Original subtitles

[bombs exploding]

- [Narrator] On May 5th, 1945,

during the final days of World War II in Western Austria,

a small group of American soldiers formed

an unlikely Alliance with members of the German army

to protect the lives of French politicians and VIPs

who have been imprisoned in a medieval castle.

- This is the most unlikely battle

by the most ragtag eclectic mix of fighters

in military history, yet alone World War II.

- [Narrator] Attacked by elite SS troops,

this band of unlikely brothers, outnumbered and outgunned,

would fight one of the craziest battles

of the Second World War, in a fight for their lives

and the lives of the French prisoners.

- These Frenchmen want the end of the war.

Of course, they want "Free France".

They wanna get back into the country that they love,

but they know before they do, they have to survive.

[upbeat music]

- [Narrator] In 1925, Adolf Hitler becomes the leader

of the reestablished Nazi Party.

After the stock market crash of 1929, Germany is destitute.

Hitler capitalizes on that

and becomes chancellor of Germany in 1933,

taking control of the state.

- Hitler comes along and is very good at blame mongering,

scapegoating, playing the "Us versus Them" card,

and "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

And really he rode that all the way to power in 1933.

- [Narrator] The Dachau Camp, just north of Munich,

is set up in March of that year

to incarcerate political opponents.

But as the Nazis ramp up their heinous racial agenda

and Jewish people are arrested en masse,

Dachau morphs into a detention site to commit mass murder.

- These are not people known

for their moral qualms about killing.

There was no paperwork generally associated

with this process.

These processes took place

under the cover of darkness, as it were.

And they were sort of designed for maximum efficiency

more than anything else.

- [Narrator] In 1938, Austria's the first country

to be annexed to Germany.

105,000 troops of the German Eighth Army arrive

on March 12th, 1938.

- Austria is Hitler's home.

And when the Reich came together in the 1870s,

they had this idea that Austria

was a part of the German Reich.

So, it was always seen by old school, traditional Germans

as part of the German nation.

So, when Hitler does come to power

and they begin to progress forward as a nation,

he decides we are going to take part,

and all later of Austria.

- [Narrator] The Reichfuhrer himself, Heinrich Himmler,

Hitler's right hand man, leads the troops

to the pacification of Austria.

Himmler is particularly taken

with the mountainous Tyrolean region,

which he views as a potential Alpine fortress.

- I think it's the sort of fairy tale version that we know

the likes of Hitler and Himmler buy into,

these kind of remote fortresses

that exemplify German prowess.

- [Narrator] A remote medieval castle captures

his attention, Castle Itter.

He leases the castle

from the first deputy governor of Tyrol,

though its initial purpose is unknown.

- If you're Himmler, this is a spot,

where you could potentially envision yourself controlling

this region, pulling the strings.

It's possible that the rumors of a Nazi fortification

are a result of the secretive nature of the Nazi Party,

and how protective they were of information.

It could also be just part of the sensationalism

that existed surrounding the Nazis in the late 1930s.

- [Narrator] As the Nazis gained more power,

they continue to expand the Reich's borders.

The Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia,

with a large ethnic German population,

is annexed to Germany in 1938,

as part of the Munich agreement signed by European leaders,

including French Prime Minister EÉdouard Daladier,

an agreement to prevent another war in Europe.

But Hitler is not done with Germany's expansion.

To house the growing number of political opponents

and those that were deemed "racially inferior civilians,"

the Nazis built more concentration camps

to take the burden off of Dachau.

Sachsenhausen opens in 1936.

Buchenwald opens in 1937.

Ravensbruck, originally an all female camp,

opens in May, 1939.

As with Dachau, they all have isolated areas

where VIP prisoners are segregated

from the horrors of the rest of the camps.

- There were some camps, Ravensbruck and Sachsenhausen,

were for the French, some for Scandinavians.

There were camps just for women.

There were camps for homosexuals,

camps for Jews.

So, they were segregated.

But in the Dachau Complex,

there was a camp for high-ranking political prisoners,

and I mean high-ranking political prisoners.

ambassadors, former heads of state.

- [Narrator] With the invasion of Poland by German forces

in September of 1939, World War II breaks out.

Two days later, England and France declare war on Germany.

- The Germans will invade first from the west,

the Russians, a few weeks later from the east,

and between the two of them, they will conquer Poland,

and both sides are responsible for unspeakable atrocities.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, in France, now on a war footing,

French Prime Minister Daladier

along with his top military official, Maurice Gamelin,

start to build up their forces,

but decide to minimize potential French losses

by going on the defensive rather than offensive.

He faces major criticism for his passive behavior

towards Germany by the French public,

and his most virulent political rival, Paul Reynaud,

who had opposed the Munich agreement.

The decision made by Daladier and Gamelin

would ultimately lead to France's occupation.

Germany begins their campaign against France

on March 10th, 1940.

The French are taken by surprise

as the Germans attack from central Belgium,

which Gamelin believes is an impossible feat.

The French front is breached in only five days.

- They take France, and by June of 1940,

they have secured most of Western Europe, right?

They have to taken the Netherlands,

the Benelux countries, Belgium, Luxembourg.

They've taken Denmark.

They'll take Norway as well.

