Battle of Later Castle

Battle of Later Castle

 The Battle of Rutter Castle, fought on May 5, 1945, at the end of World War II, in the village of Rutter, North Tyrol, Austria, by American and French resistance and German soldiers against the SS 17th Grenadier Division Götz von Berlichingen troops.

The course of the battle

On May 3, 1945, Zvonimir Čošković, a member of the Yugoslav Communist resistance from Croatia who was imprisoned there and working as a prison correctional officer, left the prison on the pretext of going on a routine errand to the prison warden, Sebastian Wimmer. Choshkovich carried a letter in English asking for help from the Allies, which he intended to give to the first American he met along the way.

The town of Wurgel, eight kilometers away in the mountains, was occupied by the Germans. Choshkovich instead proceeded along the Inn River to Innsbruck, 64 kilometers away. Arriving on the outskirts of Innsbruck that evening, he encountered an advance party of the 409th Infantry Regiment, 103rd Infantry Regiment, 4th U.S. Army Corps, and told them about the prisoners at the castle. The soldiers could not get permission to carry out the rescue operation on their own, but they promised Choshkovich that they would get a reply from headquarters by the morning of May 4.

At dawn, a heavy rescue party was dispatched to carry out the operation, but it was halted near the middle of the road to Ratel, just after Jena, after coming under heavy shelling, and then called out by the supervising officer because it had encroached on the area of the US 36th Division to the east. Only two reserve jeeps proceeded on the road.

With Choskowicz absent on the one hand and Eduard Weimer's former commanding officer at Dachau, Eduard Weimer, on the other, having died under mysterious circumstances in prison on May 2, Weimer was in fear for his life and left. The German SS Skalgaard soon left the castle, and the prisoners thus took control of it, armed with the weapons that remained inside.

Unaware of Choskovic's efforts, the prison leaders accepted Czech cook Andreas Krobot's offer and cycled to Volger for help at noon on May 4. The Wehrmacht had only recently withdrawn and had been reoccupied by Waffen-SS mobile units. He was also taken to Major Josef Gangl, commander of a remnant group of Wehrmacht soldiers who had disobeyed orders to withdraw and joined the popular resistance and later became its chief.

Gangl sought to maintain his unit's position in the town in order to protect the population from Nazi SS reprisals. Nazi loyalists shot out every window displaying a white or Austrian flag and often executed young men who might be dissidents in the field. Gangl's hope was that the American troops would soon reach Völgel and surrender. Instead, he was forced to approach the Americans with a white flag and ask for help.

At about the same time, a reconnaissance unit consisting of four Sherman tanks of the 23rd Tank Battalion, 12th Armored Corps, led by Captain Lee, arrived in Kufstein, Austria, 13 kilometers to the north. In the square of that town, the group rested while waiting for the 12th Infantry to be eliminated by the 36th Infantry. When asked to rescue the jungle, Lee volunteered to lead the rescue without hesitation and received permission directly from the General Headquarters.

After Gangle personally scouted the fortress, Lee left behind two tanks, but brought five more tanks and infantry support soldiers from the newly arrived 142nd Infantry Corps of the 36th Infantry Division. Along the way, Lee was forced to send back reinforcements because one of the bridges seemed too fragile for the column, and the bridge had to be crossed not once, but twice. Leaving one of his tanks behind for security, he set out in a truck with only 14 American soldiers, his driver Gangl, and six German artillerymen. Six kilometers from the castle, they succeeded in defeating an SS unit that was attempting to block the road.

During this time, the French prisoners of war asked SS officer Kurt Siegfried Schröder, whom they had befriended while recuperating from wounds at Latter, to lead the defense. When Lee arrived at the castle, the prisoners welcomed the troops who had freed them, but were disappointed by their small numbers. Lee placed the soldiers under his command in defensive positions around the castle and placed his tanks at the main entrance.

  Author: deyaa