Fascinating WW2 Facts

[XYLO 6,077]

 

1. In 1974, a Japanese soldier named Hiroo Onoda (1922- ) came out of the jungle of the Pacific island of Lubang. He had been hiding there for 29 years, unaware that his country had surrendered.

 

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/01/17/onoda-japanese-world-war-ii-soldier-who-waited-until-174-to-surrender-dead-at-1/?intcmp=obnetwork

 

He just passed away this year.

 

TOKYO –  Hiroo Onoda, the last Japanese imperial soldier to emerge from hiding in a jungle in the Philippines and surrender, 29 years after the end of World War II, has died. He was 91.

Onoda died Thursday at a Tokyo hospital after a brief stay there. Chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga on Friday expressed his condolences, praising Onoda for his strong will to live and indomitable spirit.

"After World War II, Mr. Onoda lived in the jungle for many years and when he returned to Japan, I felt that finally, the war was finished. That's how I felt," Suga said.

 

FURTHER READING:

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-soldier-who-wouldnt-quit/

[_Hydr4_ 715]

 

William Hitler, a nephew of Adolf Hitler, was in the U.S. Navy during WWII. He changed his name after the war.

William Stuart-Houston (same guy) received the Purple Heart in WWII for being wounded in action.

[MikaJougasaki 329]

10: One of the first Tiger 1's the western allies encountered they managed to disable when a Churchill's 6 pounder gun fired a round that would ricochet off the Tiger's gun barrel and got lodged in the tank's turret ring. After being repaired by British crews it was shipped back to Britain to be studied. Today it remains as the only working example of a Tiger heavy tank.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_131

 

 

Japan and Russia still haven't signed a peace treaty to end World War II due to the Kuril Islands dispute.

 

U.S. Soldier John R. McKinney held off over 100 Japanese soldiers single handedly in WWII

 

The Mosque of Paris helped Jews escape the Nazis by giving them Muslim IDs during WWII.

 

80% of all Soviet males born in 1923 died in World War II

 

Hitler never visited a single concentration camp

 

William Hitler, a nephew of Adolf Hitler, was in the U.S. Navy during WWII. He changed his name after the war.

 

Hitler bombed his nephew's house in Liverpool, so he joined the US NAVY to fight him.

 

 

WWII Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade survived a fall from 18,000 feet (5,500 m) without a parachute, suffering only a sprained leg

 

During WWII, when Hitler visited Paris, the French cut the lift cables on the Eiffel Tower so that Hitler would have to climb the steps if he wanted to reach the top

 

A cat survived the sinking of three separate ships in World War Two, earning the moniker "Unsinkable Sam."

 

The US made enough Purple Hearts in WWII to supply us with them to this day.

 

The youngest serving soldier during World War 2 was 12!

Edited October 16, 2014 by O_OMinnaO_O

[_Sky__ 607]

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. 

 

 

THIS ...ahhahahahahahhahahh man ..I have laughted so hard... Tnx for the post

[Xelous 43]

An extremely interesting list, I'd like to add a few additions if I may...

 

 

Point 5 - Radar

• In 1935, British engineer Robert Watson-Watt was working on a “death ray” that would destroy enemy aircraft using radio waves. His “death ray” instead evolved into radar—or “radio detection and ranging.”

In actual fact the Air Ministry in Britain were looking for "Death Rays", as they had exhausted all they could think of to "Detect" approaching aircraft, in the 1920's and '30's the mythology of "Bombers" always getting through and winning wars persisted in Britain, as such the Ministry asked for tenders for aircraft detection first, and spend lots of time researching such devices as "Sound Mirrors" - which can still be found today in the southern England as slabs of upright concrete designed to focus wide swathes of sound waves into a listening focal point.

These listening devices failed, and of course light can not travel around the curve of the Earth, so long range, beyond visual range and sound devices exhausted the Ministry decided it was SciFi time and they needed "Death Rays".

 

Watson-Watt entered the office to, as far as the board knew, present his idea for a death ray, and instead he described to them "trip wires in the air", to detect approaching enemy aircraft, he called it "Radio Detection", today we call it "Radar".

