Hours before the end of World War II in Europe, and only 5 days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler, U.S Soldiers joined by a group of renegade German Wehrmacht, thwarted an assault by Waffen-SS to recapture Castle Itter which was an abandoned strong hold still housing French and Italian V.I.P prisoners of war. The Castle located in Austrian Alps in a region known historically as Tyrol and the battle that took place here on May 5th, 1945 would be continuously referred to as one of the strangest in military history. The battle took place only three days prior to the official end of WWII’s European Campaign. The fortress was located on the flank under the Hohe Salve with a peak of 6000 feet above sea level. In 1943 the castle came under …show more content…
On April 29, 1945, the U.S. Seventh Army’s 45th Infantry Division liberated Dachau and its commandant escaped to Castle Itter committing suicide shortly after. Two days later, Castle Itter’s own commandant and camp guards abandoned their posts, leaving the prisoners in charge but unable to leave because hostile Germans remained nearby. Some of the remaining prisoners mostly elderly French men who had been high-ranking government officials sent a messengers to get help from the advancing Americans. The first Messenger reached a renegade Wehrmacht officer Maj. Sepp Gangl. Aware of a possible plan by the loyal Waffen-SS to reclaim Castle Itter and execute its occupants Maj. Gangl believed he could not defend the castle or attempt a rescue with only his twelve men so he decided to surrender to the first U.S Army unit he could reach and try to convince them to rescue the French prisoners at Castle Itter. Maj. Gangle made contact with a young but seasoned Captain by the name of Jack C. Lee of the 23rd TB, Bco., who was awaiting …show more content…
Cpt. Lee’s only M4A3 Sherman to make it to the castle engaged from the front gate with its .50-calibur machine gun. After the initial attack one of the 14 Wehrmacht soldiers deserted the castle and ran off into the enemy occupied woods around the castle. Cpt. Lee’s was quite aware of the information that the young corporal could relay to the enemy that could severely put them at a disadvantage he was also concerned that only his American troops opened fire on the deserter creating concerns of how loyal his German counterparts were to protecting and holding the fortress long enough for help to arrive. At day break they were able to observe Waffen-SS moving in with some heavier fire power and numbers reaching 150 soldiers. They had lost the guns on the Sherman when it was hit by an anti-tank round and went up in flames during second attack. The prison had many small arms weaponry but ammunition to engage and soldiers trying to approach the castle from the ravines beside it. The fighting lasted for the entire day. During which Maj. Gangl was shot in the head by a sniper while moving to another defensive location within the castle. Unsure of long it would take for help to arrive they decided to send another messenger outside the castle walls to explain how dire there situation would become as they continued to deplete their ammunition. Jean Borotra, one of the French
The 23rd RCT received the mission to defend Chipyong-Ni in an attempt to bait the CCF to attack with a large force that could be defeated, but the RCT was at 70% strength following the battle at Twin Tunnels (some units were at 60%). The RCT received intelligence reports of multiple CCF Divisions marching towards Chipyong-Ni. COL Freeman requested the RCT be allowed to pull back 15 miles to prevent encirclement and was approved by MG Almond, but was overturned by LTG Ridgway. LTG Ridgway, the newly assigned Eighth Army Commander, did not allow retreat and always wanted to make contact with the enemy. He relieved his G-3 on the spot for giving him retreat contingency plans.
The battle started when the British sixth air born division went in at ten minutes after midnight. They were the first troops to go into action. The second attack was by the eighty second in the one hundred and first division of air born attacks. They were less successful than the first division.
Vimy Ridge was a key to the German defence system. It rose 61 m. above
COL Freeman took pride in communicating with his battalion commanders . This was extremely beneficial when it came to the day of 14 February 1951. On this day, COL Freeman called all his commanders in and briefed them on the mission ahead and gave them the warning that he believed the enemy would attack them at the weakest moment, at night. Included in his brief was information about the Chinese would attack their perimeter in overwhelming numbers as soon as night fell. The intelligence was beneficial for commanders so they could plan accordingly for the events of the evening . The Soldiers were even aware of the activities planned . One Soldier wrote “I have been told to keep my carbine on semi-automatic” which shows he knew the order and was awaiting to see the enemy to begin the engagement. The Soldiers knew the mission was to stand their ground and not waiver. When morning would come the air strikes would begin pushing back the Chinese and giving them time to
In the late May in 1918, the German forces put together four divisions and launched the Aisne offensive. The bombardment began at one in the morning on May 27th. The British and French front lines were torn apart by the current waves of German infantry and artillery. Both armies began to disintegrate before the might of the Germans, and were unable to halt the advancement of their awesome force. The Germans didn’t press further after the Marnes River, giving the French time to call in reinforcements and American assistance. When the American forces arrived, a French office asked Marine Colonel Wendell C. Neville if a tactical retreat would be in order, he replied with th...
