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157. The Battle of Castle Itter · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to Who Did What Now?
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Speaker 1: The history podcast That's not your history class with me,
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Speaker 1: your host Katie Charlwood, History Harlotte, and reader oh Books.
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Speaker 1: So yeah, this is definitely not your history class, not
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Speaker 1: at all one. There's too much swearing and too I
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Speaker 1: get so many messages and comments stuff along the lines
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Speaker 1: of if this was how history was taught, or if
0:26
Speaker 1: you were my teacher, or if you taught history, I
0:28
Speaker 1: would be interested, I would have learned something, I would
0:30
Speaker 1: have done better in my exams, so on and so forth. Now, granted,
0:34
Speaker 1: enthusiasm does count for a lot, Like if you have
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Speaker 1: enthusiasm and knowledge, like if you understand the subject and
0:39
Speaker 1: you were excited to talk about it, yeah, people are
0:43
Speaker 1: gonna people are gonna engage. There's gonna be better interaction
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Speaker 1: with that, and people are gonna learn better. And if
0:50
Speaker 1: you do get a really good teacher, like I had
0:52
Speaker 1: my leaving set up, my leaving set exams, my history teacher, Jerry,
0:57
Speaker 1: shout out to Jerry really really instilled that love of
1:02
Speaker 1: history for me. And yeah, oh my goodness, Like here's
1:06
Speaker 1: the thing, here's a shout out to Jerry. Anyone who
1:10
Speaker 1: knows me in real life, who is actually listening to
1:12
Speaker 1: this podcast and who knows Jerry. Yeah, I don't think
1:17
Speaker 1: he'd care that I've given him a shout out on it.
1:19
Speaker 1: It's like, hey, Jerry, Jerry, I know that you are
1:22
Speaker 1: retired now and do a bunch of fancy, you know,
1:25
Speaker 1: history stuff for a bunch of colleges and unis in
1:27
Speaker 1: the country. But uh, yeah, that girl used to teach
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Speaker 1: you but twenty years ago for the living self. Yeah yeah,
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Speaker 1: she'd give you a shout out on a history podcast.
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Speaker 1: By the way, I don't think he'd give a shit,
1:38
Speaker 1: But no, Jerry was amazing. And when it comes to education, listen,
1:46
Speaker 1: skills and colleges and whatnot. They have a cellabus. There
1:50
Speaker 1: is a specific timeline or series of events they want
1:54
Speaker 1: you to cover, and you have a finite space of time,
1:57
Speaker 1: so you need to cover that you know, and and
2:01
Speaker 1: that means there's certain things that just won't be discussed
2:04
Speaker 1: or it will be seen as what is the most
2:07
Speaker 1: relevant to you? What do you need to know to
2:11
Speaker 1: understand the core points of this topic? Which is why
2:16
Speaker 1: when I cover stuff like especially this month, this month
2:19
Speaker 1: remind me never to do a full month on anything specific. Again,
2:24
Speaker 1: especially anything this bad. Like, I don't know what I
2:30
Speaker 1: was thinking. This was a bad idea because it's not good.
2:34
Speaker 1: It's very heavy, and do you know what it's like actually,
2:38
Speaker 1: when you're like six seven videos and one podcast episode
2:42
Speaker 1: away to being finished talking about one of the most
2:46
Speaker 1: harrowing events in modern history, and then you think that
2:51
Speaker 1: you have like your finish line, you see the finish line.
2:56
Speaker 1: And it all started because people didn't understand the very
3:01
Speaker 1: basics of concentration camps. They didn't understand just the core parts.
3:06
Speaker 1: And that's how this whole thing. I kind of fell
3:09
Speaker 1: into it. And then I made a promise and I
3:11
Speaker 1: don't go back on my word. So here we are.
3:15
Speaker 1: And so yeah, I'm seeing I'm approaching. I'm approaching that ribbon, guys,
3:22
Speaker 1: I'm approaching it. And then out at the corner of
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Speaker 1: my eye, somebody says, slavery wasn't that bad? What? What? What? Slavery? Chattle?
3:40
Speaker 1: Slavery that in which in which it's not only you
3:45
Speaker 1: were enslaved, but the generations after you would be enslaved
3:48
Speaker 1: where you had less rights than animals. Are you? Are
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Speaker 1: you serious? I mean? And I studied the slave trade
3:57
Speaker 1: and plantations and the I also study that like the
4:02
Speaker 1: Trailer Tears and how the United States of America is
4:06
Speaker 1: built on the blood and bones of the indigenous, the enslaved,
4:11
Speaker 1: and the indentured. But anyway, like a lot of people
4:19
Speaker 1: genuinely believe that chattel slavery wasn't that bad, and I'm thinking,
4:22
Speaker 1: like Jesus, do I need to explain this? And I'm
4:27
Speaker 1: thinking I might have to, just like October, maybe because
4:30
Speaker 1: I'm giving September as a palate cleanser to myself because
4:33
Speaker 1: I need something that's not as incredibly horrific as we
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Speaker 1: have been discussing this month, which brings me to today's episode,
4:43
Speaker 1: which lovely segue there. I I have found what I
4:47
Speaker 1: believe to be the most positive, positive concentration camp story
4:54
Speaker 1: in the entire Holocaust. And you're thinking that is a
4:58
Speaker 1: weird way to say it, and it is, You're not wrong,
5:01
Speaker 1: but also it's technically correct. The Battle of Castle Ata
5:08
Speaker 1: is the weirdest, the weirdest battle in the entire Second
5:14
Speaker 1: World War. I maintained this, And also I think it
5:18
Speaker 1: would make a great like three part mini series, Like
5:22
Speaker 1: I feel like it would just be an easy, an
5:26
Speaker 1: easy tale to tell because You've got like three different aspects,
5:30
Speaker 1: and I feel like it all come together really really
5:33
Speaker 1: really well. I feel like that would be like a
5:35
Speaker 1: very good good thing. But anyway, I know what you're thinking.
