This week's story covers an event that has often been described as the strangest battle of World War Two. It's an unbelievably inspiring story of bravery, sacrifice and teamwork that really needs to be made into a movie someday. So buckle up and enjoy the ride. Welcome back, guys. My name is Andy Chang, and this is Hidden Stories.

On the afternoon of May 3rd, 1945, at the end of World War Two, a Croatian prisoner named seven American Kovic walked out through the front gates of Castle Ed, the place where he was being held captive by Nazi escorts. Now, Castle Ed was not your average prison located on top of a hill in the village of Ed, Austria.

It was this big fortress with massive medieval, was surrounded on all sides by steep ravines, as such, because of its great security and strategic location. When the Nazis came across Castle Edward during their invasion of Austria, they quickly decided to seize it and turn it into an escape proof prison for high profile political prisoners. The VIPs, or very important prisoners, as they were called, who could eventually be used as bargaining chips in the war.

Before long, the prison became home to some of the most famous prisoners of war on the planet, including two former French prime ministers, Eduardo Alegria and Paul Renault, two former supreme commanders of the French army, Maxime de Gaulle and Maurice Gilmore, a world famous French tennis players on Maroubra, as well as several other important leaders and politicians. However, there were also ordinary prisoners that counsel Ed as well.

One of them being that Croatian man is Yvonne Amir. All those upon him here had been captured while fighting against the Nazis instead of immediately being executed for his crimes since he was a skilled electrician. He was allowed to live under the condition that he would join the maintenance crew at the newly established Castle Ed Prison. But since his new job often had him working directly with SS Captain Sebastian Vilma, the commander of the prison over Times of London.

We were actually minutes to gain the men's trust. Because of this, he was pretty much the only prisoner at Castle Elder who was ever allowed to leave the prison, which he would do to run errands for Captain Vimal. And on the afternoon of May 3rd, when seven of you walked out through the front gates of castle interference were exactly what he'd been sent off to do.

But although he had already completed countless similar tasks in the past without any sketchy business, which was why Captain Varma trusted him so much that day. Little did the captain knows the phone number had different plans in mind. Now, at the time, World War Two was basically already over. Hitler had shot himself in his bunker just a few days earlier, and the allied powers had already recaptured most of his territory, including the Nazi capital of Berlin, Germany.

As a result, the Third Reich was completely in ruins, and most of the Nazi leaders had begun to realize that this was the beginning of the end for them, and that they would soon all be charged this war criminals and executed just the day before. As a fan of your love castle ed to go to the quote unquote errands captain them a superior officer Lieutenant Colonel Edward the fighter made a surprise visit to the prison before the shock of everyone there taking his own life.

It was clear that Captain Fima and the rest of the SS guards at Castle Ed were extremely spooked out by this incident and were becoming increasingly on edge in afraid for their lives. Upon realizing this, the high status prisoners of war at Castle Ed began to become really worried themselves that these desperate SS guards would try to take them hostage as leverage or worse, kill them to try to cover up their own war crimes.

Such with no other option. These prisoners had gone to the one man who could reach the outside world, the Lord Amir, and asked him for help on his next errand run. They told seven Amir to find the American troops that had to be somewhere nearby and then hand the troops a handwritten letter that they had drafted up to detailed their specific situation and location requesting for assistance.

Although it was an extremely dangerous mission through Nazi occupied territory, since Von Amir was just as eager to be rescued as the rest of the prisoners of war, he agreed to help. After leaving Castle Hitler on his bicycle, he started heading towards the city of Innsbruck, Austria, which was reportedly the closest place nearby that the Americans were at that was still completely overrun by Nazi troops.

Despite having to bike over 40 miles through multiple Nazi roadblocks, as well as numerous units of dangerous Vermont involving SS troops, incredibly supportive. He was able to make it to Innsbruck by that evening, where he soon ran into a group of American soldiers from the U.S. 103rd Infantry Division. When he quickly handed them the note and informed them about the situation, the soldiers told them that although they did not have the authorization to directly move forward with a rescue attempt, they would contact their headquarters and get an answer back to him by the next morning.