So, in effect, by the fall of 1940, the war has been won.

- [Narrator] Facing massive public scrutiny and disapproval,

Daladier resigns on March 21st, 1940,

and is replaced by his arch political opponent, Reynaud.

Gamelin is unable to redeem himself in Reynaud's eyes

and is replaced on May 18th, 1940,

by General Maxime Weygand,

a seasoned military commander from World War I.

But it's too late, and France falls into German control.

- The important footnote to that,

the fly in the ointment, is the United Kingdom,

which of course still has punch and still has fight.

And what the Germans realize is that,

if they don't take it out,

not only is their victory incomplete,

but they leave potentially a staging ground

should the United States get involved in the war.

And that's a big if,

because the United States is a neutral country,

but Germany is not clueless.

- [Narrator] With France's defeat,

General Weygand advises the French government to capitulate,

but Prime Minister Reynaud refuses.

But with the backing of the cabinet,

Reynaud's deputy, Marshall Petain, sides with Weygand,

and on June 15th, the French government approached Germany

about the cessation of active hostilities.

Reynaud resigns the next day,

and Pertain succeeds him to form the Vichy regime,

a puppet government in German-controlled France.

- It would be safe to call it a puppet government.

It is doing what the people in Berlin want it to do.

It is not going to resist or put up much of a fight

to anything that is coming out of Berlin.

- [Narrator] The Germans also allow the French

to keep a small limited force called the Armistice Army

under the control of the Vichy government

Oppositions to the regime are imprisoned

and handed over to the Germans,

including former Prime Ministers Leon Blum,

who was leader of France for a year in 1936,

his successor Edouard Daladier, as well as General Gamelin.

- They were taken to various camps,

various detention facilities, and these were the people

who were the VIPs in these facilities,

the people who the Germans were rightly aware

of how important they were as political tools

and ways to engage with the allies potentially,

and gain leverage in the diplomatic side of the war.

- [Narrator] But these may not be secure enough facilities

for such high-profile captives.

- They have a value as long as they're alive.

It's like, why don't you kill your hostage?

'Cause he might be useful to you.

He's no good dead.

That's the thinking in Germany.

There's an affection for some of these political leaders,

and also they're reviled in a landscape

where there's gonna be a desperate scrabble

to try and reinvent Europe.

Hitler knows that.

- [Narrator] But opposition is far

from stamped out in France.

To stop open opposition to the Reich,

Hitler signs the Nacht und Nebel Act in 1941.

- It's basically a tactic of night and fog.

And the tactic is to get rid of perceived enemies

of national socialism.

- [Narrator] About 200,000 French residents

are secretly deported to Germany

for being political activists against the Nazi regime.

- The Nazis loved to pose as legal actors,

in the sense that they would always cover their misdeeds

by passing a law first.

- [Narrator] Many wind up in concentration camps,

but the French resistance movement is growing.

- Initially those resistance movements take all shapes.

Perhaps they're resisting arrests.

Perhaps they're resisting by handing out flyers.

Perhaps they're resisting by trying to kill someone.

There are different forms of resistance at that time.

However, it pops up organically.

- [Narrator] In January of 1942,

now exiled in the United Kingdom,

French army officer and statesman, Charles de Gaulle,

tries to unite the different groups

by positioning himself as a leader of them all.

- De Gaulle is trying to lead their effort from afar,

from Britain, and that's not working out

as well as planned in the early days.

- [Narrator] De Gaulle goal meets up

with French resistance fighter, Jean Pierre Moulin,

a former civil servant who has made his way to Britain.

De Gaulle gave Moulin an assignment

of coordinating and unifying the various resistance groups,

and accept de Gaulle as their leader

of his "Free France" movement.

Moulin secretly returns to France.

- They also have to worry about

the issue of who's with who in France.

- [Narrator] France is in chaos,

as the Nazis have complete control

of Pertain's puppet Vichy regime.

Major French political figures are about to be put on trial.

On February 19th, 1942, the Riom Trials begin

as an attempt by the Vichy regime to prove

that the former leaders of France are responsible

for the country's defeat by Germany in 1940.

- This was done in a French court.

This was done by a French government.

Therefore it is legitimate.

If it's done either in Berlin or explicitly by Germans,

it doesn't have any sense of legitimacy with the people.

- [Narrator] The secondary aim is to force France

to accept responsibility for the war.

Leon Blum, Edouard Daladier,

and Maurice Gamelin all stand trial.

- So you want to present to them

that this is all within a French culture,

within the French legal system,

and that it's all taking place, and it's all above board.

- [Narrator] The Germans plan backfired.

Although Gamelin refused to engage in the trial,

the defense put forward by Blum and Daladier

were largely successful in rebutting the charges

and won sympathetic coverage in the international press.

Hitler orders the trial suspension

to stop further embarrassment,

although Blum, Daladier, and Gamelin

were returned to prison.

And so France falls into a lengthy period

of effective German occupation with no end in sight.

With much of mainland Europe now under Nazi control,

they go about fortifying

the Atlantic Wall's extensive system

of defenses and fortifications

along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia.

[bombs exploding]

After three years of Nazi expansion,

finally, the allies hit back and seize the offensive.

