Fascinating WW2 Facts

[Hebime 1,637]

edited

I tried to be more diplomatic, but yes, the cruelty of some individuals might have caused many PoWs death, jus like on the Axis' side. Sadly war makes some people cruel beasts.

Edited July 8, 2014 by RayPall

[Hadur4 2,108]

Some missing facts:

 

1. Only one country became border on itself after the war. This country lost 2/3 of it's territory, however this country's lands weren't get during WW2 or WW1 and wasn't the promoter of neither wars. This country is Hungary.

 

2. A few years after the Versailles treaty, Germany, USA and UK made a disarmament agreement, where Germany was the first who ordered disarmament in his country. However, the USA and UK didn't follow Germany in disarmament.

 

3. The Versailles treaty was so cruel and demanded so many tribute from Germany that millions perished by hunger. This treaty wasn't a real peace treay, only a provocation for another war.

 

4. Hitler allowed the city of Stalingrad to evacuate the civil people before the battle started. However, the civil people of Budapest, Berlin, Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not have the chance to evacuate from the coming attacks.

 

And there are still a lot.

[IsaakRiv94 5,260]

Don´t forget Dresden 

[Botan 7,952]

4. Hitler allowed the city of Stalingrad to evacuate the civil people before the battle started. However, the civil people of Budapest, Berlin, Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not have the chance to evacuate from the coming attacks.

 

The same one who encircled Leningrad and decided to get it by starving people inside. Also he ordered many bombing of cities, even without declaration of war.

He bombed cities in for example Holland, Poland, Yugoslavia.

Only country on which he declared war was USA. Never bombed it thought.

 

So Germany didn't bombed a city in that single country on which they declared war. That's interesting fact.

 

Maybe they declared it, because they couldn't make a surprise bombing.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Botan

[torskee 3]

4. Hitler allowed the city of Stalingrad to evacuate the civil people before the battle started. However, the civil people of Budapest, Berlin, Hiroshima and Nagasaki did not have the chance to evacuate from the coming attacks.

 

My grandmother's brother and father were executed on September 1st 1939, they lived 5 km off German border - there is some missing fact about allowing evacuation.

 

My grandfather was injured during Warsaw Uprising, was treated in a Hospital on Ochota (district of Warsaw) - and from there he had to run becouse German army was killing patients and staff of that hospital. Get your facts straight, Germans killed approx. 175 000 civilians during Warsaw Uprising!!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warsaw_Uprising

[Wenin 2,654]

Not just Germans. Hungarians, Romanians, Italians, etc. Such high death rate was because the Soviet Union was not prepaired for such a great number of PoWs, so they couldn't give them enough food, proper medical treatment and such. Most of the PoWs died because of illness or starvation.

According to Glantz in "When Titans clashed", they captured 513'000 hungarians, 54'700 of them died, 201'800 romanians were captured, 40'000 of them died.

That's nowhere of any 80% rate.

(Not saying that the situation wasn't bad, but I can't comprehend that rate).

[Shanzival 210]

But he was told that most of them died and as everyone knows Commies Are Evil, so it must be true!

[Hadur4 2,108]

According to Glantz in "When Titans clashed", they captured 513'000 hungarians, 54'700 of them died, 201'800 romanians were captured, 40'000 of them died.

That's nowhere of any 80% rate.

(Not saying that the situation wasn't bad, but I can't comprehend that rate).

This is the 'winner writes history' titled chapter.

[Hebime 1,637]

According to Glantz in "When Titans clashed", they captured 513'000 hungarians, 54'700 of them died, 201'800 romanians were captured, 40'000 of them died.

That's nowhere of any 80% rate.

(Not saying that the situation wasn't bad, but I can't comprehend that rate).

And what about other nations, like the Poles, Finnish, Norwegians, Japanese, etc. They had many ethnics in their PoW camps. Not to mention the non-military personels, like partisans, spies, civilians, etc.

 

By the way, the source is Benford, Timothy B. 1999. The World War II Quiz and Fact Book. New York, NY: Random House.

[Wenin 2,654]

And what about other nations, like the Poles, Finnish, Norwegians, Japanese, etc. They had many ethnics in their PoW camps. Not to mention the non-military personels, like partisans, spies, civilians, etc.

