I got all these strange and crazy facts about World War II from a thread on the Paradox Hearts Of Iron 2 website. Hope you might find some of them interesting:
* During World War II the allied nations spent more money supplying their troops with cigarettes than bullets.
* On one mission of the 354th Fighter Squadron, a P-47 pilot shot up a Mustang pilot, mistaking him for a Me-109. The P-51 pilot made it back to base, but was pissed, to say the least. His words were, "I wanna meet that P-47 jockey at 20,000 feet and have it out," or something to that effect.
* Prior to World War II, Churchill was almost run over in New York City by a cab... I wonder what it would have been like without him.
* In World War I, the British and Germans played football against each other on Christmas Day 1914. Unlike the outcome of the war, the Germans won, but I forgot the score.
* The 1940 Summer Olympics were supposed to be organized in Tokyo, but taken away from the Japanese to condemn their aggressive behaviour in China. The IOC then moved the Games to Helsinki, but then cancelled them all together in 1939 at the outbreak of major hostilities. The only nation to come play in Finland in 1940 was the Soviet Union in a rather long match of Biathlon.
* In 1943, the German Luftwaffe Symphony Orchestra was putting on a concert in an auditorium in Kharkov, in Southern Russia... when a Russian Armored break-through threatened the city, and forced them to abandon the musical performance right in the middle, quickly load their instruments onto the bus, and drive hastily away.
The night's program?
Schubert's Unfinished Symphony.
(not kidding)* In 1940, to show the Germans weren't the only ones capable of bombing other countries' cities, the French decided to mount a BIG bombardment of Berlin.
There was only one plane involved in the entire operation, a postal plane with 2 tons of bombs on board, which flew along the northern German coast, went to Berlin by night, desynchronized its engines to make the FLAK believe there were many planes over Berlin (the FLAK shot several thousands of rounds against the lone courier plane) and dropped its bombs before it went away, and managed to land in France unscathed after a 20-hour flight
The British weren't the first to bomb Berlin !
* Did you know that Germany sold more war material to China then they did any other country?
* When Norway was occupied the Germans ordered all Noweigan cargoships and oiltankers to go to the nearest German controlled port. Needles to say none obeyed that order. During the reminder of the war the Norweigan tanker fleet, wich was the modernest fleet in the world prior to 1939, formed the bulk of the allied tanker fleet shiping oil from the states to England.
* During the Nazi regime 6 million jews were killed by them, in the same time period 8 million men were killed under Stalin.
* During the German invasion of Denmark a total of 16 Danish soldiers were killed.
* During the German invasion of Yugoslavia, the 24th Panzer Division (in the center of the advance to Belgrade) lost only one man killed.
Compare that to the situation a year or so later, after the Yugoslav Partisans got into action...
* Hitler was almost shot in World War I, but the British soldier who was taking aim spared his life...
http://www.worldwar1.com/heritage/hitler2.htm
* Most civilian casualties during Pearl Harbour attack were the result of AA rounds falling back to earth.
* Suicide rate in Great Britain goes down 15% a year after war is declared. 1941, it was down 30%. By 1942 to 45 it was down to two thirds the pre war rate. After the war, the percentages went back to pre war percentages. Same pattern observed for divorces.
* Japanese tried a "secret weapon" against USA. Balloons filled with flammable gases spred from the Japan all over the Pacific to the American west coast to start forest fires there. A few succeeded.
* During World War II the German Governor-General of Belgium was Alexander von Falkenhausen, during World War I this position was held by his uncle Ludwig von Falkenhausen.
* During the war less than 30% of units of the the Red army had field kitchens, but more than 70% had field distilleries.
What makes soldiers fight?
* In May 1942 a US Submarine sank a Japanese transport that carried most of the engineers that were needed to get the SRA oilfields back into working order. This was a serious setback to Japanese economy and the oil production didn't get to full gear until late 1943, when the American submarine campaign meant that most of the oil didn't reach the Home islands anymore.
* Proably the most successful torpedo attack ever was carried out by Japanese submarine I-19 on 15th September 1942 south of Guadalcanal.
The I-19 fires six type-95 torpedoes at CV Wasp and two or three hit and in the end, sink her. The other three torpedoes continue on however, and after another few miles hit the brand new BB North Carolina, putting her out of action for several months and DD O'Brien, putting her out of comission also. DD O'Brien was so damaged that she broke into two and sank a month later while under tow to west coast.
* During the Japanese invasion of Malaysia a Japanese general invented jungle warfare blitzkrieg, since the jungle was to dense for any kind of vehicle movement he gave all his troops bicycles and advanced at the double speed of the fleeing British by the smaller side roads.