5:38
Speaker 1: You're thinking, Kertie quite your Jebel Jabba in fact me,
5:42
Speaker 1: in fact you are will. But first we've got to
5:45
Speaker 1: get our source on. Our sources are prison by Augusta
5:53
Speaker 1: leon Jo. The Last Battle When US and German soldiers
5:58
Speaker 1: joined forces in the winning hours of World War in
6:00
Speaker 1: Europe by Stephen Harding. World War Two's Strangest Battle, when
6:05
Speaker 1: Americans and Germans fought together by Andrew Roberts. The Last
6:10
Speaker 1: Battle by Donald Ladner. S s Alibi of the Nation
6:16
Speaker 1: by Gerald Raiitlinger. The Battle for schloss Ada by Richard Pendavin.
6:23
Speaker 1: The insane story of a German American effort to rescue
6:25
Speaker 1: French prisoners during World War Two by Sebastian Roblin. Women
6:30
Speaker 1: and Yugoslav Partisans. A History of World War Two Resistance
6:33
Speaker 1: by Yelena Baldinite. The Austrian Castle were Nazis lost to
6:38
Speaker 1: German US Force by Bethany Bell. Secret Agents, Spies and sabageurs.
6:44
Speaker 1: Famous undercover missions of World War Two Boyannis Pilkowichits. We
6:49
Speaker 1: also have contemporary articles from Hellcat News, This Saturday Evening Post,
6:55
Speaker 1: and The New York Times, and of course we have
6:58
Speaker 1: our old favorites biography, do history dot com. I use
7:02
Speaker 1: it in coomfortably good. Then let's begin. The Battle of
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Speaker 1: Castle Ita has to be one of my favorite stories
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Speaker 1: from the entire Second World War. It is completely wild
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Speaker 1: and probably most likely the most positive story you will
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Speaker 1: ever hear, like from the Holocaust, which is such an
7:22
Speaker 1: odd thing to say about something so horrible, but it
7:24
Speaker 1: is what it is. So let's get to basics. Let's
7:29
Speaker 1: get our context on you know what I still prefer like,
7:32
Speaker 1: let's slip into some context, like that's my favorite part,
7:36
Speaker 1: that's my favorite. So you've got the Allies versus the
7:40
Speaker 1: Axis Powers. So Allies were like the Big three UK, USA,
7:45
Speaker 1: uss R, and then you've also got Poland and France
7:49
Speaker 1: like along with them. Then you've got the Axis Powers,
7:52
Speaker 1: which is like the German Reich. So you've got Germany
7:56
Speaker 1: and Austria, and then you've got Italy and so they're
8:00
Speaker 1: all part of the Axis grew. So the Federal State
8:05
Speaker 1: of Austria was annexed by Germany on the twelfth of
8:08
Speaker 1: March nineteen thirty eight. They marched in, they invaded, and
8:14
Speaker 1: they took it over, absorbing it into the Reich. This
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Speaker 1: was known as the Antlos. So this is like before
8:22
Speaker 1: the war starts in nineteen thirty nine, when Germany invades
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Speaker 1: Poland and when Austria is forced into the Reich. Not
8:31
Speaker 1: everybody is cool with that. Some people didn't agree that
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Speaker 1: joining Germany was a great idea, or that going to
8:39
Speaker 1: war with some of the biggest powers in the world
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Speaker 1: was super either. Which brings us to the Austrian resistance,
8:47
Speaker 1: which is one we don't hear about too often. Now
8:51
Speaker 1: you've probably heard a wee bit about like the Polish
8:53
Speaker 1: and Dutch resistance in recent years, but typically the French
8:58
Speaker 1: and British resistance is what gets shared like that's like
9:01
Speaker 1: the most popular out there. And around one hundred thousand
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Speaker 1: people that we know of were involved in the Austrian resistance,
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Speaker 1: with thousands imprisoned or executed, And of course there were
9:14
Speaker 1: different splinters within the resistance itself. You had armed groups
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Speaker 1: like the Austrian Freedom Front, the Gorama Potzan and more
9:24
Speaker 1: who attacked facilities, infrastructure, demolishing bridges, damaging railway lines and offices,
9:31
Speaker 1: basically anything to bugger up the Nazi supply chain. Then
9:36
Speaker 1: you had the abver Intelligence Agency, so General Erwin Lahausen
9:41
Speaker 1: he was appointed chief of ABWA Section two, which mainly
9:44
Speaker 1: dealt with sabotage and Blanderburger. Lahousen wanted the agents to
9:49
Speaker 1: be trained mainly for espionage, as the higher ups were
9:52
Speaker 1: focused on sabotage, and so this led to like double agents,
9:58
Speaker 1: triple agents, counter intelligence, et cetera, et cetera. Then you
10:03
Speaker 1: have another part of the resistance in the Wehrmacht, also
10:07
Speaker 1: known as the brandy Burgers, and so they were to
10:10
Speaker 1: deal with sabotage and infiltration like like the Sees, but worse.
10:19
Speaker 1: So some resistance fighters work their way up to the
10:23
Speaker 1: Vermacht in order to destroy it from the inside and
10:26
Speaker 1: send intelligence. Then you have heard about this, so this
10:31
Speaker 1: kind of becomes an issue because this makes like the
10:34
Speaker 1: Nazis like super super duper like suspicious, and so you
10:42
Speaker 1: have like spies trying to weed out these spies and
10:47
Speaker 1: it's like espionage on espionage. Right, you have Nazi officers
10:53
Speaker 1: going undercover in Austria and this meant more political prisoners
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Speaker 1: and political prisoners. They were useful and they're basically bargaining chips, right.
11:05
Speaker 1: But of course if you have political prisoners, if you're
11:08
Speaker 1: planning to use them at some point, you know you
11:10
Speaker 1: have to be able to store them somewhere, and so
11:15
Speaker 1: they're figuring out where we're going to put them, and
11:17
Speaker 1: of course they had just the place Castle Ita. So
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Speaker 1: Castle Ita was in the North Tyrol and had been
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Speaker 1: leased from the owner Frans Gluna in nineteen forty now
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Speaker 1: least initially three years later it was seized and it
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Speaker 1: was converted into a prison in nineteen forty three and
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Speaker 1: then camp laborers they came up and like basically maintained it,
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Speaker 1: did some work and it became a subcamp of DAJA.