On November 8th, 1942,

the Americans and the British launched Operation Torch

to take Morocco and Algeria, who at this time

were French colonies aligned with Germany via Vichy France.

- Operation Torch is the invasion of North Africa.

It is done by all the allied armies

in the western hemisphere.

And their goal is to disintegrate

the power block in North Africa.

- [Narrator] The French army of Africa switched

their allegiance from the Vichy regime to "Free France"

led by Charles de Gaulle.

This is the first major operation carried out

as a joint effort by the allies,

and a notable setback for the Nazis.

Back in France, the Germans retaliate

and occupy the whole of the country,

disbanding the Armistice Army of Vichy

and move French political prisoners.

- The VIPs of Dachau are to be sent to a new place,

an Alpine retreat called Castle Itter.

- [Narrator] On November 23rd, 1942,

just days after the allied invasion of North Africa,

Hitler signs in order to acquire Schloss Itter,

Castle Itter, outright to be used for special SS prisoners.

- There's something in that

that makes them feel both powerful and safe,

and I don't think it's a coincidence

that this particular Schloss was selected.

- [Narrator] Himmler seizes it from the current owner

to transform it into the most high-profile subcamp

of the concentration camp system under Dachau's control.

- It's a chaotic scene in all the places

where Nazis have taken over.

A lot of political prisoners are being rounded up.

People who are suspected of being not Nazi sympathizers,

they're being picked up off the streets regularly.

- [Narrator] As more German troops are now in France,

on December 1st, 1942,

a new French resistance group is founded,

recognizing General Henri Giraud as France's leader,

which is backed by the United States

and operates out of North Africa.

However, Winston Churchill supports Charles de Gaulle

as the leader of "Free France",

as he's been running operations in England,

since the invasion of France.

- The situation, it intensifies,

with more German troops there,

with more Nazi officials there,

to take greater control of the country.

I think part of it certainly is a response

to what happens in Africa,

but then the other part of it, too, is a recognition

that Allied forces are building up

and that an invasion is going to come.

- [Narrator] As the resistance movement

is finding its footing,

high-profile French citizens are seized by the Nazis,

including relatives of both Giraud and de Gaulle.

They will be moved to Castle Itter

after its conversion into an upscale prison.

On February 8th, 1943,

a small group of concentration camp prisoners

from Dachau and Flossenburg arrive

to convert Castle Itter into a VIP detention facility.

- What's gonna happen is this Schloss Itter

will become the most high-profile subcamp

under the administration of Dachau.

By May, 1943,

so in the wake of what's unfolded in North Africa

and the full occupation of France,

you now have these big political scallops

being moved into one place

and sort of revamp top notch prison.

As prisons go, this ain't such a bad place to be.

They've got a courtyard, they've got reasonable food,

but the SS and this Himmler makes sure

that this is sort of a special SS camp

and it's properly guarded, pretty sinister.

- [Narrator] They make a dormitory for 35 SS troops,

an arms room filled with weapons

behind heavily-locked doors, offices,

and private suites for the SS commanders

and administration workers,

and even a modest medical facility.

- It becomes this location where the French elite

is eventually pulled together

from various locations and put there.

- [Narrator] On May 2nd, 1943,

the first VIP prisoners arrive

at Castle Itter from Buchenwald,

former French Premier Edouard Daladier,

his former General Maurice Gamelin,

and labor union leader Leon Jouhaux.

Eight days later, more prisoners arrive.

Jean Borotra, a tennis star who served

as the sports commissioner for Vichy

before denouncing the regime,

and former PM Paul Reynaud.

Though they've been in separate prisons for years,

Daladier and Reynaud remain as hostile as ever

towards each other.

- You talk about politicians not being able

to compromise or break bread,

well, they're not even in a Nazi prison camp.

- [Narrator] On June 19th, 1943,

Augusta Bruchlen arrives, Leon Jouhaux's long-term partner.

Her French resistance activities lead

to her arrest and imprisonment.

On July 2nd, two more prisoners arrive.

Christian Mabire is the former secretary of Paul Reynaud,

and his future wife.

The other, Marcel Granger,

is the son-in-law of General Henri Giraud,

leader of the Free French fighting forces in Africa.

As the number of French VIP prisoners increases

in Castle Itter, they French foes segregate themselves

based on political views

and avoid each other as much as possible.

- Politics sure as heck didn't stop

during the war or even imprisonment.

This castle is a hotbed of political animosities

and political maneuvering and political debate.

It's as if a lot of these high-ranking former leaders,

it's as if they thought

they were still in office or something,

'cause they continued to fight politically over everything.

- [Narrator] With the tides of war turning heavily

against the Nazis as Allied bombing increases in Europe,

hitting deep into the heart of Germany,

Berlin and the Germans defeat in Stalingrad,

Himmler begins plotting a secret peace deal with the allies.

- The very heart of the SS starts to believe

that maybe he can sway things

a different direction for Nazi Germany.

Maybe he can have a unique way

to get what Nazi Germany wants.

- [Narrator] But despite his attempts,

American President Franklin D. Roosevelt

and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill

will not engage.

- And Heinrich Himmler is doing all this

behind the back of Adolf Hitler.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile at Castle Itter,

to ensure the wellbeing of the VIP prisoners,

various labor prisoners are also there

to perform maintenance duties.

