Interesting World War II facts

Discussion in 'Aviation and Military Humor' started by TechGuru, Mar 3, 2004.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. TechGuru Registered User

    Member Since:
    Sep 1, 2003
    Message Count:
    22
    Ratings Received:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    These are some interestingfacts during WWII

    WW II History!

    1. The first German serviceman killed in the war 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
    LtGen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for the
    allies.

    2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He
    was wounded in combat 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 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.

    4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps.
    While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being Killed
    was 71%.

    5. Not that bombers were helpless. 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.

    6. Germany's power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One
    estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had
    instead been dropped on power plants German industry would have
    collapsed.

    7. 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.

    8. 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. The tracers
    had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting
    the target 80% of your rounds were missing.
    Worse yet the 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.

    9. 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).

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

    11. A number of air crewman died of farts.(ascending to 20,000 ft. in an
    unpressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%).

    12. The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in
    mid-air (they also sometimes cleared mine fields by marching over them).
    "It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army" - Joseph Stalin

    13. The US Army had more ships than the US Navy.

    14. 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 that WERE capable of
    airborne operations. Go figure.

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

    16. 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.

    17. A malfunctioning toilet sank German submarine U-120.

    18. The Graf Spee never sank. The scuttling attempt failed and the
    ship was bought as scrap by the British. On board was Germany's newest
    radar system.

    19. 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 enough
    a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. "Lack of weapons is no
    excuse for defeat." - LtGen. Mutaguchi

    20. 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.

    21. The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for the 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. I don't know where they put them since the MISS ME only had 2
    seats.

    22. Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.

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

    24. 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.

    25. 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. I
    suppose some German drank the Heavy Water.
  2. plumberphil Selected PLC-C 186 Ground

    Member Since:
    Apr 11, 2003
    Message Count:
    60
    Ratings Received:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    I had seen a couple of those just floating around but some of that stuff was new to me. It's always good to have "useless" trivia floating around in the brain.

    Stay Motivate,
    Jake
  3. TechGuru Registered User

    Member Since:
    Sep 1, 2003
    Message Count:
    22
    Ratings Received:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    lol yeah I have plenty of useless bits of info(perhaps maybe useful in the future) my friends and family wonder why I look up all this stuff but I just enjoy knowing various things even though it isn't important
    • Contributor

    Flash SEVAL/ECMO

    Member Since:
    Oct 10, 2003
    Message Count:
    4,609
    Ratings Received:
    +1,153 / 1 / -13
    18. The Graf Spee never sank. The scuttling attempt failed and the
    ship was bought as scrap by the British. On board was Germany's newest
    radar system
    .

    Sorry, but this one is wrong. I am not sure if the Brits got a hold of the radar (if it had one, and I don't think it did) but the ship was succesfully scuttled off Montevideo, Uruguay on Dec 17 1939 after the Battle of the River Platte. Here is an article about a salvage operation that is suppose to be underway now.

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2001850277_grafspee04.html

    I am curious about info on a few others, especially the US soldier killed in Finland. Would like to know more.
  4. TechGuru Registered User

    Member Since:
    Sep 1, 2003
    Message Count:
    22
    Ratings Received:
    +0 / 0 / -0
    Sorry I can't verify any of these. I found them somewhere on the internet. Just looking around and some put up these facts. You know how unreliable the internet is.
    • Contributor

    Flash SEVAL/ECMO

    Member Since:
    Oct 10, 2003
    Message Count:
    4,609
    Ratings Received:
    +1,153 / 1 / -13
    Sorry I can't verify any of these. I found them somewhere on the internet. Just looking around and some put up these facts. You know how unreliable the internet is.

    Then I have to point out the obvious, why present them as facts?
  5. 04Hopeful EA3 -> IS3 -> Intel O1(hopefully)

    Member Since:
    May 21, 2003
    Message Count:
    116
    Ratings Received:
    +1 / 0 / -0
    12. The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in
    mid-air (they also sometimes cleared mine fields by marching over them).
    "It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army" - Joseph Stalin

    A little more history on this one. Stalin was a very very ruthless man. It was established at the meeting at Malta (Roosevelt, Churchill & Stalin) that the spoils of Germany would be divided at the end of the war according to how many lives were lost by each on of the allies. It was for this reason that Stalin sent many men (and women I am sure) to fight with only "rakes on horseback" against the Germans. It wasn't so much that they didn't have any better, but rather that Stalin needed/wanted lots of casualties...
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page