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Speaker 1: Its purpose was to hold high profile French prisoners that
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Speaker 1: they're the saw is valuable. But it also had like
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Speaker 1: Austrian and Eastern European prisoners like Zomanian Kukovic, e Croatian
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Speaker 1: electrical engineer who joined the resistance when the Nazis invaded
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Speaker 1: Yugoslavia that used to be a country, for those of
12:17
Speaker 1: you who don't know, there used to be a country
12:20
Speaker 1: called Yugoslavia. And so he had a skill, and that
12:24
Speaker 1: skill kept him alive, and so they kept him like
12:29
Speaker 1: they kept like certain prisoners from the other camps. Right,
12:34
Speaker 1: So these regular prisoners, shall we say, and they had
12:38
Speaker 1: them for like maintenance and labor, because that wasn't something
12:43
Speaker 1: these high profile political prisoners were supposed to do. So
12:50
Speaker 1: it's it's quite interesting, right, You've got a motley crewe
12:55
Speaker 1: in there. Like you have the right wing leader and
13:03
Speaker 1: closet French resistance fighter Francois de la Rocque, trade union
13:08
Speaker 1: leader Leon Jois, tennis player Jean Borotra, like he's a
13:13
Speaker 1: famous tennis player as well. Right. Then you've got commanders
13:17
Speaker 1: in chief or former commanders in chief Magzie Moregand and
13:21
Speaker 1: Maurice Ramlin, former prime ministers Edod Derider and Paul Reynald.
13:27
Speaker 1: Then you have politician and diplomat Andre Francois Ponsett, who
13:33
Speaker 1: was an ambassador to Germany pre war. So then you
13:38
Speaker 1: have politician Michel Clemonceaux, son of the former French Prime
13:44
Speaker 1: minister George Cremonceaux. And last but not least, Marie Agnes
13:50
Speaker 1: de Gould, resistance fighter and Charles Dugaul's sister. So you
13:56
Speaker 1: also had like the wives and husbands of like the
14:00
Speaker 1: political prisoners there as well, So there's there's there's like
14:03
Speaker 1: there's a good chunk there. So for those of you
14:06
Speaker 1: who don't know, Charles de gaul was the leader of
14:09
Speaker 1: the Free French forces who were resisting Nazi German rule
14:13
Speaker 1: and occupation, and like spoilers. After the war, he would
14:17
Speaker 1: go on to be like the prime Minister, which is
14:21
Speaker 1: the English word, so effectively, actually he would be the
14:26
Speaker 1: Premier Ministre de la Rpublique frances so the Prime Minister
14:30
Speaker 1: of the French Republic. So it's like a it's like
14:32
Speaker 1: a big title. So these prisoners, they are all high profile,
14:37
Speaker 1: they're important, and the Nazis wanted them close enough, but
14:42
Speaker 1: like not too close, so they're sort of hidden away
14:47
Speaker 1: but still within Nazi reach, so they're nirtelal. In Austria,
14:51
Speaker 1: it's say, Nick, it's beautiful. It looks like a scene
14:54
Speaker 1: out of the sound of music, Like it really is
14:57
Speaker 1: a stunning place. And it's what one hundred forty kilometers,
15:01
Speaker 1: which is math hang On eighty six miles south of Munich, Munich.
15:07
Speaker 1: I miss her pretzels. You know, it's weird. When I
15:10
Speaker 1: was in Munich, is there were so many like prawns,
15:13
Speaker 1: like shrimp, and my boss was like, I've never seen
15:17
Speaker 1: them eat as much shrimp as when we were in Munich,
15:20
Speaker 1: and I'm like, we're landlocked. I'm not sure this is
15:23
Speaker 1: the best idea, but nobody died, so I'm going to
15:26
Speaker 1: assume everything's fine. I'm fairly certain nobody got fit poisoning.
15:31
Speaker 1: So this castle, it is Schloss Ada. It is nestled
15:37
Speaker 1: in the Alps, and it's actually about yeah, it's actually
15:42
Speaker 1: about the same distance from Munich to Aa as it
15:45
Speaker 1: is from Ita to no Sunstein Castle, right, so ciber
15:52
Speaker 1: No Sunstein Castle was the home of Ludwig the second
15:56
Speaker 1: of Bavaria, the Martian Corneague, the fairy tale King. Like
16:02
Speaker 1: that's like inside Germany he's known as like the fairy
16:05
Speaker 1: tale King, but outside Germany he's known as mad King Ludwig. Anyway,
16:12
Speaker 1: So the Nazi had also claimed like No shans Signed Castle,
16:17
Speaker 1: and that's one of the places where they were holding
16:20
Speaker 1: stolen gold, like because you know how they looted and
16:26
Speaker 1: stole everything from the property of Jewish people, so they
16:30
Speaker 1: would like kill them and then like chisel out their
16:35
Speaker 1: gold teeth and things. But before they did that, they
16:39
Speaker 1: would reclaim I say reclaim, they would steal all of
16:42
Speaker 1: their property and claim it as their own. I touched
16:46
Speaker 1: on this a little bit in the previous episode with
16:48
Speaker 1: Amon Gould, like when the ghettos were were emptied, like
16:53
Speaker 1: when they removed people from there and they you know,
16:57
Speaker 1: heard them off into either camps or or or extermination centers,
17:03
Speaker 1: they would just take all of the valuables, so jewelry, clothes, art, furniture,
17:11
Speaker 1: like they would all be collected and become part of
17:14
Speaker 1: like the right pot if you will. And yeah, the
17:19
Speaker 1: thing about the art is like they collected like artwork,
17:25
Speaker 1: but they hid it because it was more like the dragon,
17:29
Speaker 1: the hoarding the gold. And Hitler as a general rule,
17:33
Speaker 1: didn't enjoy art that was artistic, like anything that had
17:39
Speaker 1: flair or whimsy or anything or an expression or impression.