 

Recently there was a good fact-based drama to help introduce people to the fuller story http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castles_in_the_Sky_(film)

 

 

 

Point 14 - Actors

 

• Several famous actors were decorated during WWII. For example, Henry Fonda won a Bronze Star in the Pacific, Walter Matthau was awarded six battle stars while serving on a B-17, and David Niven was awarded the U.S. Legion of Merit. Christopher Lee was a pilot in the Royal Air Force and also won a number of awards.

You can't have this without mentioning:

  Brig. General James Maitland Stewart - known to most of us for his role as George Bailey in "Its a wonderful life" amongst so many other notable roles, one can find an interview with Jimmy about his experiences as a Bomber pilot in the "The World At War" series.

 

  Lee Marvin - Perhaps THE best American actor in the role of a US Army soldier from WW2, and he based his acting on real life, being a US Marine with the 4th Division, wounded in the Battle of Saipan.  If you've never seen it look for "The Big Red One", but make sure you watch the "Reconstructed" version.

 

  David Niven was awarded his US award after being a serving British Army officer, and setting up live BBC Broadcasting and entertainment for all the troops of Europe.  

  

Also, Christopher Lee did start out serving in the RAF, but he soon transferred to the Special Operations Ececutive, S.O.E, the forerunner to the current MI5, and he undertook undercover work in occupied Europe, you can find a rather chilling moment in the additional extras from his work on Lord of the Rings, where he explains to director Peter Jackson and other actors just how it feels and what noises a man makes when you stab him in the back... Quite chilling.

 

 

Point 19 - Prisoners

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

I think this one needs clarifying, because as the saying goes anyone can pull out a statistic... Of Russian forces captured by German forces, the Nazi German Government deliberately miss treated and killed prisoners from the Soviet Union, this was part of their genocide and policies seeing the ethno-Russian states peoples as "sub human", this resulted in between 3.3 and 3.5 million (some sources say 4.2 million) deaths of prisoners.  Amounting to approximately 60% of the forces captured.

Conversely, between the duration of the Great Patriotic war and somewhere between 1957 soviet records show just over 380,000 German prisoners died in soviet camps/gaulags.  Whilst the total number of German prisoners (estimated) never exceeded 2,000,000, assuming therefore 2 million, with 380,000 deaths we get 19% mortality (but over a much longer period into the late '50's.

 

60% on one side, 19% on the other... Nowhere near the 85% figure quoted... Where did you get that figure from?

 

Please note, I personally discount some of the work of German historian R. Overmans, I believe his figured biased and attempting to reverse the true horror German camps inflicted on the Soviet people.

 

 

Point 23 - Election Statistics

 

• In the 1928 elections, less than 3% of Germans voted for the Nazi party. In 1938, Hitler was Time magazine’s man of the year.

However, 1928 was not the last election, it was simply the first the NSDAP stood in, in 1930 the party garnered just over 18% of the popular vote coming second.  And in 1932 they gained over 37% of the vote becoming the leading party.

 

Also it should be made clear to American readers this is not a two party system, there were between 7 and 11 parties contesting the electoral ballot, therefore to gain over 1/3 of all the votes as Hitler managed in 1932 was conclusive, he swept to power.

 

Unfortunately by the time of the next election in 1933, Hitler already had plans to outlaw the democratic process, so though their share dropped to around 33% (still a clear 13% a head of their nearest rival) things would soon change in Germany.

 

 

Point 24 - Scandinavian Words

• Because the Norway leader Vidkun Quisling (1887-1945) actively collaborated with Germany after its occupation, his name has entered the Norwegian language as a word for “traitor.”

The word also entered the English language with the same meaning, thanks to the efforts of the British press in highlighting the plight of the Norwegian people, whom British and French forces had fought for.

 

 

Point 25 - Hiroo Onoda

• In 1974, a Japanese soldier named Hiroo Onoda (1922- 2014) came out of the jungle of the Pacific island of Lubang. He had been hiding there for 29 years, unaware that his country had surrendered.

Firstly we can complete Mr Onoda's date of death, he passed away on the 17th Janurary 2014, and the BBC covered his story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25772192

 

As we can read Mr Onoda was made aware of his country's surrender, but dismissed the reports as propaganda, it was only when his former commanding officer was flown to see him and reverse his orders did a surrender occur.

 

Reading his own words it also becomes clear Mr Onoda did not hide so much as wage a guerilla style campaign, the locals referring to him as "Spirit" as he waged his private war.

