World War II Battle When Americans and Germans Fought Together (2013) | Hacker News Reader

World War II Battle When Americans and Germans Fought Together (2013)

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245 pointssmacktoward42 comments

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Battle_for_Castle...

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

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

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.

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.

And how many times must they question why it's not a movie yet? Spielberg? How did you miss THIS one? (And you will be shocked by what happens next...)

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Manners_Street

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

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

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.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jānis_Pīnups

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

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

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

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

"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.

Especially since this article is from May 2013.

Missed that earlier, added it now. Thanks.

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.

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

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.

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

Who would host a porn site on an iPad?

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

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

I'd down-vote you as off topic, but you pulled it off at the last moment. -_-

> SS Grammar Nazi

Worst. Cruise. Ever.

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....

I'm not sure what discussion you mean, but the Winter War was, as the title says, in the winter 39-40. Finland and Germany only started fighting together against Soviets in 41 (Continuation War). There wasn't really anything strange about that de facto alliance; Germany wanted to attack the Soviets, and Finland wanted back the land lost in the Winter War. Naturally they would cooperate.

Yup, it's a brief mention on page 147.

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

UK (and Canada, Australia, etc.) did declare war on Finland, and attacked a Finnish harbour[1]. While USA didn't declare war, I doubt anything would have changed if they did, since Finland was out of their reach anyway.

[1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raid_on_Kirkenes_and_Petsamo

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuation_War#Finland_and_th...

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)

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.

Truth is stranger than fiction. Fiction has to make sense

-- Mark Twain

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

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.

Italian CV-35's ?

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

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

A remote controlled tracked bomb!

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.

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.

05.12.13, do we really need year old news?

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...

please God no Hollywood movie of this episode...

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