17:45
Speaker 1: He liked photographs. Really, I think he'd be better just
17:50
Speaker 1: looking at a photo because if you ever look at
17:52
Speaker 1: his artwork, it's like mate Wareern't you're just doing architectural drawings,
17:56
Speaker 1: like that's that's kind of your jam. There wasn't imagination
18:02
Speaker 1: or flair. And yeah, but listen, I'm not here to
18:06
Speaker 1: talk about the artwork. But I just feel like that
18:09
Speaker 1: would have been a more constructive path for him to
18:11
Speaker 1: go down as opposed to, you know, the current situation
18:18
Speaker 1: we are currently in in this very short domino effect.
18:24
Speaker 1: But yes, so they were just hoarding all of this
18:27
Speaker 1: stolen gold and it's like just up the road, right,
18:31
Speaker 1: it's like so close and Castle Ida. It's in the Alps.
18:37
Speaker 1: And the Nazi counter intelligence had been spreading the idea
18:42
Speaker 1: that the Nazis last stand, Like they were like, if
18:45
Speaker 1: we're losing the war, if things go down, the last
18:48
Speaker 1: dance is going to happen in Austria, and like nobody
18:54
Speaker 1: wanted that because the thing about Austria geographically, if you
18:58
Speaker 1: look at a map, right, it's landlocked. It's inland, it's landlocked,
19:04
Speaker 1: and you're right in the heart of Europe, like you've
19:08
Speaker 1: got rocky terrain, you've just got it's not the most
19:13
Speaker 1: accessible of locations, and it would draw troops away from
19:18
Speaker 1: like other prominent areas. And so there was always this
19:22
Speaker 1: idea that you know, oh, they'd go inland and then
19:25
Speaker 1: we'd have to follow them, and then it's going to
19:27
Speaker 1: be a big pain. Like that was never actually put
19:30
Speaker 1: the plan, but that was what the seeds they were sowing,
19:34
Speaker 1: and so because it would be pulling people in from
19:36
Speaker 1: all over other parts of the war, the Allies already
19:40
Speaker 1: had their eyes on the area and this led to
19:43
Speaker 1: the idea as well that the place would have this
19:48
Speaker 1: entire network of underground bunkers. That's that's no, that's not
19:55
Speaker 1: to say they were not underground bunkers in the Alps.
20:00
Speaker 1: They had them. They had them. That's where they put
20:03
Speaker 1: like the like the forgery stuff initially from Operating Bernard,
20:09
Speaker 1: like that's where they had smuggled it, and that's where
20:11
Speaker 1: they were like making them do a bit more counterfeit
20:13
Speaker 1: in there. But yeah, there were bunkers in the Alps,
20:17
Speaker 1: carved underground, but there was not a network of them.
20:22
Speaker 1: There wasn't like a secret Nazi city underneath the Alps,
20:25
Speaker 1: like that's conspiracy theory time. But yeah, there's there's a
20:31
Speaker 1: couple of things there, but nothing really to write home about.
20:34
Speaker 1: And like around this area as well, Hitler's we hide about. Sorry,
20:38
Speaker 1: his home was around this. The Eagles Nest a fucking
20:44
Speaker 1: such a prick, I mean, mass murder aside the Eagles Nest,
20:50
Speaker 1: how fucking pretentious. Like uh, anyway, Eagles nest here Wolf's
21:00
Speaker 1: Layer in Poland. Like I just I just it's it's
21:09
Speaker 1: it's just screaming. I'm an alpha male energy. I simply
21:14
Speaker 1: cannot friends, I simply cannot. So you've already got this
21:20
Speaker 1: area like under surveillance anyway for like the Smorgas Board
21:24
Speaker 1: of Reasons. And then you've got these VIP prisoners who
21:29
Speaker 1: were tucked away in the Alps, and like it's also
21:35
Speaker 1: pretty handy in case they needed to clean up like
21:40
Speaker 1: like like listen, Lessen, kind of like the Bolsheviks and
21:46
Speaker 1: the Romanovs, if they need to cover some tracks, you know,
21:51
Speaker 1: they've got them contained. They can just you know, it's
21:57
Speaker 1: it's yeah. There was never really any actual attempt or
22:04
Speaker 1: suggestion to use them in any kind of trade. It
22:08
Speaker 1: basically went from we're worrying to oh now, last hand,
22:18
Speaker 1: Unlike concentration camp prisoners, these VIPs they got meals, they
22:23
Speaker 1: got to stretch their legs and talk to the guards.
22:27
Speaker 1: And the dynamic year is also it's also really interesting
22:32
Speaker 1: because you've had these like vshy collaborators like Maxime Legand
22:36
Speaker 1: and Jean Belottre and members of the resistance all hold
22:41
Speaker 1: up together and while they're imprisoned. Things are not going
22:47
Speaker 1: well for the right. The Allied counter offensive was happening
22:51
Speaker 1: and liberation was near, and you've got this really weird
22:57
Speaker 1: mix actually, because not only do you have these people
23:02
Speaker 1: that are on opposite sides, especially initially, but you've also
23:06
Speaker 1: got this group that are VIPs along with their like
23:09
Speaker 1: various husbands and wives, their partners. And then you have
23:15
Speaker 1: these like ex labor camp prisoners who are there just
23:19
Speaker 1: to do like maintenance and labor and all this stuff
23:22
Speaker 1: that the political prisoners shouldn't have to do. Yeah, so
23:27
Speaker 1: you've got them, and then you've got like SS officers,
23:30
Speaker 1: one of which cut Siegfried Shreda. He was injured and
23:35
Speaker 1: he was there resting at Castle Ita. And while he's
23:39
Speaker 1: recovering there, he was being cared for by the prisoners.
23:45
Speaker 1: So yeah, liberation is on its way, you know. And
23:49
Speaker 1: you have like inside the walls of Schloss Ita, it's normal,
23:54
Speaker 1: it's the day to day, it is how it is,
23:56
Speaker 1: how it's been outside the wall and kind of go
24:00
Speaker 1: into shit. So things are crumbled down around us. You've
24:06
Speaker 1: got the Red Army coming in from Poland, you have
24:09
Speaker 1: like it's past ere at this point. So you've got
24:12
Speaker 1: like US troops coming down from one side, You've just
24:16
Speaker 1: got from all angles, right, like a double pronged attack.