 

 

Point 35 - S.O.E

• Intrepid was the codename of the British Intelligence network. It was created by Sir William Stephenson, close friend of Ian Flemming.  It went on to become MI5 and MI6, which James Bond works for.

Intrepid was one of the codenames for one of the many operations undertaken by British Intelligence services as part of the over all "Special Operations Executive", is was this S.O.E which became part of Military Intelligence (MI) later, not the operation itself.

 

Much of Operation Intrepid is still classified, however, there are some glimmers as to what they were doing, including using the worlds first Digital Computer (Collossus) at Bletchley and later GCHQ to decode German Tunny traffic, and later perhaps Soviet traffic using the same Lorentz machines captured from the Germans.

 

 

 

 

 

Here's one I didn't note.  It comes as part of a research article I'm working on:

 

German U boats only attacked submerged when they absolutely had to.  Submarine commanders preferred to attack from the surface at night.  The reason was simple.  They could see better than with the periscope, and their speed was enough that they could outrun the enemy.  On the surface they could average 18 to 25 knots, while submerged they were lucky if they could make 8 knots.

 

By comparison, the typical destroyer could make 15 to 20 knots.  However, the small size of the U boat, made it a very hard target to hit with the main guns, and meant escape was usually pretty easy.

 

On the other hand, most destroyers, knowing they weren't likely to actually HIT the submarine with their main guns, would instead ram them.

 

On the note of the U-boats here, if attacking individual or unarmed merchant men, U-Boats also preferred to keep their torpedo's as they were more effective against multiple threats, and so they surfaced to use their deck gun.

 

This was common practice and part of UBoat doctrine passing over from the First World War.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vQ8uWHo4uw

 

 

 

 

 

NEW POINT - GOLD - Nobel Prizes

 

In an attempt to avoid not contributing anything new, hows about this story, the German a Nobel prize winning scientist Max Von Laue sent his Nobel Medal to neutral Denmark for safe keeping.  It was received at the Institute of Niels Bohr, where one enterprising lab technician reached up to the laboratory shelf and dissolved this Gold Nobel Prize into a bottle of Aqua Regia.

 

The gold remained in solution looking nothing more than dirty brown water high on the shelf for the remainder of the war.  Despite German forces raiding the Institute for useful material after they had invaded and again before they retreated.  No-German realised what it was, or how precious this dirty muck was, nor how important it might be for the war effort (electronics et al).

 

After the war the Gold was brought back out of the solution and the Nobel medal re-struck from it.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwnKU89CCdI

 

 

 

 

Personal Note - I do not wish to be seen as picking fault, however, I am a bit of a stickler for detail 

 

 

 

Fly safe 

Edited October 16, 2014 by Xelous

[Evan_85 16]

This thread made me realize (again) how mad I am at my high-school history teachers. They -never- told us that this subjects has -interesting- bits. All they told and asked were dates, names and such boring stuff. I only had to realize that long after the graduation. As a result, I only learned dates, and forgot them right away. Thus my historical knowledge rivals with a handful of dead moths.

 

Guys, if you'll ever teach kids, include some of these. That is all.

[Sodanjumala 589]

This thread made me realize (again) how mad I am at my high-school history teachers. They -never- told us that this subjects has -interesting- bits. All they told and asked were dates, names and such boring stuff. I only had to realize that long after the graduation. As a result, I only learned dates, and forgot them right away. Thus my historical knowledge rivals with a handful of dead moths.

 

Guys, if you'll ever teach kids, include some of these. That is all.

 

Well, I can tell you that I almost got into fight with history teacher when he told how "poles were doing cavalry charge against tanks" or "how France surrendered almost without fight" and other nonsense/propaganda.

 

Funny enough, I did get Scholarship that year on history.

[_Katyusha_ 1,829]

Here's a rather funny set of fascinating facts:

 

During the Second World War, the US Army had more ships than the US Navy.

 

In 1942, American radio DJs were prohibited from airing requests of listeners. It was feared by the War Department that enemy spies might embed secret intelligence messages, hence broadcasting valuable information to be picked up by other agents.

 

Many pilots of the early Spitfires were unfamiliar with the plane’s innovative retractable undercarriage. As a result, many early accidents were due to the pilots forgetting to lower their wheels when landing.

