners shouldn't have to do. Yeah. So you've got them and then you've got like SS officers, one of which Kurt Siegfried Schrader. He was injured and he was there resting at Castle Eita. And while he's recovering there, he was being cared for by the prisoners. So yeah, liberation is on its way, you know, and you have like inside the walls of Schloss Eite, it's normal, it's the day to day, it is how it is, how it's been outside the wall, evidence kind of going to shit. So things are crumbled down around us. You've got the Red army coming in from Poland, you've got, you have like it's past D day at this point, so you've got like US troops coming down from one side. You've just got from all angles, right. Like a double pronged attack. And so you have this coming down. And on 2 May 1945, Edward Weiter, Commandant of Dachau, arrives at Schloss Eiter. That's right, the Dachau commandant. He knows allies are on the way and so he is getting the heck out of dodge. And so he is stopping at Schloss Eiter for the night. And he's only supposed to be staying a night, but he ends up staying much longer than he expected because he ends up dying mysteriously as he fell onto a bullet. And so like he basically has a grumble with somebody, gets up, goes into a building like within the castle, like a little room. And a little while later there's a bang and they're like, oh no, he must have ended his own life. Like the man who's trying to escape. I mean, if he already had a gun, why wouldn't he have done that back at Dachau. Why did he do it here? Anyway, the next day, they end up burying him outside the walls. So, like, he's just like little be grave outside of the castle. So, yeah, that. That next day, that same day that they buried him outside the castle grounds, needless to say, things are getting a little bit tense inside, inside Schloss Eita. And it seems likely that information had been passed on to, you know, the guy running the castle. And so Sebastian Wiemer, who is in charge, he sends Kukovich, the electrical engineer, on an errand on his bike. He does not return. See, here's the thing. The prisoners, they have a secret radio, and they heard that the Allies were coming. And, yeah, like, so they'd smuggled in a little radio, and they were using it unbeknownst to the SS guards. So because they knew the Allies were on their way and they were coming into that area, they give Kokovic a letter to give to the first Allied soldier he meets. And, like Wimmer, he's panicking. Sebastian Wehmer is freaking the out. He is, like, pacing back and forth. He's panicking. They have buried Veiter outside the castle grounds. The Croatian electrician hasn't returned, and he is well aware that they have been committing war crimes. So he says, fuck this for gamer soldiers, and just runs off, followed by the remaining SS guards. So they just leave. Okay? So Ukovich, he is on his bike, and he is also well aware that Vorrel, the closest town, which is like, five miles away, is occupied by, you know, German Reich forces. And so he thinks what would be a better idea is to cycle instead 40 miles away to Innsbruck, where the 409th regiment of the American 103rd infantry division are. That's a mouthful, lads. 409th regiment of the American 1033rd infantry division. There we go. I got a second time. So Weimar, he's absconded, leaving the prisoners in charge of Castle Ita. And so, like any decent contestant on Project Runway, they managed to fashion together a few items. And they make a French flag. And so they make this French flag, and then they raise it so that people can see, like, they've put a claim on the castle. Like, this castle belongs to, like, France. And so they have raised their flag. They arm themselves, like, they just grab, like, guns because they're just armory. Like, a few bits and pieces still left around. And they don't know what's happened to Ukovich, okay? They don't know where he's gone because, like, they're thinking, oh, the nearest town isn't that far. So for all they know, he's been caught, he's dead, he's escaped, you know, any or all of those. So then they decide they're gonna send Andreas Krobot, a Czech cook with a message for American troops. But Andreas, he goes, they send him away, and he heads to Voral, right? And when he gets there, he doesn't come across American trips. Instead, he comes across Major Joseph Wrangel, an Austrian major who had commanded howitzers on the Eastern front and. And Nebelwefer rocket launchers in the Battle of Normandy. Now, this is not a man one would assume that one would want to meet in a back alley. Like, this guy was an Austrian soldier. He was part of the war. Like, he knew how to use his artillery. And so, yeah, yeah. And see, Rangel, he had received orders, and those orders were to make a last stand against the US 12th division that was allegedly approaching. However, he thought, instead of doing that, instead of doing that, he chose to pass the information on to the local Austrian resistance under Alois Mayor. Oh, and he armed them. See, the SS had orders to shoot Austrians who showed any signs of welcoming the Allies. So what a lot of people had been doing was flying, like, white flags or white sheets, like, from their windows. Like, they were doing this as a symbol of, like, peace, of showing that they weren't part of this and that they were welcoming the troops. So the major, he was, like, he was ready to fight back and hoping that the U.S. troops would, like, arrive before he would actually have to fight the ss. Like, he didn't want to have to do that. He wanted to have his little Wehrmacht soldiers and just protect the town. So this was his only option. And here's the thing. He can't be in two places at once, so he can't protect the town and stage a rescue. Like, he can't have the Wehrmacht, his Wehrmacht, like, in two zones. He can either have them here or have them there. And so he keeps his men there, the majority of his men there, and then sends the information on. And the ss, it had gotten a bit weird at this point. And you're thinking, really at this point, because there were bands of them just, like, roaming the area full of rage and bloodlust because they had nothing left to lose at this point. Like. Like, they know what they did. They know what will happen to them because of what they did. And so I'm assuming just enraged by the fact they have to deal with the consequences of their own Actions. Yeah. Okay, so they're just like I. You know when an animal has rabies and it's just a frothing, rageful, like, ball of anger and, well, spit, that's what the guy. These guys are like for me, like, that's, that's what I see. And so you've just got these violent men who have unchecked power with no shits to give and nothing left to lose, roaming the country looking for a fight.