24:21
Speaker 1: And so you have this coming down. And on the
24:24
Speaker 1: second of May nineteen forty five, Edward Vita, commandant of Dahl,
24:32
Speaker 1: arrives at schloss Ita. That's right, the Dahl commandant. He
24:40
Speaker 1: knows allies are on the way, and so he is
24:44
Speaker 1: getting the heck at a dodge and so he is
24:46
Speaker 1: stopping at schloss Ita for the night, and he's he's
24:53
Speaker 1: he's only supposed to be staying at night, but he
24:55
Speaker 1: ends up staying much longer than he expected because he
25:01
Speaker 1: ends up dying mysteriously as he fell onto a bullet,
25:08
Speaker 1: and so like, he basically has a grumble with somebody,
25:14
Speaker 1: gets up, goes into a building like within the castle,
25:19
Speaker 1: like a little Britain, and a little while later there's
25:23
Speaker 1: a bang and they're like, oh, no, he must have
25:29
Speaker 1: ended his own life, like the man who's trying to escape.
25:34
Speaker 1: I mean, if ye have you already a gun, why
25:36
Speaker 1: wouldn't he have done that back at back out? Why
25:40
Speaker 1: did he do it here? Anyway, the next day they
25:44
Speaker 1: end up burying him outside the walls. So like he's
25:48
Speaker 1: just like a lit'll be grave outside of the castle.
25:52
Speaker 1: So yeah, that that next day, that same day that
25:54
Speaker 1: they buried him outside the castle grounds, negles to say,
25:58
Speaker 1: things are a getting a little bit tense inside, and
26:03
Speaker 1: said schloss Ita. And it seems likely that information had
26:09
Speaker 1: been passed on to, you know, the guy running the castle.
26:15
Speaker 1: And so Sebastian Viemer, who is in charge, he sends Kokovic,
26:20
Speaker 1: the electrical engineer, on an errand on his bike. He
26:25
Speaker 1: does not return. See, here's the thing. The prisoners they
26:30
Speaker 1: have a secret radio and they heard that the Allies
26:36
Speaker 1: were coming. And yeah, like so they'd smoke on a
26:39
Speaker 1: little radio and they were using it unbeknownst to the
26:42
Speaker 1: ESSs guards. So because they knew the Allies were on
26:46
Speaker 1: their way and they were coming into that area, they
26:50
Speaker 1: give Kokovic a letter to give to the first Allied
26:53
Speaker 1: soldier he meets, and like Wimmer, he's panicking. Sebastian Vember
27:01
Speaker 1: is freaking the fuck out. He is like pacing back
27:05
Speaker 1: and forth thees panicking. They have buried Vita outside the
27:09
Speaker 1: castle grounds. The Croatian electrician hasn't returned, and he is
27:14
Speaker 1: well aware that they have been committing war crimes. So
27:18
Speaker 1: he says, fuck this for a game of soldiers and
27:21
Speaker 1: just runs off, followed by the remaining SS guards. So
27:29
Speaker 1: they just leave. Okay, So Kookovich, he is on his bike,
27:35
Speaker 1: and he is also well aware that Vorl, the closest town,
27:40
Speaker 1: which is like five miles away, is occupied by you know,
27:46
Speaker 1: German rech forces, and so he thinks, what would be
27:50
Speaker 1: a better idea is to cycle instead forty miles away
27:56
Speaker 1: to Innsbruck, where the four hundred and ninth regimen of
28:00
Speaker 1: the American one hundred and third Infantry Division are. AD's
28:04
Speaker 1: a mouthful, lads, four hundred and ninth Regiment of the
28:08
Speaker 1: American one hundred and third Infantry Division. There we go.
28:11
Speaker 1: They've got it second time. So Viimar he's absconded, leaving
28:17
Speaker 1: the prisoners in charge of castle item and so, like
28:23
Speaker 1: any decent contestant on Project Runway, they manage to fashion
28:27
Speaker 1: together a few items and they make a French flag.
28:34
Speaker 1: And so they make this French flag and then they
28:37
Speaker 1: raise it so that people can see like they've put
28:40
Speaker 1: a claim on the castle, like this castle belongs to
28:45
Speaker 1: like France, and so they have raised their flag. They
28:52
Speaker 1: arm themselves like they just grab like guns, because there's
28:58
Speaker 1: just armory, like a few bits and bess still left around.
29:02
Speaker 1: And they don't know what's happened to Kokovich. Okay, they
29:07
Speaker 1: don't know where he's gone because like they're thinking, oh,
29:09
Speaker 1: the nearest town isn't that far. So for all they know,
29:13
Speaker 1: he's been caught, he's dead, he's escaped, you know, any
29:17
Speaker 1: or all of those. So then they decide they're going
29:21
Speaker 1: to send Andreas Krobot a check cook with a message
29:25
Speaker 1: for American trips. But Andreas he goes, they send him
29:31
Speaker 1: away and he heads to Vorl right, and when he
29:36
Speaker 1: gets there, he doesn't come across American trips. Instead, he
29:42
Speaker 1: comes across Major Joseph L. Gangel, an Austrian major who
29:49
Speaker 1: had commanded howitzers on the Eastern Front and nebel Vefer
29:54
Speaker 1: rocket launchers in the Battle of Normandy. Now, now that
29:59
Speaker 1: this is not a man one would assume that one
30:01
Speaker 1: would want to meet in a back alley, like this
30:03
Speaker 1: guy was an Austrian soldier. He was part of the war,
30:09
Speaker 1: Like he knew how to use his artillery and so yeah, yeah,
30:17
Speaker 1: and see Rango, he had perceived orders and those orders
30:25
Speaker 1: were to make a last stand against the US twelfth
30:29
Speaker 1: Division that was allegedly approaching. However, he thought instead of
30:36
Speaker 1: doing that. Instead of doing that, he chose to pass
30:42
Speaker 1: the information on to the local Austrian resistance under Alois
30:46
Speaker 1: Mayor Oh and he armed them. See, the SS had
30:52
Speaker 1: orders to shoot Austrians who showed any signs of welcoming
30:56
Speaker 1: the allies. So what a lot of people had been
31:00
Speaker 1: doing was flying like white flags or white sheets like
31:04
Speaker 1: from their windows, like they were doing this as a
31:09
Speaker 1: symbol of peace, of showing that they were part of
31:12
Speaker 1: this and that they were welcoming the trips. So the
31:17
Speaker 1: major he was like mmmmm. He was ready to fight
31:22
Speaker 1: back and hoping that the US troops would like arrive
31:28
Speaker 1: before he would actually have to fight the SS. Like.