 

Churchill was known to enjoy a siesta, a habit he adopted following his time in Cuba with Spanish forces in 1895.  In later life, far from simply aiding his recuperation, Churchill’s bed often acted as his preferred location to discuss matters of great state importance.

[Xelous 43]

 

Many pilots of the early Spitfires were unfamiliar with the plane’s innovative retractable undercarriage. As a result, many early accidents were due to the pilots forgetting to lower their wheels when landing.

 

 

Many RAF pilots trained only on bi-planes with fixed undercarriage (e.g. the Tiger moth) and existing pilots had their experience in aircraft such as the Gladiator and Bulldog, or Fury, all of which also had fixed under carriage, so pilots were not used to thinking about an undercarriage as we are today.

 

The RAF operating manual/check list also did not contain mention of checking the undercarriage was down until mid-1940, so pilots of all types (Boulton Paul Defiant, Hawker Hurriane & Supermarine Spitfires to name a few) in RAF service were not trained to put their wheels down.

 

However, landing officers at RAF fields were issued with various coloured flares, a single green flare launched instructed pilots to check their undercarriage before landing, and was the most common flare in use, so much so, when fears were raised by people living near RAF stations that aircraft would crash on their houses, the Air Ministry released a poster with a spitfire and a man launching a green flare motif.  The intention to indicate "Green for Go", go for landing.  This relieved the population, but was a total fib, for the green flare meant the pilot had forgot.

 

In addition to this the landing gear lever on the Spitfire was on the opposite side to the throttle, so during complex throttle jockeying on approach pilots had to let go of the throttle to bring the gear down, this problem was rectified quickly with cockpit layout changes, but was a common problem in cramped cockpits of lots of types during the era, without easy push button controls driven electronically, as we have today.

[MadMatt 0]

I don't know where that stuff about the USS Indianapolis came from but:

 

1) The USS Indianapolis had 1196 crew onboard, ~300 survived.  Total losses after math is done ~900.

 

2) The USS Arizona lost 1177 when it exploded during the Pearl Harbor attack.

 

3) 1177>900  The USS Arizona is actually the greater loss of life.

[Sodanjumala 589]

Here is lovely fact.

 

Italian raid in October 1941 to Port Alexandria by 6 six frogmen from Naval Specia Forces of MAS Decimas, left british battleships, HMS Valiant and HMS Elizabeth along with oil tanker and destroyer heavily damaged. One of the original targets, an aircraft carrier left the harbor just before. To cover up the attack, both battleships continued routines in harbor while repair teams worked below decks and in harbor to fix the huge damage, not being used again until well after year later.   

[fufubear 6,705]

I'm not sure if this was mentioned before but I remember reading online about a Russian bomber pilot. When he bailed from his bomber he was going to wait a little to deploy his parachute because german pilots where shooting the escaping bomber crews. The problem was he was at such a high altitude that lack of oxygen knocked him unconscious and he fell such a great distance(I think it was like 15000 feet or so) and hit the ground. He lived.

Found it. http://www.mandatory.com/2012/08/13/10-people-who-survived-ridiculous-falls/3
He fell 22000 feet! Holy shit! Edited August 14, 2015 by fufubear

[Nope 10,634]

I'm not sure if this was mentioned before but I remember reading online about a Russian bomber pilot. When he bailed from his bomber he was going to wait a little to deploy his parachute because german pilots where shooting the escaping bomber crews. The problem was he was at such a high altitude that lack of oxygen knocked him unconscious and he fell such a great distance(I think it was like 15000 feet or so) and hit the ground. He lived.

Found it. http://www.mandatory.com/2012/08/13/10-people-who-survived-ridiculous-falls/3
He fell 22000 feet! Holy ****!

 

YOU SEE IVAN, WHEN FALL OUT OF PLANE LIKE THAT, YOU WILL NEVER BE THE DEAD BECAUSE OF FEAR OF RUINING MOTHERLAND NATURE.

[Menarrosto 2,629]

February 8th, 1945, skies of Croatia.

A German formation of Fiat CR42 (NSGr.7) is attacked by a group of P38 (14th Fighter Group). In that battle, the NSGr.7 lost 4 planes, while the 14th Group 2.

A German pilot, remained unknown, claimed the downing of a P38. It was the last claimed victory of a biplane in history.

February 8th, 1945!

