Little known facts of WWII

[Snuff 10]

1. The first German serviceman killed in World War II was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest-ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the U.S. Army Air Corps - so much for allies. If you include Pearl Harbor, Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd was the highest ranking American killed. He was killed on board the U.S.S. Arizona when the Japanese launched their surprise attack on December 7, 1941.

 

2. The youngest U.S. serviceman was 12-year-old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).

 

3. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top U.S. Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry Division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika." All three names were soon changed for PR purposes.

 

4. More U.S. servicemen died in the U.S. Army Air Corps than in the Marine Corps. While completing the required 25 missions your chance of being killed was 71 percent.

 

5. Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.

 

6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so at long range if your tracers were hitting the target 80 percent of your rounds were missing. Worse yet, tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.

 

7. When the allied armies reached the Rhine River in Germany, 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. George Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).

 

8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City, but it wasn't worth the effort (?).

 

9. The German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

 

10. 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 then forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and further forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the U.S. Army.

 

11. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. Twenty-one troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese soldiers on the island.

[wiffleball 4,797]

Interesting stuff.

 

Didja know that Glenn Miller (famous band leader) was bombed out of the sky by Allied planes? His plane was a much lower altitude crossing the English Channel than the bombers who were returning from an aborted mission. Procedure was to drop your bombs in the ocean before attempting to land. They did - and likely bombed an unsuspecting military flight headed the other direction.

[Snuff 10]

Interesting stuff.

 

Didja know that Glenn Miller (famous band leader) was bombed out of the sky by Allied planes? His plane was a much lower altitude crossing the English Channel than the bombers who were returning from an aborted mission. Procedure was to drop your bombs in the ocean before attempting to land. They did - and likely bombed an unsuspecting military flight headed the other direction.

 

I did not know that.

 

Also, the Koreans must have really sucked at fighting. (see #10)

[GettnHuge 2]

Heh I just got done watching 'Weird Weapons of WWII' on the history channel.

 

Didya know that the Japanese were developing a death ray?

With the invention of radar, the brits and usa of course used it as a warning system.

The Japs didn't see the benefits of that and instead put their efforts into using that technology to create a death ray.

It was unsuccessful so they shelved the whole idea.

Not long after, some Brits invented a much stronger version which were microwaves.

With that technology, the Japs had a decision to make, re-open the death ray program, or put their efforts behind a

nuclear bomb program. Obviously they made the wrong decision again.

 

as for the microwave death ray, they actually built and tested it and over a short range was very successful. Records

show that they last tested it on "monkeys". The expert on the subject said that at the time, when experiments were

done on humans the Japs would always write "monkeys" into their records. Yeowch! Is it hot in here or is it just me?

[BiPolarBear 497]

I took a tour of an aircraft museum close to D.C. There was a model of a Japanese submarine with an aircraft hanger on the deck. It housed a huge bi-plane. The sub would surface and the bi-plane would be assembled and take off from the deck. It was a bomer...

 

...what were they going to bomb? Time Square at midnight on New Yeas eve to start the way with us. They opped for Pearl Harbor instead.

[scottk 0]

Did you know that the Japanese actually killed more people than the Nazis (~10,000,000 more).

 

They also practiced (in various outposts) cannibalism of allied troops, especially shot down American pilots. The cannibalism had nothing to do with foodstocks. It was a ritual..........

[wiffleball 4,797]

...And that we killed far more people in the Dresden bombings than we did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined?

[scottk 0]

The Jap sub with the plane was actually used in the only airplane bombing of the continental US!

 

 

Yikes

[wiffleball 4,797]

The incident which triggered World War II was the fake, simulated attack by the Germans on their own radio station near Gleiwitz on the Polish border. To make it appear that the attacking force consisted of Poles, SS officer Alfred Naujocks secured some condemned German criminals from a nearby concentration (protective custody) camp and dressed them in Polish uniforms before being shot and their bodies placed in strategic positions around the radio station. A Polish-speaking German then did a broadcast from the station to make it appear that Poland had attacked first.

 

- Never knew that. I guess this was a precursor to the USS Pueblo strategery...

[Snuff 10]

I took a tour of an aircraft museum close to D.C. There was a model of a Japanese submarine with an aircraft hanger on the deck. It housed a huge bi-plane. The sub would surface and the bi-plane would be assembled and take off from the deck. It was a bomer...

 

...what were they going to bomb? Time Square at midnight on New Yeas eve to start the way with us. They opped for Pearl Harbor instead.

 

This was on the History Channel. It was a program called "Goofy ass Jap weapons of WWII". Well, that wasn't the name of it, but the jist was the same.

[FranksTanks 0]

11. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. Twenty-one troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese soldiers on the island.