- [36:24]
Katy Charlwood
Why choose a sleep number? Smart bed.
- [36:26]
Podcast Advertiser/Announcer
Can I make my sight softer?
- [36:27]
Katy Charlwood
Can I make my site firmer? Can we sleep cooler? Sleep number does that, cools up to eight times faster and lets you choose your ideal comfort on either side. Your sleep number setting. It's the sleep number biggest sale of the year. All beds on sale up to 50% off the limited edition smart bed plus free premium delivery with any smart bed and adjustable base ends Labor Day. All sleep number Smart beds offer temperature solutions for your best sleep. Check it out at a sleep number store or sleepnumber.com today.
- [37:01]
Podcast Advertiser/Announcer
So the major, he ends up like, getting some intelligence, getting some stuff going, and he ends up sending a small force to protect the prisoners at the castle and in case the SS tried to reclaim it. And so he's like, come on, let's go. So he's with the small force and he reaches Cuffstein, which is where they meet a reconnaissance unit from the 23rd Armored Battalion Armed with a white flag. Like, they approach because this wasn't the safest thing because these trips, like the Wehrmacht, these Austrian Wehrmacht troops, they look like Nazis. You know, it's the uniform. They are, they're Nazis. And they look like. Yeah, they look like Nazis. And so they're there with a wee flag and they meet with these exhausted U.S. troops led by Lieutenant Jack Lee. And these troops, like, they are. They're supposed to be being relieved, right? And so they're like, hey, there's these prisoners. We need to rescue them. And they're like, fuck it, yeah, let's go. Let's go rescue some prisoners at the castle. The princess is in another castle. So they all decide that they are just gonna go. So you've got obstacles, obstacles in their way. They're coming across machine gun nests as they're being set up. So they're like in tanks and all their stuff and they're coming across this. Like, at one point they end up going over a bridge that is being wired to explode, which is not the strongest thing to like, cross at the best of time. But in a tank, it just doesn't feel like the safest option here. And you've got this like command car, a truck and four tanks making this journey. And this liberation force, it ends up being reduced down to 10 German Austrian troops and 14Americans. And they end up leaving some tanks behind to man the roadblocks. Which only leaves one tank, Jack Lee's tank, the Besotten Jenny. An upgraded Easy 8 Sherman tank with a high velocity 76 millimeter gun, which I'm sure is impressive because here's the thing, I don't, I don't know, I don't know guns, I don't know calibers or millimeters or, or that. I'm like, that sounds like a weapon. So as this tank is going, there are several African American soldiers from the 17th Armoured Infantry Battalion riding on top of the tank right on top of besotting Jenny. And so they reach Schloss Eita. And because they're French, the prisoners are entirely unimpressed with their rescue. Pardon, but I am retired. So you have 14 US soldiers, 10 ex Wehrmacht rifleman. So they arrive and they see that the castle's defenses are being headed up by an SS officer, Kurt Siegfried Shaver, whose family is also inside the castle. So the injured SS officer from before that they befriended, they were like, hey, we've been abandoned by all of these guys. You wanna, you wanna help protect us? And he's like, yeah, absolutely. Slowly he deploys his troops and sets his tank in front of the gatehouse. And he wants to send like the prisoners, he wants to keep them inside, but they're like no, no, no, no, no, honey, we're going to fight. They're like no, no, no, no, no. In the Rakan, they're like absolutely not. They're like they're going to fight. So not long after they arrive, not long after you're the Wehrmacht, the riflemen, the fucking US dudes, right? Not long after they arrive, the 17th SS Panzergonadier Division starts moving against the castle and lays siege. By the next morning, around 150 to 200 SS troops had amassed to besiege the castle. Eita setting up an 88 millimeter anti tank gun and a 20 millimetre flak gun up on a hill like 800 yards away. Now again, I'm no artillery expert. I'm not, I'm not great with the, the pew pews, but as far as I can tell, these are big heavy guns. These are big massive heavy guns, scary guns. You don't want these shooting at you guns. I mean you really shouldn't want any guns shooting at you. But like on a scale of 0 to anti tank gun, we don't, we don't want this. Okay, so the next, that next day. So you've got a whole like 200ish men there, right, ready to besiege. And the Allies, they only get two