Edited August 24, 2015 by Menarrosto

[Flankhunter 609]

Most awfull thing is that nazis tried to have strong soldier that can take 10 shots on body....they had experiments on slaves...

[ThrustVector 1,291]

One aspect of the war that is often forgotten (at least here in the US and in Japan, not sure about the rest of the world) is the amount of Chinese civilians and POWs killed by the Japanese during the war. For example, up to 300,000 people were killed in Nanjing by the Japanese, that's easily more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Pretty depressing knowing that an army can massacre more civilians in about a month than two atomic bombings. Even more depressing is the fact that a Nazi tried to stop it. 

[Sodanjumala 589]

Mainland Asia is quite often forgotten. It has earned nickname as "Forgotten Front" because of this despite the fact it's scale was quite massive. You could try to compare it to Eastern Front but the fact is it was much, much worse.

 

Despite this, it would take over an take decade before things would settle down in Asia.

[RohmMohc 11,494]

One aspect of the war that is often forgotten (at least here in the US and in Japan, not sure about the rest of the world) is the amount of Chinese civilians and POWs killed by the Japanese during the war. For example, up to 300,000 people were killed in Nanjing by the Japanese, that's easily more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Pretty depressing knowing that an army can massacre more civilians in about a month than two atomic bombings. Even more depressing is the fact that a Nazi tried to stop it. 

John Rabe... nuff said... (btw afaik he was only in the party becasue they, the community there, needed a party member to get funding for a school)

Edited September 4, 2015 by RohmMohc

[_TomokoAnabuki 8,995]

One aspect of the war that is often forgotten (at least here in the US and in Japan, not sure about the rest of the world) is the amount of Chinese civilians and POWs killed by the Japanese during the war. For example, up to 300,000 people were killed in Nanjing by the Japanese, that's easily more than Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. Pretty depressing knowing that an army can massacre more civilians in about a month than two atomic bombings. Even more depressing is the fact that a Nazi tried to stop it. 

 

IIRC, didn't the official Japanese/Chinese figure put it at 155.000, (which is also the International consensus)

the 300.000 was IIRC a number that could not be proven, and is only used in chinese propaganda.

[RohmMohc 11,494]

IIRC, didn't the official Japanese/Chinese figure put it at 155.000, (which is also the International consensus)

the 300.000 was IIRC a number that could not be proven, and is only used in chinese propaganda.

wikipedia gives

50,000–300,000 dead (primary sources)^[1][2]
40,000–300,000 dead (scholarly consensus)^[3]
300,000 dead (Chinese government, scholarly consensus in China)^[4][5][6]

[_TomokoAnabuki 8,995]

wikipedia gives

50,000–300,000 dead (primary sources)^[1][2]
40,000–300,000 dead (scholarly consensus)^[3]
300,000 dead (Chinese government, scholarly consensus in China)^[4][5][6]

 

Got my number mixed up, sorry for that.

 

unrelated. 

 

- France contributed 31% of its prewar GDP to the German warmachine

- Luigi Torelli and the Commandante Alfredo Capellini are one of the few, if only, submarine to have been commissioned by the Kriegsmarine, IJN and Regia Marine over the course of the conflict

- 

[fufubear 6,705]

John Rabe... nuff said... (btw afaik he was only in the party becasue they, the community there, needed a party member to get funding for a school)

A Japanese diplomat did the same thing in Germany. He gave away as many visas as he could to Jews before he left the country.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara

[ColdHeat 2,100]

Your first command and you sink your ship by not flushing the toilet right. Can it get any worse?

Edited September 16, 2015 by ColdHeat

[Temple_of_Syrinx 454]

Your first command and you sink your ship by not flushing the toiklet right. Can it get any worse?

There Was A zero pilot Who was killed By a OS2U Kingfisher. 

[_TomokoAnabuki 8,995]

There Was A zero pilot Who was killed By a OS2U Kingfisher. 

 

There was a P38 shot down by a CR. 42...

 

the luftwaffe tried to, and failed, to integrate the ANR into the Luftwaffe. Operation Phoenix ended in the Italian surrounding the Germans in milan, arson of several German 109's, 5 heavily wounded Liason officers, and on Valleto, in a brief fiefight between Italian aircraft personnel and German troops send to pacify them.

Edited September 15, 2015 by _TomokoAnabuki