Meanwhile, back at Castle Ed Winterbottom, he still had to return from what should have been a fairly short errand run. Captain Weimar finally reached his breaking points, although he had been desperately trying to justify staying at the prison and fulfilling his duty as commander. He had finally come to the realization that the war was now completely lost. American troops could arrive at any given moment, and he was just foolishly waiting there like a sitting duck.

Seeing no other options for himself early the next morning, on May 4th, 1945, Captain Weimar abandoned his post and fled from Castle Ed without telling anyone. When the rest of the SS guards realized in horror that the commander had run off, they immediately lost every sort of confidence that they had left in their cars, and soon all followed suit, leaving the prisoners of war suddenly completely alone inside the castle.

But although these high status prisoners were calling credibly relieved that none of the guards had tried killing them or taking them hostage like they had been worried about. No one really celebrated. There were just way too many diehard Fairmont and Waffen SS troops still roaming around the surrounding areas with nothing to lose anymore. Some of them were bound to come across the castle eventually and discover them inside.

The prison was all suspected that they weren't out of the clear just yet, not by a long shot, and that the worst was still yet to come. And as it turns out, their instincts were right. Now, before I continue with the story, this week's episode is brought to you by Hello for us. So college life can get pretty hectic sometimes.

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Again, that's how the first dot coms 5015 stories and use code 50 get in stories for 50% off plus free shipping try hellofresh America's number one meal kit today. Now let's get back to today's story. After arming themselves with a very few weapons that the SS go to left behind. The prisoners quickly hung up a French flag on the outside of the castle's wall to inform any allied pilots in the air that they were friendly enough to fire at them.

Then, since Vladimir still had to return yet, and the prisoners had no way of knowing whether the Americans had successfully been informed about the situation yet or not, they decided to send out another person to deliver a similar handwritten letter just in case this person, a tech man named Andreas Lubitz, was only the prison's cook. But still, he willingly volunteered for the dangerous mission.

Riding on another bike, Andreas was soon able to make it to the nearby city of Frugal Austria. But while he was there, to his horror, he suddenly stumbled across a group of Waffen SS soldiers shooting down innocent Austrian civilians with simply displayed white surrender flags in the front of their homes. As it turns out, although the city of Erbil and the nearby areas had all recently been liberated, there were still countless groups of fear marked in Waffen SS troops roaming around trying to maintain some semblance of control by mercilessly killing anyone who was seen turning their backs on the Nazis.

Although there was a chance that Andreas could have been spotted by these troops and killed as well, extremely luckily, as he was biking away, he just so happened to run into a member of the local Austrian resistance forces who was able to take Andreas under his wing and take them back to their base. But when Andreas was introduced to their leaders so that he could explain the situation at Castle Ed to him, he was shocked to realize that this leader was in fact not Austrian, but a highly decorated, German fair marked officer.

The man, a 34 year old named Major Joseph Dingle, had apparently served in the Nazi forces for years, earning himself a reputation as an extremely dedicated and skilled leader and receiving numerous promotions and awards in the process. However, after seeing so many of his own men killed and injured, fighting for the Third Reich, Major Gangel began to question what he was even fighting for and soon started to develop strong anti-Nazi sentiments.

Eventually, when it became clear to him that he and his men were entirely disposable to Hitler and the Nazi leaders, he decided to take what remained of his troops and join the Austrian resistance against the Nazis and because of his strong military and leadership experience. Major Gangel was soon placed in charge of all military operations in the verbal area.

Although Major Gingras actions put himself and his family at risk of execution and could also be seen as just betraying his country in his eyes, he was simply fighting for what he thought was right. As such, when Andreas informed him about the situation back at Castle later, about how all the guards had gone off and how the prisoners were now completely unprotected, surrounded by Waffen SS, Major Gongol knew that he had to try and rescue them, since that was a cause worth fighting for.

However, since he also had a responsibility to keep his soldiers alive and to protect the citizens of verbal from any further Nazi attacks, he knew that he couldn't carry out the mission alone. He just didn't have enough troops for that. But after thinking for a while, Major Gangel realized that if he was somehow able to make contact with the American troops nearby and get their help, they would easily be able to save the prisoners at Castle Ed while he and his men could stay behind to protect Fergal with this thought in mind.

