Strange Alliances
Unexpected friendships, defections, and unlikely cooperation during the war
4 facts in this category
What was the Battle of Castle Itter and why was it unique in WW2?
The only battle where American and German Wehrmacht soldiers fought side-by-side against SS troops — defending an Austrian castle holding French VIP prisoners on May 5, 1945
Wehrmacht Captain Josef Gangl allied with US Captain John Lee to defend the castle containing French tennis star Jean Borotra, former Prime Ministers Daladier and Reynaud, and General Weygand. Gangl was killed in the battle and is honored in Austria as a resistance hero today.
What secret negotiations allowed the earliest German surrender of WW2?
Operation Sunrise — secret talks between SS General Karl Wolff and OSS agent Allen Dulles arranged the surrender of all German forces in Italy on May 2, 1945, days before the overall German surrender
Stalin was furious when he discovered the secret negotiations, believing the West was making a separate peace. The negotiations through Swiss intermediaries did produce the first mass German surrender, though it inflamed Allied tensions.
What was the peculiar military relationship between Finland and Germany in WW2?
Finland fought alongside Germany against the Soviet Union in the Continuation War (1941-1944) with full operational cooperation, while officially claiming to be fighting a separate parallel war and maintaining diplomatic relations with Britain and the US
Finland navigated a bizarre diplomatic tightrope: cooperating with Germany militarily against their common Soviet enemy while reassuring Western Allies they had no ideological alignment with Nazism. Finland ultimately signed a separate peace with the USSR in 1944.
Who was Subhas Chandra Bose and what unlikely alliance did he forge?
An Indian nationalist leader who allied first with Nazi Germany then Imperial Japan to form the Indian National Army from British-Indian POWs, fighting alongside Japanese forces in Burma to free India from British rule
Bose is revered in India as a freedom fighter despite allying with the Axis. He organized POWs into the INA whose motto was Give me blood, I will give you freedom. His plane allegedly crashed in Taiwan in 1945, though mystery surrounds his death.