American soldiers fought alongside soldiers from the German Wehrmacht to defend a medieval Austrian castle against an attacking force of the Waffen-SS during the final chaotic days of World War II in May 1945.

A closer look

American soldiers fought alongside soldiers from the German Wehrmacht to defend a medieval Austrian castle against an attacking force of the Waffen-SS during the final chaotic days of World War II in May 1945. The castle was serving as a prison for high-profile French VIPs, including former prime ministers and generals, who actually took up arms themselves and fought next to an anti-Nazi German major named Josef Gangl and an American tank commander named John Lee. This surreal battle remains the only time in the entire conflict where Americans and Germans fought on the same side, creating a scenario so absurdly cinematic that if you pitched it as a Hollywood movie script, producers would reject it for being completely unrealistic and historically implausible