$4.46
Details
The Battle of Castle Itter: The History of World War II's Strangest Skirmish
Author: Charles River Editors
Narrator: Jim Johnston
Unabridged: 1 hr 26 min
Format: Digital Audiobook
Publisher: Findaway Voices
Published: 10/27/2021
Synopsis
The battle for Berlin would technically begin on April 16, 1945, and though it ended in a matter of weeks, it produced some of the war’s most climactic events and had profound implications on the immediate future. By the time the fighting mostly came to an end on May 2, Hitler had already committed suicide and the chain of German surrenders in the field outside of Berlin took off like dominoes. Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signed Germany’s unconditional surrender on May 7, and news of the final surrender of the Germans was celebrated as Victory in Europe Day (V-E Day) on May 8, 1945.
One of the most crucial aspects of the final fighting was that while some Germans gave up and others committed suicide, there were others holding out or trying to escape, and that produced one of the war’s most unusual scenes. World War II brought about the creation and breaking of a number of alliances, which meant German and Soviet soldiers coordinated together before bitterly fighting each other after Germany’s invasion of Russia in 1941. Similarly, Italian soldiers began the war fighting the Allies until, in July 1943, Mussolini was deposed and Italian soldiers found themselves fighting with the Allies against the Germans. But neither of those situations truly compares to a skirmish fought in early May 1945, which featured Americans and Germans fighting together for the first and only time. And as if that wasn’t unbelievable enough, they were fighting the Waffen-SS.
At stake was an Austrian castle that had served as a prison for some of the most senior French prisoners of war, including two former Prime Ministers. The SS had been responsible for guarding the castle, but after the guards abandoned it with the war coming to an end, American and German soldiers who had already surrendered defended the prisoners at the site. Nonetheless, in early May, a Waffen-SS unit was detailed to retake the castle.
by Charles River Editors
After the last shots of World War II were fired and the process of rebuilding Germany and Europe began, the Western Allies and the Soviet Union each tried to obtain the services of the Third Reich's leading scientists, especially those involved in ...
Published: 08/17/2019
by War History Journals
The Second World War was the most devastating conflict in human history. From spies and snipers to submarines and air raids. Their stories of bravery and courage have filled thousands of history books.What if you were there?Sink the BismarckYou&rsqu...
Published: 03/17/2020
by Charles River Editors
The internment of Japanese Americans in the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor is second only to slavery in terms of America’s most tragic and regrettable chapters in history. While the forced relocation and internment of Japanese Americans li...
Published: 12/05/2019
by Captivating History
The Second World War was one of the most traumatic events in human history. Across the world, existing conflicts became connected, entangling nations in a vast web of violence. It was fought on land, sea, and air, touching every inhabited continent....
Published: 09/29/2017
by Andreas Hartinger
The veteran tells his grandson about his World War II experiences, without pathos, but with gripping, brutal honesty.SynopsisThe rulers’ mistakes are paid for with the blood of the people. This is shown in history both recent and ancient, time...
Published: 09/27/2020
by Joseph Stromberg; Edited by Wendy McElroy
World War II redrew the map of the world. No longer would Europe be the center of power. As the continent exhausted itself in yet another war, two new nations with conflicting ideologies were rising to prominence: the United States of America and th...
Published: 10/08/2012
by History Nerds
World War 2 began on September 1st, 1939, and from its very first fiery shots, it dictated the tempo of this new and modernized form of warfare. It was a war unlike any other. It was the modern war. It superseded the Great War of the early years of ...
Published: 02/12/2021
by Captivating History
Explore how D-Day started, the aftermath, and the events in between!D-Day, the Allied invasion of German-held Normandy, was one of the most extraordinary achievements not only of the Second World War, but in the whole of military history. Millions o...
Published: 11/15/2017
by Gerhard L. Weinberg
The enormous loss of life and physical destruction caused by the First World War led people to hope that there would never be another such catastrophe. How then did it come to be that there was a Second World War causing twice as much loss of life a...
Published: 07/31/2018