One in particular, electrician Zvonimir Cuckovic,

becomes friendly with the French VIPs

and manages to sneak in a contraband radio,

so they can have access to BBC war updates.

This proves to be extremely useful,

especially as allied victories begin

to dominate the airwaves.

[upbeat music]

- [Reporter] In England, General Dwight D. Eisenhower

and his deputy commanders chart the liberation

of a lost continent.

[bombs exploding]

- [Narrator] The day finally arrives, June 6th, 1944, D-Day.

The allies launch a combination of naval, air,

and land assaults in Nazi-occupied France.

The massive force consists of over 150,000 soldiers.

- It is the D-Day.

There are many D-Days around the world at different places

and different islands, especially in the Pacific,

but it is to us the D-Day.

- [Narrator] The Allied army now has a firm foothold

in Europe, and the American 12th Army group

is officially established to attack Germany.

- We see the Hitler Wall, his Atlantic Wall,

being cracked for the first time,

this supposedly impenetrable place,

by this tide of Allied soldiers.

- [Narrator] The French resistance movements play

a supporting role in this victory.

- French resistance is critical, absolutely critical,

to the success of D-Day.

- We managed to smuggle in something like 10,000 tons worth

of munitions, courtesy of the resistance,

who are blowing bridges for us,

who are blowing train lines, who are blowing factories,

who are doing what we needed them to do.

- [Narrator] By 1944, Charles de Gaulle is accepted

as the "Free France" leader by all.

- On August of 1944, Paris falls.

And it pretty much decapitates the entire Vichy government.

- [Narrator] As the allies gain ground,

Himmler ramps up his plans for the last stronghold

in the Tyrolean mountains surrounding Castle Itter.

- An obvious advantage about going to Austria,

the mountainous terrain, it's easier to defend,

but also these high-ranking French prisoners,

they could all be used as a bargaining chip.

- [Narrator] To stop the allies from entering Germany

in December of 1944, Hitler launches a surprise offensive

along the Western front in the Ardennes region of Belgium.

- Hitler's offensive into what becomes Battle of the Bulge

is really his last attempt

to break the Allied lines in the West.

- [Narrator] 30 German divisions attack battle-fatigued,

American troupes across 85 miles of the Ardennes Forest

during the freezing weather conditions.

- This was a distant battle in a distant land,

and the Americans were dying for the cause of freedom.

- [Narrator] And on December 25th,

230,000 American soldiers arrive

to restore the Western front.

The American Third Army breaks through the German lines,

forcing them to retreat back into Germany

on January 24th, 1945.

- That Battle of the Bulge certainly numerically

in terms of the deaths

and the way in which the Americans fought,

I think, that singled them out as worthy allies,

and not just 'cause they had the kit

and the fresh feet and the big rations,

but because they put their back into it.

- It's just a matter of time now, and you start to see

a lot more Nazis thinking about their own neck

instead of worrying about what Adolf Hitler wants.

- [Narrator] In January of 1945, in a desperate attempt

to prolong the war against the advancing Allies,

Hitler launches a propaganda disinformation campaign

about a highly fortified Nazi stronghold

that is being constructed in Tyrol, the Alpine Fortress.

The campaign is so successful that the Allies fall for it

and change their strategic military plans as a result.

Allied nations print stories and speculate

that highly valued political prisoners

will be held captive in the fortress.

- This is a last stand.

It's a place where their safety,

if anything can be guaranteed in war,

their safety can be in this

or their captivity can be assured,

and one's control over them can be assured

in this remote, uncompromising, and very Germanic.

I mean, I say that, it's in Austria, of course,

but very Germanic landscape.

I think it's entirely fitting really

that that is where they ended up.

- [Narrator] With Germany's defeat becoming clearer,

the VIP prisoners in Castle Itter begin to lose

some of the comforts they have been enjoying.

- If you are a prisoner in any camp,

it's gonna get worse before it gets better.

- [Narrator] They must rely on candles for evening light

to minimize electricity use.

Food is also rationed to support the Nazis war effort.

More and more SS and Wehrmacht forces are retreating south

and the provisions in Castle Itter

are given out to provide them with sustenance.

- If you are the French elite in your castle,

what was comfortable is gonna become less comfortable.

Resources are scarce.

Are you gonna feed your political prisoner,

no matter how esteemed, if you don't have food for yourself?

It's a desperate play.

The Germans aren't just on the back foot.

They've been bent over backwards.

- [Narrator] On March 22nd, 1945,

British and American troops crossed the Rhine into Germany.

German SS troops and Wehrmacht soldiers retreat into Austria

to defend the Alpine Fortress and ensure

that the VIP prisoners do not fall into Allied hands.

But their faithfulness to the Fuhrer is wavering.

German troops begin to separate into two categories,

die-hard Nazi fanatics,

and those who wanna surrender and end the war.

- They're on the retreat at this point,

and there's no turning back.

- [Narrator] Led by Commander von Hengl,

a veteran of World War I,

a highly decorated general in Wehrmacht army,

and a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross,

the Nazi battle groups are a last ditch effort

to stop the Allies from entering Tyrol.

Their primary mission, to defend the mountain passes

from the incoming Americans by supervising roadblock,

construction, and wiring demolition charges to bridges.

