Your favorite WWII curiosity?

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motittaja
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Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#1

Post by motittaja » 16 Dec 2012, 20:00

Hello AHF people!

I'm planning a book about strange WWII facts, curiosities, oddities and unusual fates.

The scope will be very wide, things such as Navy Blimp L-8 mystery, Operation Mincemeat, Georgian uprising on Texel, Johann Elser, Krummlauf bent barrel attachment, bat bomb plan, Pacific cargo cults, George H. W. Bush WWII ordeal, booby-trapped bombs of the Blitz, teletanks, the computer assisted defence system of B-29 etc.

In short: everything that is unusual and interesting.

I would appreciate a lot your suggestions about similar curious facts!

fishfingers2
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#2

Post by fishfingers2 » 18 Dec 2012, 11:50

There was a RAF bomber raid on Wilhelmshaven on 4th September 1939, one of the warships that got attacked was the German light cruiser 'Emden'. AA fire damaged or shot down a Bristol Blenheim and it crashed into the ship. Amazingly one of the crew members was Flying Officer H.L Emden (or Pilot officer, can't remember)


motittaja
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#3

Post by motittaja » 18 Dec 2012, 21:00

Pretty good one, never heard of that. I hope he lived to ask "now what are the odds for this...". ;)

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Sewer King
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#4

Post by Sewer King » 19 Dec 2012, 06:49

From squadron history, a reference about one of Hermann Göring's nephews, USAAF Captain Werner Göring, who flew 48 combat missions in ETO.

Reportedly Adolf Hitler's nephew William Patrick Hitler (1911-1987) was wounded as a US Navy medical Corpsman in the Pacific, but no mention of circumstances.

At least they fared better than Stalin's son in German captivity , , ,

====================================

There was an excellent feature article in National Geographic magazine April 1974, about the Southwest Pacific cargo cults as they were then. I think they continued through at least the 1980s, but globalization may have well reduced them with time.

====================================

Probably you've included Project Habbakuk among the various "secret weapon" schemes?


-- Alan

South
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#5

Post by South » 20 Dec 2012, 12:31

Good morning Motittaja,

Welcome to the forum.

I've got something on my list that's interesting........at least, to me.

US Lend-Lease supplies to China included the famous pistol, the M1911 (later: M1911 A1). The consignment sent to China had both English language words stamped on the slide along with Chinese characters.

I saw one on display at the NRA museum in Washington, D.C. (museum since relocated to a suburb Virginia county).

Were Lend Lease US Patrol Torpedo boats delivered to the USSR fitted with instruments in both English and Cryllic letters ?!


Warm regards,

Bob

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Mr.No one
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#6

Post by Mr.No one » 20 Dec 2012, 15:21

Some suggestions:

*Nearly one million women serving in the Red Army http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_wom ... rld_War_II

*PLUTO oil supply under the English Channel(PipeLineUnderTheOcean) http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto

*A man who survived the atomic bombing of both Hiroshima AND Nagasaki(!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi

*German fabrication of "heavy" water http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_ ... r_sabotage

*Maybe some operation of the English Special Operations Executive(SOE)

*The different plots to kill Hitler,also the Allied plan which was dumped http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/educ ... sson17.htm

*What about the insane claims that the holocaust never happened http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial

*Soviet plane carrying "aircraft bombs"-an aircraft which could carry 2(?) fighters beneath it's wings(1930's)

Cheers

Sean
Believe in truth!

fishfingers2
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#7

Post by fishfingers2 » 22 Dec 2012, 12:17

Mr.No one wrote:Some suggestions:

*Nearly one million women serving in the Red Army http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_wom ... rld_War_II

*PLUTO oil supply under the English Channel(PipeLineUnderTheOcean) http://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Pluto

*A man who survived the atomic bombing of both Hiroshima AND Nagasaki(!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsutomu_Yamaguchi

*German fabrication of "heavy" water http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_ ... r_sabotage

*Maybe some operation of the English Special Operations Executive(SOE)

*The different plots to kill Hitler,also the Allied plan which was dumped http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/educ ... sson17.htm

*What about the insane claims that the holocaust never happened http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocaust_denial

*Soviet plane carrying "aircraft bombs"-an aircraft which could carry 2(?) fighters beneath it's wings(1930's)

Cheers

You thought Soviet bombers carrying fighters was weird? They used the same bombers to carry flying tanks, they were light tanks fitted with detacheable wings and were supposed to glide into combat (I think)

Sean

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Mr.No one
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#8

Post by Mr.No one » 22 Dec 2012, 14:00

Ok, even weirder:)

Sean
Believe in truth!