31:31
Speaker 1: He didn't want to have to do that. He wanted
31:33
Speaker 1: to have his little Vermax soldiers and just protect the town.
31:38
Speaker 1: So this was his only option. And here's the thing.
31:43
Speaker 1: He can't be in two places at once, so he
31:46
Speaker 1: can't protect the town and stage rescue like he can't
31:50
Speaker 1: have the vermaked his vermaked like in two zones. He
31:54
Speaker 1: can either have them here or have them there, And
31:57
Speaker 1: so he keeps his men there. Majority of his men
32:00
Speaker 1: there and then sends the information on and they says
32:05
Speaker 1: it had gotten a bit weird at this point. And
32:08
Speaker 1: you're thinking, really at this point, because there were bands
32:13
Speaker 1: of them just like roaming the area full of rage
32:18
Speaker 1: and bloodlust because they had nothing left to lose at
32:20
Speaker 1: this point, like like, they know what they did, they
32:25
Speaker 1: know what will happen to them because of what they did,
32:28
Speaker 1: and so I'm assuming just enraged by the fact they
32:34
Speaker 1: have to deal with the consequences of their own actions. Yeah, okay,
32:40
Speaker 1: so they're just like I you know, when an animal
32:46
Speaker 1: has rabies and it's just a frothing, rageful like ball
32:52
Speaker 1: of anger and well, spit that's what the guy. These
32:57
Speaker 1: guys are like for me, Like, that's that's what I say.
33:02
Speaker 1: And so you've just got these violent men who have
33:08
Speaker 1: unchecked power, with no shits to give and nothing left
33:13
Speaker 1: to lose, roaming the country looking for a fight. So
33:28
Speaker 1: the major he ends up like getting some intelligence, getting
33:31
Speaker 1: some stuff going, and he ends up sending a small
33:35
Speaker 1: force to protect the prisoners at the castle in case
33:39
Speaker 1: the ESSs tried to reclaim it, and so he's like,
33:44
Speaker 1: come on, let's go. So he's with a small force
33:48
Speaker 1: and he reaches Cuffstein, which is where they meet a
33:52
Speaker 1: reconnaissance unit from the twenty third Armored Battalion armed with
33:57
Speaker 1: a white flag. Like they approach because this wasn't the
34:03
Speaker 1: safest thing because these trips, like the Vermacht, these Austrian
34:07
Speaker 1: Vermacht trips, they look like Nazis. You know, it's the
34:13
Speaker 1: uniform they are they're Nazis, and they look like, yeah,
34:20
Speaker 1: they were the Nazis. And so there there were the
34:23
Speaker 1: WE flag and they meet with these exhausted US troops
34:28
Speaker 1: led by Lieutenant Jack Lee, and these troops like they
34:33
Speaker 1: are they're supposed to be being relieved, right, and so
34:41
Speaker 1: they're like, hey, there's these prisoners. We need to rescue them.
34:46
Speaker 1: And they're like fuck it, yeah, let's go. Let's go
34:50
Speaker 1: rescue some prisoners at the castle. The princess is in
34:55
Speaker 1: another castle. So they all decide that they are just
34:59
Speaker 1: gonna go. So you've got obstacles, obstacles in their way.
35:04
Speaker 1: They're coming across machine gun nests as they're being set up,
35:09
Speaker 1: so they're like in tanks and all their stuff, and
35:12
Speaker 1: they're coming across this like at one point they end
35:16
Speaker 1: up going over a bridge that is being wired to explode,
35:22
Speaker 1: which is not the strongest thing to like cross the
35:26
Speaker 1: best of time, but in a tank, it just doesn't
35:31
Speaker 1: feel like the safetest option here. And you've got this
35:36
Speaker 1: like command car, a truck and four tanks making this
35:41
Speaker 1: journey and this liberation force. It ends up being reduced
35:47
Speaker 1: down to ten German Austrian troops and fourteen Americans, and
35:55
Speaker 1: they end up leaving some tanks behind to man the roadblocks,
36:00
Speaker 1: which only leaves one tank Jack Lees tank, the besot
36:05
Speaker 1: In Jenny and upgraded easy eight Sherman tank with a
36:09
Speaker 1: high velocity seventy six millimeter gun, which I'm sure is impressive,
36:14
Speaker 1: because here's the thing I don't I don't know. I
36:17
Speaker 1: don't know guns. I don't know calibers or millimeters or that.
36:22
Speaker 1: I'm like, that sounds like a weapon. So as this
36:28
Speaker 1: tank is going, there are several African American soldiers from
36:32
Speaker 1: the seventeenth Armored Infantry Battalion riding on top of the tank,
36:38
Speaker 1: right on top of Besotting Jenny, And so they reach
36:45
Speaker 1: schlos Aita, and because they're French, the prisoners are entirely
36:52
Speaker 1: unimpressed with their rescue. Barder, the diamly dialed, so you
37:01
Speaker 1: have fourteen US soldiers ten ex verver marked riflemen. So
37:07
Speaker 1: they arrive and they see that the castle's defenses are
37:10
Speaker 1: being headed up by an SS officer, Kurt secret Shaeffer,
37:17
Speaker 1: whose family is also inside the castle. So the injured
37:22
Speaker 1: s S officer from before that they befriended. They were like, hey,
37:26
Speaker 1: we've been abandoned by all of these guys. You wanna
37:30
Speaker 1: you wanna help protect us? And he's like, yeah, absolutely,
37:36
Speaker 1: So they he deploys his troops and sets his tank
37:39
Speaker 1: in front of the gatehouse, and he wants to send
37:42
Speaker 1: like the prisoners. He wants to keep them inside. But
37:45
Speaker 1: they're like no, no, no, no, no, honey, we're gonna fight.