[bombs exploding]

With the Allies nearly on their doorstep,

the Germans transfer some more political prisoners

to Castle Itter.

On April 13th, 1945, Charles de Gaulle's sister,

Mary Agnes, and her husband, Alfred Cailliau,

would be the last VIP captives.

- It's all about leverage.

It's all about a last gasp for the Nazi regime.

What can they ring out of their most precious French asset?

- [Narrator] The French VIPs hope their liberation

will come soon before it's too late.

And there could be hope on the horizon,

as Austrian resistance fighters have enlisted the help

of a highly decorated Wehrmacht officer, Major Sepp Gangl.

Gangl had become opposed to the Nazis

and was collaborating with the Austrian resistance.

- Gangl realizes that may factor in well

to his own postwar fate.

So, Gangl and his SS are willing

to join the French and the Allies.

- Well, it's all very convenient, isn't it, the last minute,

when the Allies are rocking over the Danube

to suddenly decide, "Oh, I've seen the light

and I would like to help the captives in Schloss Itter.

And hey, I'm gonna turn these nasty SS boys in,"

while you were fighting alongside them for years?

- [Narrator] Noting the locations of obstacles

and the numbers of Waffen-SS

and Wehrmacht troops to the area,

the resistance is able to perform many acts of sabotage,

[bombs exploding]

and feed intel to the incoming Allies,

who are heading south from Germany.

On April 24th, 1945,

the American 103rd Infantry Division unit begins pursuing

the fleeing Nazis through Stuttgart to take Muünsingen.

The men crossed the Danube River on April 26th

near the German city of Ulm, and make it into Austria,

which they officially occupy on April 27th.

Reynaud know shares the information coming in

from his radio, giving the VIPs hope

that they'll be rescued by a relief force.

But fanatical, SS troops are all over Tyrol,

questioning and killing indiscriminately.

Those at the castle could be next.

- As things change, and the fact that they have the radio

and can hear more and more about

actually what's going on around them,

it does get to the point where it looks like

they are no longer going to be useful as bargaining chips,

'cause they're not needed anymore.

- [Narrator] And they weren't the only ones thinking this.

In Berlin on April 28th,

Hitler finds out that his second in command has been trying

to negotiate peace deals with the Allies behind his back.

Furious by this betrayal,

Hitler orders the execution of Himmler's chief staff

and strips Himmler of all of his authority

to ensure he will never lead Germany.

The days of the Reich are numbered.

- That is really the end,

obviously, of the relationship between Hitler and Himmler.

It is also a very symbolic moment

of the end of the Nazi Party.

- [Narrator] The Allies are steadily flowing of Germany,

liberating the cities and concentration camps.

It's here where they realize the extent

of the Nazis abominable activities.

On April 30th, the commander of Dachau flees to Castle Itter

with his entire family.

But before he leaves his post,

he orders the execution of 2000 prisoners,

witnesses to the horrific conditions he put them through.

[guns firing]

With the Allied forces gaining ground in Germany,

Hitler seeing the inevitable demise

of the Nazi regime orders the execution

of all VIP prisoners before they end up in Allied hands.

- The SS know who these people are.

They know where they are specifically.

And for all the information that the VIPs have,

they don't know exactly how close the Americans are.

- [Narrator] And on April 30th,

hold up in his underground bunker, Hitler commits suicide

by swallowing a cyanide capsule and shooting himself,

bringing an end to his dreams of 1000-year Reich.

- The writing on the wall is for the regime,

but my God it's ugly.

No wonder so many of them committed suicide.

Better to die than to be convicted

of war crimes ignominiously by the Allied forces.

- Without him, there is no Nazi Party anymore.

- [Narrator] May 1st, 1945,

Gangl is assigned a slew of new duties

by his superiors in the German battle group,

which he must complete if he doesn't wanna raise suspicion.

Meanwhile in Castle Itter,

the former Dachau commander commits suicide on May 2nd,

believing that resisting the incoming allies is pointless.

His death creates disorder

as the Castle Itter guards ramp up their brutality

on the non-French lesser prisoners.

- Or to be Lee in that particular moment.

I don't think you cut the head off a regime,

which is all funneled towards one dictator, Hitler,

you snuff him out or he snuffs himself out,

well, you gonna leave chaos in your way.

Himmler's already gone, don't forget.

He's the leader of the SS.

It's chaos.

- [Narrator] The Alpine Fortress,

the Reich's final frontier, is now completely unraveling.

On May 3rd, the 23rd Tank Battalion

from the 12th Armored division

is on the move south from Munich.

Leading the troops is 27-year-old Lieutenant Jack Lee.

He's been the driving force of Company B for five months

in an advance across France and to Germany

bound for the Alpine Fortress of Tyrol.

They reach the Inn River and Austrian border at Kufstein.

They are met by elements of the battle group Giehl,

who attempt to defend a bridge,

but the Americans easily overpower them

and the majority of the battle group is destroyed.

Following the defeat at Inn River,

von Hengl deploys his remaining 1,400 SS troops

to new positions, just east of Castle Itter.

They are aware that the castle is housing hostages,

and despite Hitler's orders to execute the prisoners,

his death has triggered chaos in the German ranks.