 

By the way, the source is Benford, Timothy B. 1999. The World War II Quiz and Fact Book. New York, NY: Random House.

The mortality rate averaged about the numbers I gave etc is about 29,5%.

To get a 80% rate, you need to find 9 million additional PoWs and all of them had to die to get anywhere near 80%. And I think that's very unlikely.

Edited July 8, 2014 by Wenin

[Hebime 1,637]

Let's settle down that your source says this, and this source says that.  I only wrote down what I found with a source. Maybe it's a capitalist propaganda, or the author counted those PoWs of WWI and/or the interwar period. Maybe he counted all the prisoners of the gulags, even the political prisoners of Stalin's regime. Or those who didn't even made it to the PoW camps in Russia. Even this source talks about a 60% death rate in Russian PoW camps. I don't know, because I didn't read the book. Let's make a deal, that it might be an urban legend, ok? 

Edited July 9, 2014 by Hebime

[LeuCeaMia 397]

This is the 'winner writes history' titled chapter.

 

And yet because of something called the cold war most of the info the west got of the Eastern Front came from the Germans... as demonstrated by the many of the post by a certain group of people in this forum, a lot of people seem to think the Eastern Front boiled down to this...
 

This distorted layman’s view of the war so prevalent in the West is understandable since most histories of the conflict have been and continue to be based largely on German sources, sources which routinely describe the war as a struggle against a faceless and formless enemy whose chief attributes were the immense size of its army and the limitlessness supply of expendable human resources. Therefore, only truly sensational events stand out from the pale mosaic of four years of combat.

[LichBane 349]

Stay respectful toward each other guys and keep debating using friendly tone  ;)s 
If it's too hard, avoid talking about politics and stuff like that, it's usually that subject that ignite the powder keg

Fly safe

[MyLittleRainbow 40]

LOTS OF STUFF

 

 

2. Approximately 600,000 Jews served in the United States armed forces during WWII. More than 35,000 were killed, wounded, captured, or missing. Approximately 8,000 died in combat. However, only two Jewish soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor in WWII.

 

Fairly sure it's at least three. But yeah, the point stands. 

 

5. Prisoners of war in Russian camps experienced an 85% mortality rate.

 

No. Just no. Maybe one specific camp, maybe one specific group, but not overall. End of discussion.

 

8. The greatest loss of life ever sustained by the U.S. Navy occurred on July 30, 1945. The USS Indianapolis was shot by Japanese submarine I-58. Captain Charles McVay, commanding officer of the cruiser, was the only U.S. Navy officer ever to be court-martialed for losing a ship in war.

 

He was exonerated afterwords.

 

21. During World War II, Russia forced battalions of convicts to run through minefields, search and clear them ahead of the advancing troops.

 

See #5. Maybe one moron, but no.

 

28. During World War II, there was a double agent named Juan Pujol Garcia, who started a spy network consisting of 27 sub-agents of his own, all of them nonexistent. He submitted expense reports for them and had the Nazis giving him money to pay their salaries. He later received the Iron Cross, approved by Hitler himself.

 

Also known as Garbo, he offered his services to the British as a spy, they said no. So he went to Spain and became a double agent on his own. Awesome.

 

 

36. During WW2, there was a secret program used by American forces to disguise plastic explosives as flour. It was such a good disguise that even baked goods could be made with it, which could then be used to blow things up.

 

Umm, I hate to break it to you but flour can be explosive (might technically burn, but you get the idea.) Just contain it in a confined space and light a match. I have seen it done in a demonstration. Could be plastic explosive, but mimicking something explosive seems odd.

 

 

55. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.

 

Considering they only finished 2, they were probably right.

 

 

64. 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.

 

No. The scuttling was successful, as was the British attempt to buy the rights to salvage the hulk. They did find the radar range finder (at least mostly) intact.

 

66. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire-fight. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.

Some were killed by booby traps. But yeah, FF.

 

 

74. Queen Elizabeth II served as a mechanic and driver in World War II.

 

What? I can't find any confirmation of that.  Prince George died while serving in WW2 (plane crash).