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Helmut0815
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#9

Post by Helmut0815 » 22 Dec 2012, 17:19

The japanese balloon bombs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_balloon

regards


Helmut

Stephan
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#10

Post by Stephan » 29 Dec 2012, 14:01

The story of Soviets bombing Berlin early in Barbarossa. They took about 12 heavy bombers of a couple different types. Trained some, equipped with extras for long distance flying. Off they went most of them, and in fact, the mission quite succesful. Some managed to bomb Berlin, some others bombed other german installations. I think even without losses over Germany.
The heavy losses come back home, several of them got shot down by own AA...

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Mr.No one
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#11

Post by Mr.No one » 29 Dec 2012, 15:09

The Soviets using dogs as an anti-tank weapon...

Sean
Believe in truth!

ChristopherPerrien
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#12

Post by ChristopherPerrien » 29 Dec 2012, 19:17

The voyage of PY-10 Isabel

The cover story as given in Wiki.
In December 1941, as the threat of war with Japan grew ever larger, Isabel was given a secret mission by President Franklin D. Roosevelt to make a reconnaissance of the coast of Japanese-occupied French Indochina. Personally briefed on the plan by Asiatic Fleet commander Admiral Thomas C. Hart, Isabel's commanding officer, Lieutenant John W. Payne Jr., took her to sea on 3 December 1941, with all excess topside weight removed and her motorboat replaced by a pulling whaleboat, heavily fueled and provisioned, carrying additional life rafts, and with all of her codebooks except for one prearranged cipher left ashore. She left Manila under a cover story that she was searching for a PBY Catalina flying boat missing off the Indochinese coast. Payne was under orders to approach the coast under the cover of darkness, showing lights that would mislead observers to think that she was a fishing vessel, and report on Japanese ship movements; if forced to fight, he was to fight back as best he could and try to escape, but, if necessary, to destroy Isabel rather than allow the Japanese to capture her.[2]
Isabel first sighted another ship on 5 December 1941, when she encountered a large, dark-gray ship flying no flag and apparently altering course frequently to try to move out of sighting range. On the morning of 6 December 1941, a Japanese Aichi E13A1 "Jake" reconnaissance floatplane from the seaplane tender Kamikawa Maru circled Isabel at an altitude of 1,000 feet (305 meters) and a range of 2,000 yards (1,830 meters). She was in sight of Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina, later that day when she was ordered to return to Manila. While she was on her return voyage, she received word on 8 December 1941 (which was 7 December 1941 in the United States and at Hawaii), of the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and the beginning of U.S. participation in World War II.

The actual "secret mission" was for the this yacht "equipped with minimum recognition signals"-(Costello-"Days of Infamy") was to sail inside the projected Japanese invasion fleet route bound for Britsh Malaysia, hopefully getting shot at by the Japanese and providing a "causus belli" for the US to declare war on Japan if they only attacked British territory. The attack on PI made this mission a moot issue, as the Isabel by then missed the Japanese invasion force.

superazure
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#13

Post by superazure » 30 Dec 2012, 17:37

Erwin Rommel personally captured a unit. He was in the lead tank of his 7th Panzer "Ghost" Division, at the point of his advancing spearhead. His tanks had far outrun the main body of his division and he was 20 miles behind French lines. Rommel got into an armored car and raced off to bring up his stragling panzers.
At one point he spotted a French soldiers in a field. He stopped the car, stood up and shouted to lay down their arms. French soldiers, dispirited, readily agreed. They were led by Rommel to a nearby town, where they officially surrended. It was the largest group of soldiers captured personally by a general on either side.
(I think it was May 16-17, but i`m not enitrely sure:)

Le_ChiffreA6
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#14

Post by Le_ChiffreA6 » 03 Jan 2013, 04:04

The history of Jack Churchill is one of my favorites: he was a British lieutenant colonel (and Commando) who fought both, the Germans and the Japanese, with arrows and a traditional longbow. o.O

Other might be the history of Jasper Maskelyne, the magician who is credited for hiding the whole port of Alexandria from the Luftwaffe. But I would say that just like the alleged nazi plot to kidnap the Pope (Pius XII), Maskalyne´s list of achievments is un-reliable.

However interesting for this modern mythology of WWII.
Cheers.

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Truncheons
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Re: Your favorite WWII curiosity?

#15

Post by Truncheons » 03 Jan 2013, 14:53

I heard about two South African brothers who both fought in WWII, both as pilots but one in the RAF and one in the Luftwaffe....and they both survived the war.
I imagine they were from a mixed Anglo/German family.
I think i read about this in the biography of Duncan Smith an RAF pilot.

I would love to know which untis they were in and more on the story.

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