Some deciding to turn on the Reich

and others seeing the prisoners as bargaining chips.

- The consequences for the SS was gonna be,

especially for the Waffen-SS, was gonna be much worse

than for your average Wehrmacht soldier.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, on May 3rd,

Castle Itter's radio shares the news

that the American 103rd Infantry Division is in Innsbruck,

only 70 kilometers away.

- They're right there.

They're essentially on your doorstep.

This creates a need for action.

- [Narrator] This sparks some rare collaboration

between Daladier and Reynaud,

who decides someone must leave the castle

and bring the Allied unit to liberate them.

They turned to Zvonimir Cuckovic,

the Yugoslavian that had smuggled in the radio for them.

- So, what unfolds is this movie-like plot

of sending a Yugoslavian communist,

who's serving as the gardener of the operation,

the caretaker of the castle,

and sending him on an epic bike journey

to try to reach American lines.

- [Narrator] The SS troops, flooding the streets,

stop and question him.

But after telling them he was on an errand

for the commander at the castle, they let him go.

Three hours later, reaching Innsbruck at last,

he runs into lead elements of the 103rd,

but the commander will not arrive until midnight.

And as he is the only one that can put a plan into motion,

the threat on the lives of VIPs from SS troops remain.

- They're really getting desperate,

and they wanna know how to get out of here

or how to survive.

- [Narrator] But then there's a surprising chain of events

at the castle.

The German commander suddenly abandons his post,

and is quickly followed by the rest of the guards.

The French VIPs are alone.

Suddenly, they have their freedom.

- They were free in the castle,

but they certainly weren't safe,

because the entire region around them

has the Wehrmacht or the SS,

German soldiers, German military units.

You can occasionally hear the firing of guns

and the fighting.

So, should they leave the castle,

they could be shot, they could be captured.

But if they stay in the castle,

is the castle gonna be overrun?

That's their quandary.

- You have these two opposing sides politically

from the pre-war era and the early war era,

who are now stuck in this situation together.

They're arming themselves because they realize

they don't know what's going to happen,

or who's going to come through the door next.

And they're working as a unit together to try to figure out

how they're going to survive.

- [Narrator] The French VIPs assume

that the Yugoslavian handyman, Cuckovic,

has been captured or killed,

and they must make a new plan to ensure their survival.

- Who's going to go out to find out what's going on?

What kind of message can you get out there?

Who's gonna defect next?

What's going to happen?

No one knows.

- [Narrator] The VIPs accept the offer

of the castle's check cook, Andreas Krobot, to seek help.

- These are unsung heroes in the war, a check cook,

who also has to try to make it to the Americans.

And the whole objective there is to tell them,

we are here, we are here, come and save us.

- [Narrator] Weaving through SS troops undetected,

Krobot arrives in Worgl,

and has a chance encounter with Major Gangl,

to whom he reveals the situation in Castle Itter.

Gangl by now has defied orders to rejoin the SS,

and is now with the Austrian resistance as their leader.

Upon hearing that the guards have abandoned Castle Itter,

Gangl knows that now is the time to rescue the French VIPs

and officially surrender to the American forces in Kufstein

only 14 kilometers away.

Arriving in Kufstein, Gangl waves a white flag,

as he approaches Lieutenant Jack Lee,

formerly surrendering himself and his Wehrmacht men.

- It's an unlikely meeting between a German major

and an honorary contrary American tank commander,

but they agree that they will all head to the castle

and liberate the castle.

- Gangl's an interesting character,

because he's Austrian, I believe.

There was an Austrian resistance.

It grew stronger towards the end.

He made the right call at the very end.

He didn't fight with the SS.

He betrayed the SS.

- [Narrator] Lieutenant Jack Lee recognizes

that rescuing these prisoners

maybe the last battle of World War II

and his last chance for a promotion to captain.

He volunteers to lead a relief mission

and phones his supervisor, Colonel George Lynch,

a highly decorated member of the 82nd Airborne Division,

and request permission and backup.

Lynch gives the go ahead, and assures Lee

that reinforcements will be right behind him.

While abandoning one of his busted tanks,

Lee chooses eight soldiers

to man the two Sherman tanks at their disposal.

He also acquires six members of Company D

of the 17th Armored Infantry Battalion

to ride a top the tanks.

And so begins the only known American-German Alliance

in World War II.

- This ragtag convoy driving through the streets of Austria

must have looked quite comical.

You have the Honorary Lee in his tank.

He has the American soldiers sitting on top of the tank,

and they're followed by a German major

and a truck full of German soldiers, all working together

to go liberate French high-ranking politicians,

who are gonna join this ragtag band.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, the Yugoslavian handyman, Cuckovic,

has successfully enlisted the help of Major John Kramers

of the 103rd Infantry Division

alongside French military liaison, Lieutenant Eric Lutten.

He understands that the French VIPs at Castle Itter

are well known politicians,

crucial to rebuilding postwar France.

Kramers gets halfway to Castle Itter with his relief force

and calls for backup, which his superiors deny.

- No one contacts Lee.

And no one says, "Don't go," for Lee.

So, at least that force is going to get through,

but Kramers has the issue of chain of command is saying,

"Don't go.