Major Gangel immediately set off in his military cart to the nearby town of Crookston, Austria, which had been occupied by American forces when he arrived. Although the Americans were at first extremely skeptical of the German fear mocked officer in front of them, ordering him to get out of his vehicle and thoroughly searching him for weapons when they didn't find any.

They agreed to at least hear out what he had to say. Later, Gangel was then introduced to the commander of the group, a man named Captain Jack. Now, similar to Major Gangel himself, Captain Lee had also received numerous awards and promotions throughout the war so far for his bravery and leadership. And at the time, he was widely regarded as one of the best tank commanders in the US Army.

Known for his fearless and aggressive nature in combat. As it turns out, just a few hours before Major Gangel had arrived to talk with them, Captain Lee and his men had successfully liberated the town of Coupes on Austria from Nazi control, and they had actually played on that being their very last battle since they had heard the news of Hitler dying and Berlin falling.

Everyone knew that the war was going to end at literally any moment now, so there was no longer any point for them to keep on going and potentially die fighting in a war that had already been won. However, when Major Gangel handed the letter that Andre's had brought him over to Captain Lee and explained what was going on a castle eater, the captain's initial reaction was the exact same that major jingles had been.

He wanted to help save those prisoners, even if he wasn't obligated to do so, and even if it meant risking his own life. Although, Captain, these men were slightly less enthusiastic about immediately jumping back into battle again, they eventually agreed as well, that it was the right thing to do. As such, after reading his superior for approval to carry out the mission and receiving it and also conducting a short recon of Castle Inner and the surrounding area captain, they gathered together some troops and then started following Major Gangel back to a city of verbal Austria on the way to Castle Ed.

However, very shortly after they had just set out, disaster suddenly struck. Although Captain Lee had brought five M-4 Sherman tanks as well as three squads of infantrymen with them to carry out the rescue mission. While they were trying to cross an old bridge over the river, the bridge suddenly collapsed from the weight of the tanks, although four of the German tanks were able to successfully make it across the bridge.

One take as well as all three squads of infantrymen, were stuck on the other side as a result, with no other way to reach Fergal except for that one bridge, Captain Lee had no choice but to press on without the majority of his troops. And if that wasn't already bad enough, when he finally arrived to Fogle with his already limited army, the Austrian resistance there insisted that he leave behind some of his takes to help protect the town from the insane fear of marked and perfidious US troops still parading around the area.

By this point, Captain Lee was beyond frustrated. He knew that he simply could not afford to give up any more of his soldiers since he needed as much help as possible to help secure Castle Ed. And he was likely already severely outnumbered by the armies of SS in that area. However, since the Austrians weren't really willing to budge either, an argument soon broke out and time was ticking away fast.

But Roy would have seemed like things were starting to get heated. Major Gangel suddenly stepped in, proposing a solution. Major Angle said that if Captain Lee was willing to leave some of his tanks behind to protect the city of Fergal, then he himself, along with his loyal Vermont troops, would go to Castle Ed, along with them to make up for the lack of support.

After thinking about this for a while, Captain Lee reluctantly agreed. He decided to keep two of his tanks in the city, leaving him with only two tanks and 14 U.S. soldiers for himself, but also Major Gangel and ten of his German men. And although the two groups of soldiers were once enemies, they begin making their way towards Castle Ed together as a single team, making it one of only two times in World War Two history that American and German soldiers have ever worked together on a joint operation.

Along the way to Castle Ed, Captain Lee decided to keep one more tank behind to go to strategic bridge that led to the castle, leaving the group with only a single take left his own, which was called Boston Journey. Soon after that, the group came across a roadblock that was manned by a small squad of Finn SS. But luckily, since it was just a handful of enemy troops, they were easily able to overpower them.

And on the night of May 4th, 1945, they arrived at the Castle Ed front gates when the prisoners of war at Castle Ed heard the news that the Americans were approaching. They finally began to start to celebrate. They were saved. But when Captain Lee walked into the castle with his tiny and underwhelming squad of soldiers, the prisoners excitement soon faded to see the disappointment.