37:49
Speaker 1: They're like, oh no no, nibba nibba niba. Oh castle,
37:56
Speaker 1: No no, no no, and that I can pa. They're
38:00
Speaker 1: like absolutely not. They're like they're gonna fight. So not
38:04
Speaker 1: long after they arrive, not long after, the Vermacht the
38:10
Speaker 1: riflemen the fucking US dudes, Right. Not long after they arrive,
38:16
Speaker 1: the seventeenth SS Panzagrnadia Division starts moving against the castle
38:23
Speaker 1: and lays siege. By the next morning, around one hundred
38:32
Speaker 1: and fifty to two hundred SS troops had a masted
38:36
Speaker 1: to besiege the castle Ita, setting up an eighty eight
38:41
Speaker 1: millimeter anti tank gun and a twenty milimeter flat gun
38:46
Speaker 1: upon a hill like eight hundred yards away. Now again
38:51
Speaker 1: I'm no artillery expert. I'm not great with the pure pews.
38:58
Speaker 1: But as far as I can tell, these are big
39:04
Speaker 1: heavy guns. These are big, massive heavy guns, scary guns.
39:09
Speaker 1: You don't want these shipping at you guns. I mean,
39:11
Speaker 1: you really shouldn't want any guns shooting at you. But
39:14
Speaker 1: like on a scale of zero two anti tank gun,
39:19
Speaker 1: we don't. We don't want this, Okay. So the next
39:24
Speaker 1: that next day, so you've got all like two hundred
39:27
Speaker 1: ish men there right ready to besiege, and the Allies
39:32
Speaker 1: they only get two additions, one German Solda and a
39:39
Speaker 1: teenage Austrian resistance member hands well like, and they fucking
39:46
Speaker 1: held for leather. Remember they've had to cross like the
39:50
Speaker 1: bridge that's wired to explode. They've had to come all
39:53
Speaker 1: this way like up through the up, through the winding roads,
39:58
Speaker 1: through the fucking Alps. Man. So you've got all these
40:02
Speaker 1: guys and they've just rushed to be there. They have
40:05
Speaker 1: just zoomed up because they got told we need reinforcements,
40:07
Speaker 1: and he's like, great, I've got this teenager and this
40:10
Speaker 1: other guy. And it's the fifth of May and the
40:14
Speaker 1: attack begins. The artillery hits the castle, causing it to
40:19
Speaker 1: physically shake, like bricks are falling from the wall. Like
40:24
Speaker 1: one of them actually falls and hits Schrader's wife and
40:27
Speaker 1: so she's injured just from the building being shot at
40:32
Speaker 1: and the Besotton Jenny. So Jacqulee's tank it provided machine
40:36
Speaker 1: gun fire support until it was hit by that eighty
40:40
Speaker 1: eight millimeter anti tank gun. There was one fella inside
40:46
Speaker 1: and he was trying to fix the faulty radio, but
40:49
Speaker 1: he managed to escape unharmed, so like he was just lucky,
40:55
Speaker 1: you know. And by the afternoon, the news had reached
40:59
Speaker 1: the one hundred and forty second Battalion Infantry Regiment. Hey, Kerry,
41:08
Speaker 1: you know history stuff, And I'm like, yeah, I'm just
41:10
Speaker 1: really bad at naming different sections of military. I don't know,
41:15
Speaker 1: I'm not there. Some have guns of horses, some of
41:19
Speaker 1: guns on horses, some of them have tanks. I don't know.
41:22
Speaker 1: They do different things, right, So in the castle, they
41:27
Speaker 1: knew the reinforcements were on their way, but because the
41:31
Speaker 1: radios had been down. They hadn't been able to give
41:34
Speaker 1: complete information regarding enemy positions, which is not good. Like
41:41
Speaker 1: if you are approaching, that's the kind of thing you
41:44
Speaker 1: want to know. Enter tennis player Jean Bartoa, who volunteers
41:50
Speaker 1: to deliver the information. And this this is a visual
41:54
Speaker 1: that I think we need in our three part mini series,
41:58
Speaker 1: and that is he vaults over the castle wall, runs
42:03
Speaker 1: the gauntlet of SS strong points and ambushes past SS
42:09
Speaker 1: officers with machine guns. Right. He races through the forest
42:14
Speaker 1: and meets the one hundred and forty second Division. And
42:18
Speaker 1: when he meets them, he is recognized like straight away
42:22
Speaker 1: by a Canadian reporter who's just like with the division
42:28
Speaker 1: and this bota like he's made it to them. He's
42:31
Speaker 1: given the enemy positions. And what does he do? Does
42:36
Speaker 1: he leave? Does he say, man, I'm done now? He
42:40
Speaker 1: says no. He doesn't say no. He says, give me
42:44
Speaker 1: a gun and a uniform. And then he heads back
42:50
Speaker 1: to the castle with them. And it's good that they're
42:55
Speaker 1: coming there because the prisoners they have a finite number
42:59
Speaker 1: of bullets, so they really need them to make it back,
43:02
Speaker 1: you know. And when they reach the castle around two pm,
43:07
Speaker 1: they end the battle, and there wasn't that many casualties
43:11
Speaker 1: all in all. Yosevic gangle like he was fatally shot
43:16
Speaker 1: by a sniper while removing the former French Prime Minister
43:20
Speaker 1: Paul Renaud out of the line of fire. And Yoseph
43:26
Speaker 1: here the ex vermachte, right, he was the sole defender
43:33
Speaker 1: to die. He was the only one. So with this,
43:38
Speaker 1: around one hundred s S soldiers are captured. And this
43:42
Speaker 1: is like five days after Hitler committed suicide and two
43:46
Speaker 1: days before Germany's unconditional surrender. So Kurt Field Trader, he
43:54
Speaker 1: gets two years for Nazi stuff, which is fair, but
43:59
Speaker 1: he's sent in was reduced because of his efforts in
44:03
Speaker 1: you know, protecting the people of Castle Ida and like
44:08
Speaker 1: as well. So Joseph he gets a posthumous like thing.
44:15
Speaker 1: He ends up losing his life, you have, you know,
44:19
Speaker 1: Schrader he ends up getting he ends up getting two years.