We don't know what's out there.

Don't advance any further."

- [Narrator] Incredulous, Kramers sends back his men,

but defies his orders and continues on.

But ahead of him, on the evening of May 4th,

Lieutenant Lee and Major Gangl arrive at the castle,

but they aren't what the VIPs were expecting.

- So these former heads of state are expecting a grand army

under a General to come in, and save them, and welcome them,

probably with bottles of bubbly.

Instead, you've got this cantankerous,

disagreeable 27-year-old,

a few men from an all American unit,

and Germans to liberate them.

So they were less than impressed.

- [Narrator] But no sooner had they arrived,

mayhem is unleashed.

The inevitable attack the French VIPs

have been anticipating comes to fruition.

- Lee is put in charge, kind of just haphazardly,

of this ragtag bunch of people.

- [Narrator] Waffen-SS troops emerged from the Hills

and opened fire on the castle with rifles and machine guns.

- You have the French VIPs, who are now armed.

You have Lieutenant Lee's men, who are in the armor

and deployed along the ridge and around the castle.

And then you have the Wehrmacht soldiers.

And they are all firing the same direction

to beat back this SS horde

that is coming out of the woodlock below them.

- [Narrator] Lee orders the French VIPs

to hide in the castle's keep.

Lee's men and the Wehrmacht troops move

to their positions in the castle and begin to return fire.

- The defenders of Castle Itter

are truly, truly outnumbered,

and there are thousands of SS that are willing and able

to come up the side of that hill and kill everyone there.

- [Narrator] Both sides shoot haphazardly

throughout the night, but come daybreak,

things are going to get worse

for the defenders of Itter Castle.

- The one thing they have to hope

is that they don't run out of ammunition.

- [Narrator] That morning of May 5th,

the 142nd Infantry men that Lee was promised

would be right behind him finally depart Kufstein,

but don't head towards the castle.

- The infantry that Lee was supposed to be getting

is pulled back.

Intelligence is lacking. They don't know what's going on.

They don't know who's out there

as far as the Americans are concerned.

They are pulling back from this action.

And Lee is basically left by himself

to command this small garrison of people

without infantry support.

- [Narrator] At 8:00 a.m,

a string of military vehicles unload over 100 SS troops,

immediately sprinting to the woods surrounding the castle.

- So now you have fresh troops, fresh weapons.

They have ammunition, they have everything they need,

and they are deploying against Castle Itter

from different directions.

- The SS soldiers begin pounding

the exterior walls of the castle with machine guns,

unloading rounds of 88 millimeter shells

at the defending soldiers and VIPs.

One rams into Lee's tank near the castle entrance,

detonating its gas tanks, turning it into a raging inferno.

- They're running low on ammo

and the numbers just don't work in their favor.

Lee plans a very medieval defense,

which is appropriate for a medieval castle,

and that was castles have various walls.

If your outer wall is breached, you move to the inner wall.

If that's breached, you go to the keep, the inside,

and that's your last stand.

If they run out of ammunition, they're gonna use knives,

bayonets, and hand to hand and go down fighting.

- [Narrator] With the loss of Lee's tank,

the SS seemed to have the upper hand.

SS troops come flooding in from the treeline

to the east and swarm the castle exterior.

The American and German soldiers

inside the castle returned fire

from the castle's upper walls,

causing some damage to the SS troops below.

The French VIPs joined their ragtag offensive,

Reynaud, Clemenceau, La Rocque, and Borotra

all unload their weapons on their Nazi attackers.

- In all of World War II,

there was not a more mismatched unit

that was standing side by side fighting,

German soldiers, American soldiers, French politicians,

but they fought together.

- [Narrator] Meanwhile, Kramers, who had defied orders,

makes it to Worgl

and spots the busted tank that Lee left behind.

Kramers can't raise Lee on the radio,

but then has a bizarre idea.

He goes to the town hall and makes a call to the castle

on a landline telephone.

As the phone rings in the castle,

Lee is surprised to hear at the other end a fellow American.

Lee manages to explain that they are low on ammo

when the line goes dead.

Meanwhile, there could be good news for Kramers,

as six tanks from Company E

of the a 142nd Inventory come rolling into Worgl.

However, they never got the order from General Lynch

to head towards Castle Itter

and provide backup and support for Jack Lee and his men.

But Lynch is contacted and orders three tanks,

including the Bosch Buster,

that will carry on to Itter as a relief force.

It's nearly 1:00 p.m by the time they leave Worgl.

Although the mishmash defenders

are fighting with all their might,

they have significantly less manpower

than the Nazis firing at Castle Itter.

- It's a game of survival, isn't it, at the end?

The SS, what's interesting is that they don't run off

to preserve themselves,

and they keep shooting kind of myopically at the castle,

tryna steam down and end it for the captives.

It's almost the case of, well,

if I'm gonna go down, you can too.

- [Narrator] Bullets and weapons being used

by the SS troops begin to take their toll

on the castle's walls.

Lee takes some of the troops to the courtyard to reposition,

and some of the VIPs follow.

Reynaud inadvertently puts himself in the line of fire.

- Gangl meets his demise.

And so Lee is left all by himself with Wehrmacht soldiers,

who now have no commander,

because Gangl could speak English along with German.

