Fact or Fiction: Americans and Nazis never fought side-by-side together in WWII?

Wait... the Americans and Nazi Germany were on opposite sides. So, of course they never fought together. Right? RIGHT?

Schloss Itter in Austria, in 1979

Wrong!

American troops and soldiers of the Wehrmacht once actually did fight side-by-side, as brothers in arms, no fooling. And it’s not a trick question.

But wait, you ask: Why is this a topic for Brian’s Bullshit-Free Zone? We live in divisive times, when so many of us instantly know all we need to know about someone from a single cue: Be it a MAGA hat, a college degree, ownership of a pickup truck, ownership of a Prius, an American flag patch on a jacket. In fact Americans have much more in common with all other Americans — even those from the other tribe — than many would care to admit.

Assuming those from “the other tribe” are our enemies is bullshit. And that’s why I’m passing along this true story today.

Americans have a lot in common with Brits. And Brits have a lot in common with Euros (pardon my informal vernacular). And Euros include Germans — so why should we be shocked to learn that many American GIs in WWII had something in common with many Wermacht Schütze Arsch? They did: they had a common enemy: the SS, the fanatical Nazis within the Nazis.

At the end of the war, as you may know, nearly all regular German combatants (the Wehrmacht) knew that they’d lost. They also knew that their lives very likely depended on surrendering to Americans or other Allies — to anyone but the Soviets. Being taken by the Soviets meant at best a lifetime at the Gulags, or at worst an execution on the spot. Wehrmacht knew they would get good treatment from Americans, and probable repatriation to their homes in Germany (which is exactly what happened).

Hitler, the cowardly fuck (pardon my French), shot himself on April 30, 1945. V-E day, when Germany surrendered, was May 8, 1945 — just 8 days later. During those 8 days, every German soldier with functioning brain cells scrambled to surrender to Americans. And right in the middle of that freaky, crazy, unprecedented, wild-and-wacky week was May 5, 1945.

Schloss Itter, a castle in Austria, was used by the Nazis as a prison camp for Allied VIPs. These were mostly French government officials, but also all sorts of other assorted Allies: a few celebrities, random high-value escapees, a whole motley crew.

During this crazy week between Hitler’s death and the Nazi surrender, everything was haywire. The Schloss Itter prison was manned by the Wehrmacht, and once they got word that the SS were moving through and shooting equally Wehrmacht deserters as Allies, they all split. This left the prisoners — which included Charles de Gaulle’s sister as well as a few other women — totally alone and unguarded in the castle which had been their prison. But flee they dare not: the SS would shoot them down on sight.

One of them, a Czech prisoner named Krobot, agreed to jump on a bike and kick ass to get to the nearest town. He succeeded. In a nearby village he was welcomed by an assemblage of Wehrmacht deserters and Austrian resistance. When I say “assemblage” I don’t mean an army; it was like 20 or so guys — all scared shitless that they were either going to be killed by the SS or tortured by the Soviets. When they heard Krobot’s story, they agreed that rescuing the Allied VIPs from Schloss Itter could only help their case.

Krobot and the ranking officer, an American Capt. Lee, put together a very random detachment of a dozen infantry (American, Wehrmacht, Austrian, and Balkan) and three tanks. They got to Schloss Itter late on May 4th.

But they barely had time to sleep. Early on the morning of the 5th, about 100 SS soldiers attacked, intent on re-securing the prisoners.

Old European castles were usually built with defense in mind. Schloss Itter was on a hilltop. It had good visibility to all approaches, and defensible firing positions. So the attacking SS, armed with everything up to the infamous 88mm cannon (the “German 88” mentioned in Casablanca), found themselves on the receiving end of well-defended small arms fire from American soldiers, Wehrmacht soldiers, Austrians, French politicians, and even random Allied celebrities.

It was a wild, wacky day.

But the defenders were outgunned. A tank was destroyed and everyone was running out of ammunition. The defenders had to retreat twice into the castle’s deeper keeps as the SS advanced in on them.

One defender, a famous French tennis professional named Jean Borotra, volunteered to go run like hell and hope to find some Americans.

He did!

Borotra happened into an American unit that was trying to get to Castle Itter to rescue the prisoners. Once he showed them how to get there, they arrived quickly. And with large numbers, all well equipped, they very shortly defeated the SS attackers, who either fled, or were captured or killed. This is recorded in history as the Battle of Castle Itter, May 5, 1945.

I suppose the takeaway from this is to not throw away the baby with the bathwater, i.e., don’t let the orders from abhorrent tyrants make you hate the ordinary people obligated to follow those orders. The SS chose to follow illegal and immoral orders; but not everyone on “the other side” was part of the SS.

Crazy how this seems to apply to today.