* At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika." All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
* Nuclear physicist Niels Bohr was rescued in the nick of time from German occupied Denmark. While Danish resistance fighters provided covering fire he ran out the back door of his home stopping momentarily to grab a beer bottle full of precious "Heavy Water". He finally reached England still clutching the bottle. Which contained beer. A German must have drunk the Heavy Water.
* During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, British officers objected to Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officer's mess. No enlisted men allowed you know.
* The only nation that Germany declared war on was USA.
* A malfunctioning toilet sank German submarine U-120.
* Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for The German Army until the US Army captured them.
* The US Army had more ships than the US Navy.
* A number of air crewman died from farting (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an unpressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%).
* When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
* Not that American bombers were helpless but a B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5 tons of machine gun ammo, the US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.
* The Finnish AA almost opened fire at Hitler's plane when he flew to Lappeenranta (a city in Eastern Finland) to visit the Finnish Marshal Mannerheim on his 75th birthday. During the same visit, Hitler's plane almost crashed to a chimney because of poor visibility.
* Before the atomic bomb, the main American plan for attacking Japan was to attach incenditary bombs to bats and release them across the countryside. The bats then roost in Japanese farmhouses and when they turn upside down they explode and start fires in the very flamible houses. It was predicted to cause horrific fires across the country.
* On 9th April 1940, when the Germans were attacking Norway, the goverment and royal family escaped to Hamar. The same day German troops were on their way to capture them because in all the Norwegian papers it said where their destination location was. As they now were planning to travel further north in the country or to Sweden, the prime minister Nygaardsvold was left behind. When he got outside, all the cars were driving away. Luckily, a cab-driver was driving by and picked him up when he recognised who it was. A very pissed off prime minister eventually caught up with the others.
* Supposedly six Japanease kamikazis were supposed to crash into the USS Missouri during surrender ceremonies. The planes took off but no one knows what became of them.
* Right before the Normandy invasion the French resistance sent two pigeons to England with the information that a field infantry division, a veteran of the Eastern Front, had moved into the defences of Omaha beach, replacing a coastal defence unit. A German soldier killed both pigeons with a shotgun as they flew over the beach towards the Channel; the Allies never found out. The German division caused enormous casualties at D-Day.
* Before the battle of Midway the Japanese carrier taskforce launched searchplanes all around in search of enemy ships. However, 1 plane had engine trouble and no replacement plane were launched in that direction. Guess where the US carrier taskforce were...
* As a Captain of Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Division, Harry S. Truman ordered the last shots of World War I by firing 164 rounds just before 11a.m. on Novenber 11th, 1918 just east of Verdun.
As President of the United States, Harry S. Truman also called the last shot of World War II with the bombing of Nagasaki just after 11a.m. on August 9th, 1945.
* The most effective sniper in the war was Simo Häyhä. He took out over 500 enemy soldiers in less than 90 days in the Winter war.
* When the Germans discovered the 15,000 Polish victims of the Katyn massacre they sent forensic experts from various occupied countries to document it. One of these men was a Dane by the name of Dr. Tramsen, who was also a member of the resistance movent (the group named Holger Danske). He had no choice but to go, but while he was in Berlin he picked up something for the resistance movement and smuggle it to Denmark, hidden beneath the head of the Polish officer he had brought back as evidence. He later found out it was the pictures used in the English bombings of the Ruhr and Eider damns.
* During a naval battle in the pacific it was extremely foggy and after a long hard battle a Japanese flier managed to find his carrier and land, happy that he had come down safely in so poor visibility. He was surprised to find out he was on an American carrier.
* My grandfather was a pilot in the pacific during World War II. He was flying from Austrailia to Guam and was forced to land on one of the islands between those two because of bad weather. The island had been liberated from the Japanese a few weeks earlier but there were still pockets of Japanese soldiers hiding in the jungle conducting Guerilla style raids. The American and Austrailian navy had blockaded the island for weeks so the Japanese tropps in the Jungle were starving. My grandfather had landed and went to the mess tent for dinner. As he was sitting there eating, a Japanese soldier walked out of the jungle, set down his rifle, and stood in the mess line. MP's came and stood over at the other end of the table and waited for the Japanese soldier to finish eating before taking him away. Turns out this was a common occurance. Every day 2 or 3 japanese troops walked up to American mess tents and ate before being taken prisoner. Turns out the Americans had dropped leaflets telling the Japanese they would get a hot meal if they surrendered.
* Hitler was named Times Man of the Year in the 1930's, for how well he turned Germany around.
* Hitler was being annoyed by a house fly so he ordered a nearby army officer to kill it. The officer replied, surely it has wings so it is a matter for the Luftwaffe. He was sent to Russia.
I will add some more over the next few days as there are another few pages
Best wishes,
DAVID
