

World War II Battle When Americans and Germans Fought Together (2013) - smacktoward
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/05/12/world-war-ii-s-strangest-battle-when-americans-and-germans-fought-together.html

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dredmorbius
[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_for_Castle...](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_for_Castle_Itter&dir=prev&action=history)

First edit:

13:06, 9 July 2013‎ Khanate General (talk | contribs)‎ . . (704 bytes) (+704)‎
. . (←Created page with 'The '''Battle for Castle Itter''' was a battle fought
in the final months of World War II, days after the death of Adolf Hitler. The
23rd Tank Battalion ...')

2008 reference: [http://www.historynet.com/the-battle-for-castle-
itter.htm](http://www.historynet.com/the-battle-for-castle-itter.htm)

Not to take away from the story, but "first time ever" hyperbole is trivially
verified (or invalidated) online.

~~~
freshyill
I think it's even pretty fair to say that if Americans fought there, then this
story has been told _thousands_ of times in VFWs and American Legions over the
past 70 years.

~~~
freehunter
Actually the insistence that this is the only telling of the story and how
often the author says "the only thing more unbelievable is how true it is!"
makes me question the accuracy of the book. I know it's an advertisement
dressed up as a news piece, but it's just very suspicious-sounding.

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desdiv
I think you're confusing the author of the book with the author of this
article. The whole "hasn’t been told before" hyperbole is only found within
the article. The book doesn't make that claim at all.

~~~
freehunter
I understand it is two different authors. The author of the article makes the
claims that make the book sound suspicious. Billy Mays didn't make OxyClean,
but his advertisements didn't make me think highly of the product.

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walshemj
The really strange battle is the battle of Athens in 46.

[http://www.constitution.org/mil/tn/batathen.htm](http://www.constitution.org/mil/tn/batathen.htm)

Returning GI's disgusted at local corruption broke into the national guard
armory and enforced fair elections after a fire fight with the local corrupt
sheriff.

~~~
rodgerd
There are no shortages of strange battles. The city wide brawl in Wellington,
New Zealand, when American troops ended up in fatal brawls with locals over
the refusal to enforce US ideas on segregation, for example.

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femto
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manners_Street](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manners_Street)

An interesting read, but it does appear that no one died in the incident.

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xefer
One of my favorite, end-of-WWII stories is that of Operation Zitronella [1].

Several German troops stationed at a weather station on Spitsbergen weren't
able to formally surrender until they were picked up by Norwegians in
September 1945, four months after the end of hostilities.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Zitronella](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Zitronella)

~~~
a_bonobo
Have you heard of Hiroo Onoda? He was stationed (or "hidden") as a guerrilla
fighter on a small Philippine island, and his superiors told him to keep
fighting until he received further orders. These orders never came so he kept
fighting until 1974!

He dismissed all leaflets, newspapers etc. that were dropped for him as
propaganda, since they showed Americans living with Japanese side by side, and
if Japan had lost, all Japanese would have obviously died fighting. He
published interesting, but not that truthfully ghost-written memoirs (he does
not mention that he killed several islanders).

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroo_Onoda)

~~~
cornewut
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jānis_Pīnups](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jānis_Pīnups)

This guy came out of hiding 50 years after the end of WW2

~~~
Someone
There's also "nazi Kurt", who hid above the arctic circle until 1981:
[http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/06/27/nazi-kurt-
captured-...](http://www.strangehistory.net/2010/06/27/nazi-kurt-captured-in-
arctic-circle-in-1981/).

(Mentioning this for the similarity to operation Zitronella and because
StrangeHistory.net is an interesting site)

~~~
xefer
Yes. This was the only German land operation on the North American continent
during WWII

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toretore
"The most extraordinary things about Stephen Harding's The Last Battle, a
truly incredible tale of World War II, are that it hasn’t been told before in
English"

I'm quite sure I've read this story before, in English.

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anigbrowl
Especially since this article is from May 2013.

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dang
Missed that earlier, added it now. Thanks.

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mcguire
Sounds like an interesting book, so I checked the Amazon page and all of the
two-star reviews follow a similar theme:

" _In the hands of a writer with a flair for the dramatic and the ability to
turn a phrase such as Cornelius Ryan [Wrote The Longest Day and A Bridge Too
Far] [...], W.E.B. Griffin, Tom Clancy, or Donald Burgett [Wrote "first-hand
accounts" and is one of the subjects of Band of Brothers], this book would
have been a compelling read. However, Stephen Harding managed to turn [this]
into a dull trudge of boredom._"

They seem to have difficulty distinguishing fiction (and popular non-fiction)
from history, to be complaining that this is in fact a history book.

~~~
njharman
Longest and bridge are not fiction, I don't think band of brothers is either.

~~~
mcguire
It isn't, really. _Band of Brothers_ is just a weird coincidence.

On the other hand, I don't know if _The Longest Day_ and _A Bridge Too Far_
are extensively footnoted.

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bjelkeman-again
Some redirect/ad on this page sends me to spam/porn sites on an iPad.

~~~
jonsen
Who would host a porn site on an iPad?

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Cuuugi
Noone likes a grammar Nazi. Especially an SS Grammar Nazi.

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freshyill
> SS Grammar Nazi

Worst. Cruise. Ever.

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tcopeland
Another strange alliance - when the Finns fought "with" the Germans against
the Russian. I'm using quotes because they weren't allies, really, but were
against a common enemy at the time. Some discussion of that in "The Winter
War" \- [http://www.amazon.com/Winter-War-The-
Finland-1939-1940/dp/08...](http://www.amazon.com/Winter-War-The-
Finland-1939-1940/dp/0811724336).

~~~
comrh
Also the closest I believe we've come to having two democracies openingly
fighting each other (USA v. Finland)

~~~
chrisdevereux
Depending on how you define 'Democracy', you could count the war of 1812 (USA
vs UK) as two democracies openly fighting. Both had elected legislatures &
executives at the time (although both with a heavily restricted franchise)

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jmnicolas
Wow this really reads like a Hollywood scenario. If I would have watched this
on TV I would have thought it was not realistic at all.

~~~
pilsetnieks
Truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense

\-- Mark Twain

~~~
tomelders
One day, I'll say something that brilliant... And everyone will think I'm
quoting Mark Twain.

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arethuza
I think my _World of Tanks_ addiction has made me compulsively identify all
armoured vehicles when I see them - anyone know what the tiny light tanks are
in the picture at the top of the article?

NB The armoured cars look like Steyr ADGZs.

~~~
ChuckMcM
Italian CV-35's ?

~~~
arethuza
Thanks - so that picture is unlikely to be from the end of the war!

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L3/35](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L3/35)

NB In my hunt through German armoured vehicles of the period I found this
beastie:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_tracked_mine](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goliath_tracked_mine)

A remote controlled tracked bomb!

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gravedave
Meh, going by the quality of films based on real life stories as of late, I
really wouldn't care to see a movie based on this, it would probably butcher
the characters.

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philipri
I think I read about this in Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich
(written ~50 years ago) .... so hardly a first telling of the story.

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vaadu
05.12.13, do we really need year old news?

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eliben
Your comment seems strange in light of the fact that the linked article
discusses a historic event from 70 years ago. "News" is hardly the right
word...

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olivermarks
please God no Hollywood movie of this episode...

