WWII's strangest battle

[BeachBumDeac]

"Days after Hitler’s suicide a group of American soldiers, French prisoners, and, yes, German soldiers defended an Austrian castle against an SS division—the only time Germans and Allies fought together in World War II. Andrew Roberts on a story so wild that it has to be made into a movie."

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articl...en-americans-and-germans-fought-together.html

 

[Go]

Pretty sweet.

 

[Ball State Deac]

Wow

 

[mebanedeac]

Thanks for sharing. Historical fact is often stranger than fiction.

 

[19deac92]

Cool. Thanks for sharing as well. I'll have to read this book.

I can understand average German dudes in the Wehrmacht being willing to fight with the Americans against the SS at this stage of the war. In the part of Bavaria that I was stationed in, there were many stories of average Germans, whom by 1945 understood that the war was lost and just wanted to surrender to the Americans and survive, being summarily hanged by fanatical SS members for being defeatists and not being willing to fight to the death even in a hopeless cause.

The village that I lived in surrendered to the approaching American 12th Armored Division and suffered no damage, while a neighboring village had some SS guys (who obviously didn't live there) fire a couple of Panzerfausts at approaching Sherman tanks, which resulted in the place being leveled by artillery and fighter bombers.

 

[IAppreciateIt]

Pretty crazy. Is there a more interesting time in history than WW2?

 

[qwertybirdie]

"BBD battles aids" is the best tag ever.

 

[19deac92]

I ordered this book from Amazon yesterday. I'll be happy to pass it around after I am finished reading it.

 

[TheTwinAndreBen]

 

[HailToTheDeacons]

Very interesting story. Thanks for posting.

 

[sailordeac]

Pretty crazy. Is there a more interesting time in history than WW2?

probably depends on what you are interested in

 

[Brangus]

I bought the book but I'm just getting started. A little too much background on the castle at the beginning....the author gets lost in that for several pages...I'm waiting for it to catch some traction.

 

[19deac92]

I just finished this book last night. As Brangus says, a good portion of the book consists of background on the castle along, with the background of the various French VIP prisoners. Overall, a decent read. It's not very long (only about 170 pages).

PM me if you would like for me to mail the book to you.