 

This one seemed interesting so I wiki_ed it? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiska

 

On August 17, 1943, an invasion force consisting of 34,426 Allied troops, including 5,300 Canadians, 95 ships (including three battleships and a heavy cruiser), and 168 aircraft landed on Kiska, only to find the island completely abandoned. The Japanese, aware of the loss of Attu and the impending arrival of the larger Allied force, had successfully removed their troops on July 28 under the cover of severe fog, without the Allies noticing. That night, however, the Imperial Japanese Navy warships, thinking they were engaged by Americans, shelled and attempted to torpedo the island of Little Kiska and the Japanese soldiers waiting to embark.[citation needed]

 

Allied casualties during the August invasion nevertheless numbered close to 200, all from friendly fire, booby traps set out by the Japanese to inflict damage on the invading allied forces, or disease. There were seventeen Americans and four Canadians killed from either friendly fire or booby traps, fifty more were wounded as a result of friendly fire or booby traps, and an additional 130 men came down with trench foot. The destroyer USS Abner Read hit a mine, resulting in 87 casualties.[citation needed]

 

Sounds like it would actually be a cool place to visit today.

Today

The island is considered a National Historic Landmark (the highest level of recognition accorded to historic sites in the US, and is protected). Around the harbor, is one of the best preserved historical scenes anywhere. The slow erosion processes on the tundra have had little effect on the bomb craters still visible on the hills surrounding the harbor.

[Snuff 10]

More facts:

 

A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)

 

The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (they also sometimes cleared minefields by marching over them). “It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army”. Joseph Stalin

 

The US Army had more ships that the US Navy.

 

The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions, and 11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations. The German Army had paratroops who WERE capable of airborne operations.

 

When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.

 

The Graf Spee never sank, The scuttling attempt failed and the ship was bought by the British. On board was Germany’s newest radar system.

 

One of Japan’s methods of destroying tanks was to bury a very large artillery shell with only the nose exposed. When a tank came near the enough a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. “Lack of weapons is no excuse for defeat.” – Lt. Gen. Mataguchi

 

The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for US artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing. Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. It is unknown where they put them since the MISS ME only had two seats.

 

Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.

 

The only nation that Germany declared war was on was the USA.

 

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!

 

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. Perhaps some German drank the heavy water…

[NorthernVike 2,100]

...And that we killed far more people in the Dresden bombings than we did at Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined?

 

 

 

And this is why there was no insurgency. HTH

[Snuff 10]

A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)

 

Had I been an airman during WWII, this is how I would have died. No doubt.

[TylerRoseFan 16]

This is one of the best threads in a VERY long time. Well played, gentlemen.

[Giants Fan 85]

While more people died on 9/11 ... than Pearl Harbor ... some people say 70 million .... yeah 70 million died ... WW2.

 

Lotta dudes.

[Giants Fan 85]

Low end ... 50 million ... WW2.

 

3k ... sept. 11th.

 

High end ... still under 10k.

[Giants Fan 85]

FIFTY MILLION! ......

 

for reaL

 

Imagine that.

[BiPolarBear 497]

I read The Citizen Soldier. Two things I remember from the book:

 

Some U.S. infantry units suffered 300% casualty rates when invading Germany. They would just keep replacing the dead with new recruits.

 

The Germans used Jewish prisoners to make artillery shells. The prisoners figured out how to make shells that would pass inspection but would not explode. Troops would crawl out of their fox holes in the morning to find artillery shells stuck in the ground all around them.

[lambert58 73]

Rudolf Hess, the collaborator on Mein Kamp in 1923, was Hitler's right hand man. After his strange flight into Scotland he was imprisoned at Spandau Prison. (For many years he was the only prisoner). All of this is well known, however; what is not well known is that his son Wolf-Rudiger refused military service in 1959. Hess cited his father's case for imprisonment for his failure to serve. He noted that one of the charges brought against his father cited " my father was arrsested because he signed into law a measure that enacted compulsary military service".

 

Wolf-Rudiger Hess questioned how his Father could be in prison for forcing people to serve and yet he was being threatened with imprisonment for refusing to serve. Irony. In 1963 the courts ruled in favor of the younger Hess.

 

 

The younger Hess remained devoted to his Father even though he first visited him in prison in 1969. Hess was imprisoned in 1941. The younger Hess also remained loyal to the Nazi party.

 

 

 

Gudron Himmler, daughter of Heinrich Himmler the architect of the holocost" remained loyal to the cause her entire life. She was a leader in an orginazation called "Stille Hilfe" that provided assistence to the Nazi loyalist including a lady who was known as the "mare of Majdanek" who would use her high healed riding boots to stomp on the heads of women and children in the concentration camp.

 

 

Many of the children of the Nazi leaders lived in and around Munich after the war. Several of them got together on a regular basis for weddings, funerals, or just to meet as old friends did.

 

 

All of these stories are related in the book "My Father's Keeper". Interesting book on what happened to the children of the leaders of the Nazi party.