Stephen Harding - The Last Battle

arrests French political figures, 35–36, 39–40, 44

de la Rocque’s role, 57, 58–59

orders CGT dissolved, 38

VIP prisoners. See Honor prisoners

Von Bock, Fedor, 10, 20

Von Hengl, Georg Ritter

battle groups, 72–73, 87–90, 104, 111

defends passes into Austria, 72–73, 86, 87–88

withdraws to east of Schloss Itter, 89–90

and Lynch broker surrender of Tyrol, 164–165

Von Kliest, Ewald, 81

Von Reichenau, Walter, 19

Waffen-SS troops

search out resisters in Wörgl, 91

flee advancing Allies, 94

shoot anyone showing white or Austrian flags, 102, 109, 111

fired on by Lee’s rescue force, 125

attack Kramers’s column, 141–142

all-out attack on Schloss Itter, 144, 146–152, 159–160

Wagner, Richard, 8

Waltl, Hans, 145, 151

War correspondents, 121, 143, 156–157, 161–163

War crimes, 18–21, 95

“We Liberated Who’s Who” article (Levin), Saturday Evening Post , 172

Wegscheider (Gangl’s lieutenant)

assists Dietrich in Wörgl, 110–111

sent to Schloss Itter with Linsen, Waltl, 145–146

defends Schloss Itter, 149, 151

Wehrmacht

Austrian-born officers, enlisted soldiers, 10–11, 74–75

forced to withdraw by Red Army, Allies, 67–68, 83

become resisters, 87–88, 102, 121–122

surrender to Allies at Wörgl, 122

led by Gangl, defend Schloss Itter, 129–130, 137–138

Gangl dies, two troops wounded, 150, 157

Weiter, Wilhelm Eduard, 95–96, 103

Werfer-Brigade 7, 84–86

Western Front, 79

Weygand, Marie-Renée-Joséphine (de Forsanz), 54, 55, 168

Weygand, Maxime

background, 44, 53–55

as conservative chief of army, 28, 33–34

arrives at Schloss Itter, 55

antagonistic toward Gamelin, 54

hated by Reynaud, Daladier, 62–63

after liberation, put on trial for collaboration, 164

postwar life and death, 168

Wimmer, Sebastian “Wastl”

background, 17–19

as commandant of Schloss Itter, 22–23, 40–42, 92–96

drunken violence toward number prisoners, 92–94

war crimes in Poland, Majdanek, Dachau, 18–21, 95

flees Schloss Itter, 96

postwar life and death, 169–170

Wimmer, Thérèse, 21, 22, 169–170

Winter, August, 71–72

Witchcraft in the Tyrol, 6

Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s field headquarters, 98

Wörgl

as von Hengl’s headquarters, 72

Mountain Warfare Noncommissioned Officer School, 15, 70

key resistance cell, 10, 74–77, 86–90

Krobot finds Gangl’s resistance group, 109

surrendered by Gangl to Lee, 122

Lee’s rescue force leaves for Schloss Itter, 124–125

Kramers and 753rd tanks arrive, 152–154

Workers’ Force, 166

World War I

armistice, 26

Borotra’s service, 46

Clemenceau’s service, 56

Daladier’s service, 26, 27

de la Rocque’s service, 57

Gamelin’s service, 32–34

as tragedy for France, 33

Weygand’s service, 54

Worsham, Alfred

in Lee’s rescue group, 125

under attack from Waffen-SS, 147–148

defends Schloss Itter, 130, 132, 136

aftermath of battle, 164

postwar death, 171

Woves, Bedrich, 38

Würthle, Friedrich, 75

Ybarnegaray, Jean, 47

“Zwei Jahren auf Schloss Itter” manuscript (Čučković), 169

Copyright © 2013 by Stephen Harding

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Designed by Pauline Brown

Maps by Steve Walkowiak

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harding, Stephen, 1952–

The last battle: when U.S. and German soldiers joined forces in the waning hours of World War II in Europe / Stephen Harding.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-30682-209-4 (e-book)

1. World War, 1939–1945—Campaigns—Austria—Tyrol. 2. World War, 1939–1945—Prisoners and prisons, German. 3. Prisoners of war—Austria—Itter—History—20th century. 4. Prisoners of war—France—History—20th century. 5. Daladier, Edouard, 1884–1970—Captivity, 1940–1945. 6. Reynaud, Paul, 1878–1966—Captivity, 1940–1945. I. Title.

D765.45.T9H37 2013

940.54'213642—dc23

2012044706

First Da Capo Press edition 2013

Published by Da Capo Press

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Some sources date the earliest parts of the castle to 902. Most of the information regarding Schloss Itter’s early history is drawn from “Die Geschichte von Itter,” a pamphlet produced by Austria’s Hohe-Salve Regional Tourist Board, and Castle Hotels of Europe , by Robert P. Long.

Reigned 893–930.

A palatinate was a territory administered on behalf of a king or emperor by a count. In the Holy Roman Empire, a count palatinate was known in German as a pfalzgraf .

Initially a collection of small huts and workshops used by the craftsmen who built the castle, the village of Itter evolved into a community built around the staffing and maintenance of the fortress. In return for their labor, the villagers were offered protection within the schloss in times of civil strife.

Led by social and political reformer Michael Gaismayr, the revolt sought to replace the church-dominated feudal system with a republic. While successful in several military engagements against reactionary forces, Gaismayr and his followers were defeated at Radstadt in July 1526. Gaismayr fled to Venice and ultimately Padua, where on April 15, 1532, he was assassinated by Austrian agents.

See Augusta Léon-Jouhaux, Prison pour hommes d’Etat , 23. As noted later in this volume, she was labor leader León Jouhaux’s secretary, companion, and future wife and was imprisoned with him at Itter from 1943 to 1945.

Until his coronation in 1806 the king had been styled Maximilian IV Josef, prince-elector of Bavaria.

Menter apparently purchased the castle using funds she’d earned on the concert circuit, though a brief article in the Nov. 25, 1885, edition of the New York Times (“Mme. Menter’s Good Fortune”) indicated that the purchase was largely financed by 400,000 rubles left to her in the will of an elderly Russian admirer.

Ibid.

Liszt, La Mara, and Bache, From Rome to the End , 377.

Menter returned to Germany after the castle’s sale and lived near Munich for the remainder of her life. She died on Feb. 23, 1918.