 

 

 

[Hebime 1,637]

 

LOTS OF STUFF

 

36. During WW2, there was a secret program used by American forces to disguise plastic explosives as flour. It was such a good disguise that even baked goods could be made with it, which could then be used to blow things up.

 

Umm, I hate to break it to you but flour can be explosive (might technically burn, but you get the idea.) Just contain it in a confined space and light a match. I have seen it done in a demonstration. Could be plastic explosive, but mimicking something explosive seems odd.

 

 

74. Queen Elizabeth II served as a mechanic and driver in World War II.

 

What? I can't find any confirmation of that.  Prince George died while serving in WW2 (plane crash).

 

 

 

 

74.  In February 1945, she joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service, as an honorary Second Subaltern with the service number of 230873. She trained as a driver and mechanic and was promoted to honorary Junior Commander five months later.

 

 

36. I'm a firefighter, you don't need to tell me.  The phenomenon you're talking about is called "dust explosion". And it's not mimicking, it's disguising.

Edited July 10, 2014 by Hebime

[Hebime 1,637]

 

LOTS OF STUFF

 

64. 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.

 

No. The scuttling was successful, as was the British attempt to buy the rights to salvage the hulk. They did find the radar range finder (at least mostly) intact.

A scuttling attempt is considered successful if a ship sank completly. The Graf Spee was only partly sunk and it could be seen for days above the water. So it was a half-job.

[Shanzival 210]

This is the 'winner writes history' titled chapter.

 

Not nearly as true as people think. The amount of ACW revisionism that takes place in the US is simply amazing.

 

vvv American Civil War (See: "War of Northern Aggression", Lost Cause Myth, etc...)

Edited July 10, 2014 by Shanzival

[Botan 7,952]

Not nearly as true as people think. The amount of ACW revisionism that takes place in the US is simply amazing.

 

ACW?

[_Katyusha_ 1,829]

ACW?

American Civil War

[xthetenth 532]

#??: The majority of Polish cavalry charges either broke the German formation charged or achieved a breakthrough.

[Lunatic242 3,073]

Random fact. New Zealand was the first country to go to War in WWII due to how timezones worked!  :good:

[Hadur4 2,108]

Not nearly as true as people think.

 

(...)

It seems I have to have more practice about sarcasm. :)

 

 

some additional facts:

 

- Once a German pilot in an Me 109 escorted home a badly damaged B-17

- The German Aces always thought that fighting with the enemy is a sport. Most of the time they aimed for wing root or engine, not for the pilot. Unfortunately this behaviour fade away with the too many Aces who lost during the war.

- Erich Hartmann started his pilot career - I'm sorry - as a n00b. He did all mistakes what a pilot student mustn't - he disobeyed his superiors, he left his flying groups formation and he crashed his plane. Then he was prohibited from flying. However, he got another chance, he learnt how to behave while flying and became Germany's top scoring Ace.

- Once Erich Hartmann shot down a lonely Soviet plane. The pilot bailed out of the damaged plane and when both pilots were on the ground Erich Hartmann invited the Soviet pilot for a coffee.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Feher_Keresztes

[IllusiveTabby 99]

- Once Erich Hartmann shot down a lonely Soviet plane. The pilot bailed out of the damaged plane and when both pilots were on the ground Erich Hartmann invited the Soviet pilot for a coffee.

Source, and he'll score even more points of respect from me.

[Hadur4 2,108]

Source, and he'll score even more points of respect from me.

Kurt Rieder: Invincible Messerschmitt.

 

Both quote's about Erich Hartmann are from that book.

 

 

http://img.jofogas.hu/images/Kurt_Rieder__A_legyozhetetlen_Messerschmitt_0668131456.jpg

 

Here is a picture about the book. The author is German and the book is translated to Hungarian, but I hope you will find an English translation aswell.

Edited July 11, 2014 by Feher_Keresztes

[Renamed63172 816]

4. The original abbreviation of the National Socialist Party was Nasos. The word “Nazi” derives from a Bavarian word that means “simple minded” and was first used as a term of derision by journalist Konrad Heiden (1901-1966).

 

Ive been fooled all my life...