additions. One German soldier and a teenage Austrian resistance member, Hans Wahl. Like, and they, fucking hell for leather. Remember, they've had to cross like the bridge that's wired to explode. They've had to come all this way, like up through the, up through the, the winding roads through the fucking Alps, man. So you've got all these guys and they've just rushed to be there. They have just zoomed up because they got told we need reinforcements. And he's like, great, I've got this teenager and this other guy. And it's the 5th of May, and the attack begins. The artillery hits the castle, causing it to physically shake like bricks are falling from the wall. Like one of them actually falls and hits Schrader's wife. And so she's injured just from the building being shot at. And the besotten Jenny. So Jack Lee's tank, it provided machine gun fire support until it was hit by that 88 millimeter anti tank gun. There was one fella in sight and he was trying to fix the faulty radio, but he managed to escape unharmed. So like he was just lucky, you know. And by the afternoon, the news had reached the 142nd Battalion Infantry Regiment. Hey, Katie, you know history stuff. And I'm like, yeah, I'm just really bad at naming different sections of military. I don't, I don't know. I don't know what they do. Some have gotten some horses, some have guns on horses, some of them have tanks. I don't know, they do different things, right? So in the castle, they knew the reinforcements were on their way, but because the radios had been down, they hadn't been able to give complete information regarding enemy positions, which is not good. Like if you are approaching, that's the kind of thing you want to know. Enter tennis player Jean Batora, who volunteers to deliver the information. And this, this is a visual that I think we need in our three part miniseries. And that is he vaults over the castle wall, runs the gauntlet of SS strong points and ambushes past SS officers with machine guns, right? He races through the forest and meets the 142nd Division. And when he meets them, he is recognized like straight away by a Canadian reporter who's just like with the division and Bota, like, he's made it to them, he's given the enemy positions and what does he do? Does he leave? Does he. Does he say, man, I'm done now? He says, no, he doesn't say no. He says, give me a gun and a uniform. And then he heads back to the castle with them. And it's good that they're coming there because the prisoners, they have a finite number of bullets, so they really need them to make it back, you know. And when they reach the castle, around 2pm, they end the battle. And there wasn't that many casualties. All in all, Josef Gangl, like, he was fatally shot by a sniper while removing the former French Prime Minister Paul Renaud out of the line of fire. Like. And Josef here, the ex Wehrmacht, right? He was the sole defender to die. He was the only one. So with this, around 100 SS soldiers are captured. And this is like five days after Hitler committed suicide and two days before Germany's unconditional surrender. So Kurt Ziegfeld Schrader, he gets two years for Nazi stuff, which is fair, but his sentence was reduced because of his efforts in, you know, protecting the people of Castle Ida and like as well. So Yosef, he gets a posthumous, like, thing. He ends up losing his life. You have, you know, Shrader, he ends up getting. He ends up getting two years. And Jack Lee. Jack Lee, the man, the young American with the tank, he's 27 at the time of this. That is wild, right? And I just love the idea. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I love how ridiculous it is. I love the idea of, like, the SS showing up and just being, like, seeing these soldiers, like, German army uniform, and they're like, are they. Are they ours, mein Commander? Are those our men? They're not our men. They are. Whose tank is that? Is that it's not our tank. Is that an American tank? Is it an SS Sojai? That is his uniform. What is he doing? Oh, he's shooting at us. He's meant to be one of us. What is this? What is this? Is that not. Watch that man play tennis one time, and that is Charles de Gaulle's sister. Oh, this is going down. Like, I just love the idea of him just being, like, so fucking out of it. Like, what the fuck? But, like, this is so interesting because you've got this group of people, you've got the Wehrmacht, the SS allies, prisoners and a tennis player all working together to stop the SS from taking a castle and killing everyone inside. And on paper, it's wild. Americans working with ex Nazis from Austria with the Austrian resistance to lead Germans and Americans through the Alps to rescue a host of