The battle of St. Mihiel ended on September 13, 1918 and because of this battle it was shown that the American Army and it’s commanders, were very much capable to handle an operation on their own. The St. Mihiel Salient which had stood for four years was now non-existent. The German front line had been drastically reduced. 15,000 Germans were captured along with 450 weapons. 7,000 Americans lost their lives, but this was deemed acceptable compared to the standards of this war.
After the United States captures the beachhead and settles down, Captain Miller and his seven soldiers begin their mission. The dilemma is Private Ryan, in the 101st airborne, was miss his drop zone away from the original plan. Command thinks he is in a nearby town swarming with German soldiers. Miller’s squad goes through towns, forests, and enemy occupied areas searching for Private Ryan. Sadly, two out of the eight men are killed during the search diminishing the morale. The captain mentally suffers from the burden of losing his men. When they finally locate Ryan, he is defending one of the most strategic towns in the beginning of the war. The town has one of the only 2 bridges across the river that will collect the Allies to the Eastern front. Private Ryan does not want to leave his men guarding the bridge because he feels that it is unfair to leave his fellow soldiers. So Captain Miller and the squad decide to make a last stand ...
page 175 “No help or backing was to be had then from his high-born comrades; that hand-picked troop broke ranks and ran for their lives to safety of the wood.” (Heaney)
To write this book the author, John Toland, had to devote 15 years researching different stories from all sides of the war. He studied war memoirs, interviewed war veterans, and read military documents. While doing this he focused on both the allied and axis forces to truly understand both sides of the story and be able to write such a descriptive and accurate piece of work. This research was used in the book to describe the unlikely victory of the Americans over the Germans during the “Battle of the Bulge”.
This Battle of the Huertgen Forest is a varied account referencing one of the World War II (WWII) Battles fought in Germany. This battle attests to being one of the bloodiest battles of the war in Germany, a war of attrition. This battle convened from September 1944 – December 1944, culminating in a German counteroffensive that won the final day at Huertgen. Some of the key points brought out in the accounts of this battle were: the number of losses on both the American and German fronts, the terrain needing covered or acquired, key German and American leaders and tactical/strategic advantages, disadvantages.
The Surveyor 3 television camera landed on the Moon as part of the Surveyor 3 mission on April 20, 1967 November 24, 1969, the crew of Apollo 12 carried the camera back to Earth. Launch Date: 1967-04-1, Launch, Vehicle: Atlas-Centaur,Launch Site: Cape Canaveral, United States,Mass: 296.0 kg. There were some alternate names for Surveyor 3 Television which were Surveyor-C and 02756. The Funding Agency was the NASA-Office of Space Science Applications (United States). Surveyor 3 was the second spacecraft of the Surveyor series to achieve a lunar soft landing. The primary objectives of the Surveyor program, a series of seven robotic lunar soft landing flights, were to support the coming crewed Apollo landings by: (1) developing and validating the
Gen. Heinrich Freiherr von Lüttwitz′s, commanding the XLVII Panzer Corps under the directive of Hasso von Manteuffel, commander of the 5th Panzer Army; was given the responsibility of capturing the town of Bastogne. On the morning of the 16th of December the German offensive opened up, attacking American positions on Elsenborn Ridge and Losheim Gap in an attempt to break through to the town of Liège. By the 19th the Americans had issued resistance to German forces yet were fighting an uphill battle through undesirable weather and were low on ammunition, fuel and rations. Due to these conditions General Bruce Clarke held out in the town of St. Vith until the untimely collapse of that post which led to the encirclement of the 101st Airborne and the 10th Armored Division's Combat Command B at Bastogne.
In the early morning of 19 February 1945, United States Marines assigned to the 3rd, 4th and 5th Marine Division led the initial assault on the Japanese controlled island of Iwo Jima, with the objective of capturing and securing the island. This was the beginning of one of the fiercest and bloodiest; and more decisively, the most strategically important battles fought during World War II. After the dust had settled, and the smoke had cleared, the causalities and losses were astounding. 6,821 U.S. Marines along with 18,844 members of the Imperial Japanese Army had paid the ultimate sacrifice. A decisive US victory on the island of Iwo Jima later played a pivotal role in the overarching defeat of the Japanese Empire and its Armed Forces (Morison, 1945).
This case study will introduce the events leading up to the largest surrender of US forces in history and examine the most daring rescue attempt of WWII. The paper follows the planning and execution of the 6th Ranger Battalion’s Great Raid on the Japanese prison camp of Cabanatuan. Lastly, the events of that raid will be examined in order to discover and evaluate the repercussions and lessons learned.
It was the unity of action and the unity of mind that was the ultimate triumph in defying the Germans. It wasn’t each prisoner fighting for his own memory. It was each prisoner fighting for the memories of all prisoners.