Given just how high profile some of these prisoners were, they'd expected that a much larger force of soldiers would be sent out to rescue them. With the massive squads of Puffin SS still in the area, a single tank and 24 soldiers were basically nothing, if anything, in the prisoner's eyes. Captain Lee had actually just brought more German soldiers to the castle than an actual rescue team after Captain Lee had parked his tank in front of the castle overlooking the main road.

As the first line of defense, he greeted the clearly unhappy looking prisoners and was shocked to see that a German Waffen SS captain was standing with them. Turns out the man who introduced himself as Captain Kurt Siegfried Schröder, was a highly decorated officer with served with the Puffin SS in several campaigns across Europe. However, after suffering severe injuries during a battle, he began to become increasingly skeptical of the Nazi cause.

Just like Major Gangel had such after surrendering to the Allied forces, he had simply returned to his home in Italy, Austria, to be with his family and to keep them safe. However, since he would often visit Castle Ed to chat with his friend who ran the prison, Captain Fhimah. Over time, he became close friends with many of the prisoners themselves as well.

So when two of them had suddenly showed up to his house explaining that all of the guards had run off and asking whether he could come to the prison and help lead them despite the insane risk and not even being able to walk properly without a cane. Captain Schröder had agreed with the addition of Captain Strother to their team.

It was probably the strangest squad of troops ever assembled. An American captain, a very much major, and a Waffen SS captain all on the same side, all working towards the same ports. Shortly after, Captain Lee and Maj Gangel had arrived to Castle Ed. Some of the major angles men suddenly reported seeing enemy forces moving in the surrounding areas around the castle, realizing that they could be attacked at any given moment.

Captain Lee quickly ordered for the prisoners to seek shelter in the cellar from the starts, he had never intended on rescuing the prisoners from the castle himself. That just wasn't realistic with his limited squad of troops. Instead, he had on defending the castle from attacks from the inside until more reinforcements could arrive to the area. Given Castle it, its located on top of a hill and the steep ravines surrounding it.

Despite their small force, it would be no easy feat to overtake them in the high ground that they had. As such, after a dark piece of cloth was tied around the arms of all the Allied German soldiers, to tell them, apart from the Nazis, Captain Lee, Major Dingle and Captain Schröder each took command over a section of the castle's perimeter, setting up Watchmen to keep an eye on the enemy's movements.

By that point, with just how many Waffen SS were scouring the nearby areas, everyone inside Castle Ed knew that an attack was going to come. It was just about what? And just after 4 p.m. on the morning of May 5th, 1945, it came. Captain Lee was sleeping at the time when he was suddenly jolted awake by the sound of heavy gunfire ringing out from around Castle Ed.

When he immediately rushed out of his room to check out the scene, he quickly knew that this was not a full scale attack by the enemy. Instead, there was simply trying to circle the castle's perimeter, probing for any weak spots that they could target and take advantage of. Several Waffen SS soldiers were trying to cut through the barbed wire surrounding Castle, where some more soldiers were trying to make their way up from the rivets.

And German machine guns were pinning down the castle's defenders to cover these troops. However, when the buffet ss although they couldn't actually reach the walls of the castle due to the American and German troops firing at them from inside, they quickly fell back. But when Captain Lee and Maj Gangel looked out into the neighboring woods to inspect the situation, their hearts suddenly sick.

They could see at least a hundred Waffen SS troops setting up heavy ammunition, guns preparing for a much heavier assault. Spotting 220 millimeter anti-aircraft guns as well as an 88 millimeter artillery gun being set up. They became extremely worried. This was a much larger army force than they had been expecting, and it was very likely that they wouldn't be able to hold the castle for much longer.

Although Major Gable desperately tried calling the Austrian Resistance back in verbal for reinforcements, they were only able to send out just three men who quietly snuck past the buff in SS and into the castle with them. Soon after that, the assault began and castle, it was suddenly began being bombarded by enemy fire, as the American and German allied forces frantically rushed around the castle, desperately trying to hold off the incoming onslaught of an SS.