Lee cannot speak German.

And so now he has to command German troops

and he can't communicate with them.

- [Narrator] With no time to fret

over the loss of Major Gangl,

Captain Jack Lee's American soldiers

and Wehrmacht men continue to defend the castle.

Lee wasn't able to provide proper instructions to Kramers

and the incoming relief force before the line went dead.

They need to send someone out

to guide the American relief to the castle

as soon as possible.

Jean Borotra volunteers for the task.

- He is a very good runner,

and runs right past the German machine gun.

And literally the Germans stop firing,

'cause they don't know what is going on

when this person's running past them.

It shocks them.

And he is just as shocked as he's running past

and they're not firing at him.

- [Narrator] After alluding the SS troops,

he breaks out into a run towards Worgl,

five kilometers away.

Borotra finds troops from the 142nd Second Battalion.

Since he knows the exact position

of the Waffen-SS outside the castle,

Borotra suggests that he lead the American infantry men

towards the castle on the most direct route to Itter

- At this time, it's almost every man for themselves.

And if someone is capable of pulling the trigger on someone,

give them a weapon.

- [Narrator] The Waffen-SS forces prepare

to unload another weapon onto Castle Itter, the panzerfaust.

As one of the SS men settles into position

to fire at the castle's front gate, he pauses.

An overwhelming sound of automatic weapons and tank guns

behind the SS troops grows louder and louder.

- All these reinforcement are coming in.

Lee thinks he's cut off and possibly surrounded.

And then all of a sudden,

these reinforcement starts coming in

to the Castle Itter site or around the woods,

sometimes behind the SS lines,

and they have to try to get out of there

as quickly as possible.

- [Narrator] The Waffen-SS make a mad dash to the woods,

but are rounded up to become POWs.

- Everyone is starting to funnel in towards Castle Itter,

because messages from people, who are either on bicycle

or running through the woods have finally gotten out.

And this chaotic situation is now getting

a little bit more settled into an all out engagement

and being able to push away the enemy.

- [Narrator] Within 24 hours,

the American reinforcements have overwhelmed the SS troops,

and the castle is liberated with its occupants.

- The German soldiers who helped defend the castle

and who surrendered, the few that lived through this,

they were not freed, but they were not killed,

nor did they stand trial, they were imprisoned.

But they lived through the war,

which is seemingly what they wanted.

- [Narrator] The VIPs are safe at last.

And for his role in protecting the French VIPs,

Lee is promoted to captain

and awarded the distinguished service cross.

- Lee, who was known for being contrary and gruff

and short with everything, as the relief force arrives,

he greets them with the simple words,

"What took you so long?"

- [Narrator] Major Kramers transports the French VIPs

to Innsbruck with some backup from the relief force.

The French VIPs are safely transported back to France,

including the two former prime ministers,

Daladier and Reynaud,

whose mini alliance in battle was now at an end.

- So, it's really interesting

that these two political rivals,

who were political rivals before the war,

political rivals when France was invaded,

were political rivals in Castle Itter,

were still political rivals even afterwards

and still couldn't say a nice thing about each other,

as far as Castle Itter is concerned.

They still thought to put that in their memoirs

about Castle Itter, that they still didn't agree

and they still could blame each other.

- [Narrator] Over the next 24 hours,

Lynch helps to broker a local cease fire

and the surrender of all German soldiers in Tyrol,

the decisive end of the Waffen-SS grip on the region.

On May 7th,

Germany surrenders unconditionally to the Allies,

with many of their Nazi leaders now gone.

- Hitler's dead.

Goebbels is dead.

Himmler and Göring were captured and commit suicide.

All the top echelon.

- [Narrator] It's a long road ahead to rebuild.

1.5 million German refugees poured into Austria

before the war ends.

- Berlin is reduced to rabble.

Entire German units all across the continent

have just surrendered or run away,

and the long European nightmare comes to an end.

- [Narrator] Foreign aid programs are set up

to help restore the region

from utter chaos inflicted by the Nazis.

- Now, we have to rebuild Europe.

Don't forget that cities had been bombed,

which meant that raw sewage was exposed.

People are homeless all across the continent.

There are hundreds of thousands

of concentration camp prisoners,

who are now living in displaced persons camps,

many of them without food, water,

still wearing the uniforms from the camps.

Carcasses of cows and humans and horses

are strewn across the entire continent.

So, the war ends,

but the toll from the war is gonna take quite some time.

- [Narrator] The battle for Castle Itter

is the strangest battle the world has forgotten.

- We tend to think about what happens in Berlin

more than what happens in Austria,

and I think that is what makes Castle Itter

such a great story.

- [Narrator] American troops, Wehrmacht soldiers,

and captive French notables fighting alongside each other.

- Schloss Itter story,

whether you drill down into the French narrative,

that compromised Vichy regime, who do we blame?

Where do we throw down the moral gauntlet?

I think it's more complicated than that,

and that's what's interesting about Schloss Itter.

- In an Alpine castle that was used as a prison,

you literally have one American tank,

a handful of soldiers from an American unit,

a few French politicians, a famous tennis player,

celebrities, fighting against the Germans.

[Dr. Watson laughs]

That is a strange battle.

[upbeat music]