World War II Battles

Itter Castle was one of the last battles of World War II. This battle is unique. The German government leased the castle from a man named Franz Gruner. Later they seized it. The Germans then turned it into a concentration camp and put it under the administration of the Dachau centration camp. In it were high-value French prisoners. A letter was smuggled out by a worker in the castle and brought to the American forces. An armored division was sent to take the castle. The commander of the German troops died under suspicious circumstances and the guards left. A group of Wehrmacht soldiers in a nearby town had joined the resistance and were commanded by Major Josef Gangl. The major was protecting the town and its citizens from reprisals by the SS. American forces heading toward the castle were joined by the German soldiers. This was the only battle of World War II where Americans and Germans fought on the same side. The SS attacked the force as the battle raged, reinforcements were sent by the Americans who then defeated the SS. The battle took place five days after the death of Adolph Hitler.

The only land battle fought on US soil in World War II took place on the Aleutian Islands. These islands were part of Alaska which were owned by the United States. The battle lasted from June 1942 to August 1943. The Japanese had established garrisons on two of the islands. The Japanese invasion of the two islands were a terrible blow to the Americans, and it was thought the Japanese did this to divert attention from their attack on Midway. One island which was named Attu only had a population of 40 and they were all taken prisoner. After the US military reclaimed Attu, they eventually headed to Kiska, the second island. The United States expected to find far more Japanese soldiers there than were on Attu. A force of 35,000 soldiers landed on the island. To their surprise after searching the island, they discovered the entire Japanese force had been evacuated several weeks earlier.

During World War II the British conducted Operation Fork. This was the invasion of Iceland. You might wonder why the British did this? The answer is the Germans had conquered Denmark. Denmark and Iceland both had the same monarch and were in a Personal Union. A Personal Union is where two or more countries have the same monarch while their boundaries, laws and interests remain distinct. The British had failed in trying to convince Iceland to join the allies. A force of 746 Royal Marines invaded and were met with no resistance. They immediately moved to disable communications, and arrested German citizens.

Unfortunately, there are times when people die during wartime by mistake. I think most of us have heard the term Friendly Fire. This indicates a military which has fired on the wrong target and that target was composed of their own troops, other friendly troops, or innocent civilians. One of the very worst friendly fire incidents of World War II occurred when US planes bombed a bridge at Allerona, Italy. This destroyed the bridge and the train of 40 to 50 cars. No one realized at the time the occupants of the train were allied prisoners of war. There was over 1000 prisoners being transported. The estimates of the dead usually fall somewhere between 500 and 600. Can you imagine how people who planned this attack and those who dropped the bombs must have felt when they heard what had happened?

Sometimes you have to wonder how a friendly fire event could’ve happened. Take for example one of the first of these events in World War II. During the Battle of Barking three spitfires, which were advanced British fighter planes at the time, saw two other planes coming their way and believed them to be enemy targets. The spitfires opened fire on the planes and shot them down only to find out they had shot down two British hurricane fighters. To make matters even worse, one of the spitfires was shot down by British antiaircraft fire when it was returning to base. Since the war had just started, I can only imagine there was a severe lack of training and aircraft identification involved. A little later another bizarre event occurred which involve friendly fire. A British submarine named HMS Triton had discovered another submarine in its area. It sent out challenges but they were never answered. The Triton assumed the other submarine must have been an enemy boat and fired upon it, sinking it. It turned out the other submarine was the HMS Oxley. The entire crew of the Oxley except for two sailors died.

There are many different battles of World War II, one of the most heroic was the battle of Britain. The Germans had made a huge mistake believing they could destroy the British Air Force to make an invasion of the island much easier for them. The British Air Force had 600 fighter planes but the German Air Force had 4,201. What the Germans hadn’t counted on was British radar. Even though the British fighters were completely outnumbered, they were able to send Air Force to the exact area each time the Germans attacked, because their radar installations would spot them before they got to the coast. Another error the Germans made was one of common sense. They never attacked the factories building the planes with any type of force, instead they bombed cities. Had they done this the British Air Force would have been decimated. While you will see different estimates of plane strength for both sides, the important thing for the British were the amount of fighter planes. There are also all different estimates for the number of planes lost on both sides, and I’ll give you one I found even though I think the estimate for German planes lost is low. It is claimed 1700 German planes were lost while 1017 British fighter planes were lost. It also states another 220 planes of other types went down. In case you are how the British could lose that many fighters, it is because the planes kept getting replaced with new ones from the factories.                     .