44:23
Speaker 1: And Jackie Jacklie the man, the young American with the tank,
44:30
Speaker 1: he's twenty seven at the time of this. That is wild, right,
44:36
Speaker 1: And I just love the idea. I'm sorry, I'm sorry.
44:38
Speaker 1: I love how ridiculous it is. I love the idea
44:42
Speaker 1: of like the ess showing up and just being like
44:46
Speaker 1: seeing these soldiers like German army uniform and they're like
44:52
Speaker 1: are they are they Alice man commander? Are those allan then? Aloman?
45:00
Speaker 1: Is this? Whose tank is that? Is it? It's not
45:04
Speaker 1: our tank? Is such an American tang? Is it an SS? So? John?
45:09
Speaker 1: That is his uniform? What is he doing it? Oh?
45:12
Speaker 1: You shooting at us? He's mental be one of us?
45:15
Speaker 1: What is this? What is this? Is it said? Men
45:20
Speaker 1: break Dennis one time? And is that is Child's gold sister? Oh?
45:25
Speaker 1: This is going down? Like I just love the idea
45:29
Speaker 1: of him just being like so fucking out of it,
45:31
Speaker 1: like what the fuck? But like, this is so interesting
45:39
Speaker 1: because you've got this group of people. You've got the Vermach,
45:42
Speaker 1: the SS allies, prisoners, and you know, a tennis player
45:48
Speaker 1: all working together to stop the ess from taking a
45:52
Speaker 1: castle and killing everyone inside. And on paper it's wild
45:57
Speaker 1: Americans working with x Nazis from Austria with the Austrian
46:02
Speaker 1: resistance to lead Germans and Americans through the Alps to
46:07
Speaker 1: rescue a host of French prisoners. Like from the essays,
46:12
Speaker 1: that's that's insane, but that is that's the story of
46:18
Speaker 1: the battle. Of Castle Ita like still one of the
46:22
Speaker 1: silliest and fun like as it could be. It's the
46:25
Speaker 1: tennis player vaulting over the wall of a castle and
46:30
Speaker 1: just vaulting it, right. I just I just can't get
46:35
Speaker 1: it out of my head. I just love the idea
46:37
Speaker 1: of just that million dollar man jumping over the wall
46:41
Speaker 1: and then just zig zagging through the damn forest, right
46:46
Speaker 1: and just been like give me again into uniform, like,
46:49
Speaker 1: oh see, are so so amazing. And it had like,
46:56
Speaker 1: I mean, apart from that one death, it had a
46:59
Speaker 1: positive out come, you know, and you don't get that
47:02
Speaker 1: and a lot of these stories. But that is the
47:05
Speaker 1: final Concentration Camp series episode we're gonna have for a while.
47:12
Speaker 1: The possibility I'll do something in October because it's a
47:15
Speaker 1: horror month, so we'll see. But honestly, I'm done. I
47:19
Speaker 1: have a few more videos to pop out for this
47:22
Speaker 1: week and then it's anything else, anything else. I think
47:27
Speaker 1: at this point I might just go for God guns
47:30
Speaker 1: and girls, girls, girls, and so so ends the story
47:35
Speaker 1: of a Battle of Castle item. If you liked my
47:38
Speaker 1: retelling of the story, it's where I'm losing my voice again.
47:42
Speaker 1: I think my throat is injured. Again, which is super fun,
47:46
Speaker 1: but I think it's like actually quite painful. So yes,
47:50
Speaker 1: rate review of five stars are nice things. If you
47:52
Speaker 1: don't have anything nice to say, you can just not
47:54
Speaker 1: say things. That's fine. And I guess it's a recommendation
48:00
Speaker 1: time this may show you for watching. I'm gonna recommend Hunters.
48:08
Speaker 1: So I've been watching Hunters like I'm two episodes in
48:12
Speaker 1: because it came up on the algorithm and I was like, yeah,
48:15
Speaker 1: I'll give it a go, and it's it's interesting thus far,
48:19
Speaker 1: although it feels like maybe it's the wrong time to
48:21
Speaker 1: be watching it, but I want to be done with this.
48:25
Speaker 1: I'm gonna watch it this week and then be finished.
48:28
Speaker 1: So that's a recommendation. It seems like a very interesting
48:31
Speaker 1: concept for a show. And so I'm watching that right
48:33
Speaker 1: now because everyone hates Nazis. And then and then for
48:41
Speaker 1: listening apart from me obviously. So there's this podcast called
48:47
Speaker 1: Threesus t hr E s ed US and it's hosted
48:51
Speaker 1: by Mason Sperling, Danny Padilla, and Jason I don't know
48:57
Speaker 1: Jason's surname. Actually, I feel like I should look that up.
49:01
Speaker 1: But yet they do this thing called unfair Trivia and
49:05
Speaker 1: it's just trivia that's unfair and awkward, and it's the
49:10
Speaker 1: most fun thing because I love not knowing things and
49:14
Speaker 1: it's great. But then one time I got an answer, right,
49:16
Speaker 1: and I was like you, I was so proud of myself.
49:19
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's it's a fun one. It's on Apple podcasts,
49:22
Speaker 1: it's it's just a fun time with some nerds and
49:26
Speaker 1: you should totally check it out for reading. Though. So
49:32
Speaker 1: Penguin released like a bunch of classics and they're like
49:37
Speaker 1: you see them out there. They're white with red writing, right,
49:40
Speaker 1: and they are books released in the original print, right,
49:45
Speaker 1: So it might have been an abridged version. It might
49:47
Speaker 1: have been just the way it was released for the
49:49
Speaker 1: first time, right, And they've got all these books, and
49:52
Speaker 1: I have hell Dante. I just remember it, like, not
50:00
Speaker 1: Dante's Infernal, not the Divine Comedy, just hell Dante. I I. Yeah,
50:09
Speaker 1: So that's an option, so you should give you should
50:13
Speaker 1: give that a read. And with that, I am going
50:17
Speaker 1: to bed you good night, and I'm gonna say goodbye
50:20
Speaker 1: to fucking Nazis because I just can't right now anyway.
50:26
Speaker 1: Adios au revoir of We Deserve my Friends, Bye Bye,