This almost immediately took a horrible turn. Captain. These Tank Boys son Teddy, which had managed to successfully hold off the incoming enemy forces up until this point, was suddenly struck by two anti-tank rounds and completely destroyed. Although the Takes crew was able to escape back into the castle with their lives, the Allied soldiers had now lost a solid chunk of their firepower, and the battle seemed like it was still just beginning.

To make matters even worse, shortly after the buffing SS had destroyed the tank, all of the prisoners of war that had been told by Captain Lee to stay down in the cellars suddenly appeared above growth. Armed with weapons, wanting to help fight as well, however, as the former French prime minister pouring knew, a fairly old man at this point rushed out into the open to engage with the enemy.

Major Gangel immediately yelled down at him, frantically dashing towards them to remove him out of the direct line of fire. But in an instant, before anyone could even react, Mr. Gangel suddenly fell to the ground, bleeding from his head. To the shock of everyone around him. The man who had managed to survive throughout the entirety of World War Two, almost six years of combat had been hit by a sniper's bullet, killing him instantly.

But although the Allied soldiers had lost an important leader and were deeply saddened by his loss, with the Waffen SS rapidly approaching the castle walls and the Barossa fire intensifying by the second, there was simply no time to mourn and everyone had no choice but to keep on fighting. At one point during the battle, Captain Lees suddenly heard one of the castle's telephones begin ringing when he picked up the phone to his incredible relief.

He was informed that American reinforcements had just arrived to verbal and that these reinforcements would soon begin making their way over to Castle Ed. They had apparently received notice from the Von Amir, the first man who had been sent out of the castle with the letter. However, before Captain, they could warn about just how strong the buff and SS forces were, and to bring enough support.

The line suddenly went dead, scared that these reinforcements would show up and then be ambushed outside the castle gates and massacred. He knew that he somehow had to get back into contact with them. But since all the phones and radios were dead, things were just looking beyond dire. However, when the French tennis star who was being held at Castle Elder Zone Putra heard about the situation, he volunteered to leave the castle and inform the incoming American troops about the situation in person.

Although Captain Lee was initially reluctant to let him go, telling him that the chances of a making it out alive were basically none, as always confident that he could make it. Pointing out the fact that he was in peak physical condition and that no one else was better suited for the task than him with no other option, Captain Lee eventually decided to let John go.

After crawling up the castle walls and dropping to the ground, jumping and dashing from the nearby woods. Incredibly, he was able to somehow sneak past several groups of Waffen SS troops who were still firing at the castle and then successfully make it to the incoming squad of reinforcements. To the surprise of the soldiers in the squad, Zaun seemed hardly even out of breath, despite having made such an insane truck when he informed them about the extremely important updates on the situation in the Waffen SS forces.

The commander took note of them and he and his squad began to continue making their way towards Castle Ed with Soren, now leading them back at the castle. The allied forces were on their last legs. The Waffen SS had just about reached the castle. So Captain Lee and Captain Slaughter were frantically ordering all the troops to fall back to one of the fortified towers so that they could make the last stand.

However, just as it seemed like things were hopeless and that this would be the end, the American reinforcements would swarm through through guiding them. Suddenly appeared from behind the Waffen SS, sending the enemy troops scattering to the immense relief of all the soldiers captains and political prisoners inside the castle. They were finally being rescued, and as the last of the Waffen SS disappeared into the woods, Captain Lee walked up to the squad of American troops who were there to save them and sarcastically asked them, What kept you?

Two days after the Battle of Castle Ed, the Nazi chief of staff formally signed official documents of surrender, finally marking the end of World War Two. Incredibly, while many of the castle's defenders had been injured during the brutal Waffen SS siege, there had only been just one allied casualty, Major Ingle himself. But although he had lost his own life, Major Gangel had helped save the lives of numerous others, and he was later declared an Austrian national hero and a st and vergil was named after him.

As for rebuffing SS Captain Schröder because of his actions at Castle Ed, he was later cleared of any wrongdoing during the war and was allowed to walk free with his family. And as for Captain Jack Lee, he was later awarded the Silver Star and the Distinguished Service Cross for his bravery and his leadership. Take care, guys, and I'll see you all next week.