French prisoners, like, from the ss. That's. That's insane. But that is. That's the story of the Battle of Castle Ita. Like, still one of the silliest and fun, like, as it could be. It's the tennis player vaulting over the wall of a castle and. And just bolting it. Right. I just. I just can't get it out my head. I just love the idea of just that Million Dollar man jumping over the wall and then just zigzagging through the damn forest, right? And just be like, give me a gun and a uniform, like a seat. Oh, it's so, so amazing. And it had, like. I mean, apart from that one death, it had a positive outcome, you know, and you don't get that in a lot of these stories, but that is the final Concentration Camp series episode we're gonna have for a while. The possibility I'll do something in October because it's Horror Month, so we'll see. But honestly, I'm. I'm done. I have a few more videos to pop out for this week, and then it's. Anything else, Anything else? I think at this point, I might just go for God, guns and girls, girls, girls. And so. So ends the story of the Battle of Castle Ida. If you liked my retelling of the story. Sorry, I'm losing my voice again. I think my throat is injured again, which is super fun, but I think it's, like, actually quite painful. So. Yes. Rate review, 5 stars. Say nice things. If you don't have anything nice to say, you can just not say things. That's fine. And I guess it's recommendation time. This may shock you. For watching, I'm gonna recommend Hunters. So I've been watching Hunters like I'm two episodes in because it came up on the algorithm, and I was like, yeah, I'll give it a go. And it's. It's interesting thus far, although it feels like maybe it's the wrong time to be watching it, but I want to be done with this. I'm gonna watch it this week and then be finished. So that's a recommendation. It seems like a very interesting concept for a show, and so I'm watching that right now because everyone hates Nazis. And then. And then for listening, apart from me, obviously. So there's this podcast called Threesus T H R E E Z U S and it's hosted by Mason Sperling. Danny Padilla and Jason. I don't know Jason's surname, actually. I feel like I should look that up. But, yeah, they do this thing called unfair trivia, and it's just trivia that's unfair and awkward and, and it's the most fun thing because I love not knowing things and it's great. But then one time I got an answer, right, And I was like, I was so proud of myself. But yeah, it's. It's a fun one. It's on Apple podcasts. It's. It's just a fun time with some nerds. And you should totally check it out for, for reading, though. So Penguin released like a bunch of classics and they're like, you'll see them out there. They're white with red writing. Right? And they are books released in the original print, right. So it might have been an abridged version. It might have been just the way it was released for the first time. Right? And they've got all these books and I, I have Hell Dante. I just, I just love it. Like, not Dante's Inferno, not the Divine Comedy, just Hell Dante. Yeah. So that's an option. So you should give. You should give that a read. And with that, I am going to bid you good night and I'm gonna say goodbye to fucking Nazis because I just can't right now. Anyway, adios. Au revoir. Au revoirizem, my friends. Bye bye, Warren. Qi. It's an energy someone gives off when their appliances and home systems are protected by an American Home Shield warranty.
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Katy Charlwood
Don't worry, be warranty for 20% off plans. Visit ahs.com listen see ahs.com contracts for coverage details, including limit amounts, fees, limitations and exclusions.
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Katy Charlwood
Hey, everyone, I'm Robert Mayes, host of the Athletic Football show, and I'm excited to welcome you to the 2025 season and everything new we've got going at Tafs. First and foremost, get ready for a whole new look. We're coming to you from the Athletic Football show studio in Chicago. Get the full experience by checking us out on our YouTube channel. Second, whether you watch on YouTube or listen to us on your podcast platform of choice, you'll hear a new voice. Dave Hellman joins Derek Klassen and myself as the third host on the show, bringing a different perspective to the conversation. Finally, Dane Brugler is back with year round NFL Draft coverage with Building the Beast. No matter what type of NFL fan you are, there's something for you on the Athletic Football Show. Join us Monday Through Friday on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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