Little Known Facts About World War 2

I saw the 'Did You Know? list, and thought it would be suitable to the Second World War.

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List added by PzKpfw VI E on 3/31/2006

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Some American armoured units in Europe, equipped with M4 Shermans, suffered casualty rates as high as 300% in their tank force

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Captain Fumio Nakahira was the last soldier to surrender in WW2. He was captured on Mindoro Island in the Philippines in 1980

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Captain Jack Churchill, a highly successful British commando, fought WW2 with nothing more then a bow, arrow, and claymores

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In the last days of Fall Gelb, Churchill proposed that France and Britain should become one nation

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The Waffen SS attempted to create a British Legion made up of volunteer British POWs

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Almost 900 soldiers were killed in the pre-Op exercise for Utah Beach, Operation Tiger; more then 10 fold the numbers that were killed during the actual assault

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The Destroyer USS Reuben James was the first US ship sunk in World War 2, torpedo by a German U-Boat in October of 1941

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The last calvary charge took place in August of 1942, when Italian Lancers charged against Soviet troops around the Don River

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Britain, America and Germany all used helicopters in World War 2

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Every Japanese Marine had to be at least 6 feet tall in order to quality for training

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Estimates for the number of women raped in Eastern Germany in World War 2 after Soviet occupation range as high as 90%. As many as 15000 German women were raped on the Western Front

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Brazil fought in World War 2, and contributed some 20000 soldiers and air men to the fighting through the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB)

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By 1943, the US was producing, on average, 1 ship made per day

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Constantly during Allied meetings, FDR would insult Churchill in order to amuse Stalin

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During Operation Weserübung, the German Heavy Cruiser Blücher was sunk by 40 year old guns from the Norwegian Fortress at Oscarsborg; the guns themselves being German made, Krupp weapons

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During the Battle of Kursk, some German soldiers used amphetamines so heavily that they were able to fight for 3-4 days straight, and when the pills wore off, there are some reports of soldiers dropping dead from exhaustion

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Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade was a RAF tail gunner that survived an 18000 free fail from a Lancaster

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German armour strength peaked in 1945

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German industry reaches its highest levels of efficiency in 1944

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In 1944, the Japanese began the commissioning of I 400 Class Submarines, the largest Non-Nuclear submarines in history. They also had a unique feature; the ability to carry 3 aircraft

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In 1945, the Japanese had more then 12000 aircraft, 2000 suicide ships and 900000 trained soldiers for the counter-operation to an American invasion, Operation Ketsu-Go

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Japanese radar picked up 3 high flying planes on the morning of August 6th, 1945, but due to a lack of fuel, the Japanese Air Force decided to forgo the interception of small formations of large aircraft

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Many US Military personnel wanted to use Nuclear Weapons in the tactical bombing before Operation Downfall went into effect

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Most German U-Boats had a ‘S***-Man’, a crewman aboard primarily to help manage the complicated toilets within the U-Boats themselves (not used for hygiene purposes, but mechanical purposes entirely).

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Originally there was a 5 foot, 8 inch height requirement for the Waffen SS; which happens to be Heinrich Himmler's actual height

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Over 600000 Jeeps were made during World War 2

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The British had planned and made preparations for a Biological attack against any German seabourne invasion of the British Isle

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The first American citizen killed in the conflict volunteered and fought in the Winter War

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The first shots of WW2 were fired from the German ship Schleswig Holstein on Danzig in Poland. The Schleswig Holstein was on a public peace mission in Danzig when it opened fire

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The French made a small, and basically unopposed, attack near Lorraine during the Sitzkrieg

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The Germans built the first stealth aircraft in 1944, with the prototype Horten Ho 229

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The last person executed in the Tower of London was Josef Jakobs, a German spy killed by firing squad in 1941

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The Lippisch P.13a was an experimental ramjet that was powered by coal

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The original target of 'Bock's Car' and 'Fat Man' was Kokura, but cloud cover forced the USAAF to look to the next hightest priority target, Nagasaki

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The same Australian gun fired the first Allied shots in both World Wars, World War 1 in Europe, and World War 2 in the Pacific (albeit 1914 and 1939 respectively), from Point Nepean

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The US Army suffered almost a million cases of battlefield fatigue

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Throughout the war, there were no less then 15 operations or attempts to kill Adolf Hitler

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U-1206 was sunk due to a toilet malfunction

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Little Known Facts About World War 2

Some American armoured units in Europe, equipped with M4 Shermans, suffered casualty rates as high as 300% in their tank force

Captain Fumio Nakahira was the last soldier to surrender in WW2. He was captured on Mindoro Island in the Philippines in 1980

Captain Jack Churchill, a highly successful British commando, fought WW2 with nothing more then a bow, arrow, and claymores

In the last days of Fall Gelb, Churchill proposed that France and Britain should become one nation

The Waffen SS attempted to create a British Legion made up of volunteer British POWs

Almost 900 soldiers were killed in the pre-Op exercise for Utah Beach, Operation Tiger; more then 10 fold the numbers that were killed during the actual assault

The Destroyer USS Reuben James was the first US ship sunk in World War 2, torpedo by a German U-Boat in October of 1941

The last calvary charge took place in August of 1942, when Italian Lancers charged against Soviet troops around the Don River

Britain, America and Germany all used helicopters in World War 2

Every Japanese Marine had to be at least 6 feet tall in order to quality for training

Estimates for the number of women raped in Eastern Germany in World War 2 after Soviet occupation range as high as 90%. As many as 15000 German women were raped on the Western Front

Brazil fought in World War 2, and contributed some 20000 soldiers and air men to the fighting through the Brazilian Expeditionary Force (FEB)

By 1943, the US was producing, on average, 1 ship made per day

Constantly during Allied meetings, FDR would insult Churchill in order to amuse Stalin

During Operation Weserübung, the German Heavy Cruiser Blücher was sunk by 40 year old guns from the Norwegian Fortress at Oscarsborg; the guns themselves being German made, Krupp weapons

During the Battle of Kursk, some German soldiers used amphetamines so heavily that they were able to fight for 3-4 days straight, and when the pills wore off, there are some reports of soldiers dropping dead from exhaustion

Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade was a RAF tail gunner that survived an 18000 free fail from a Lancaster

German armour strength peaked in 1945

German industry reaches its highest levels of efficiency in 1944

In 1944, the Japanese began the commissioning of I 400 Class Submarines, the largest Non-Nuclear submarines in history. They also had a unique feature; the ability to carry 3 aircraft

In 1945, the Japanese had more then 12000 aircraft, 2000 suicide ships and 900000 trained soldiers for the counter-operation to an American invasion, Operation Ketsu-Go

Japanese radar picked up 3 high flying planes on the morning of August 6th, 1945, but due to a lack of fuel, the Japanese Air Force decided to forgo the interception of small formations of large aircraft

Many US Military personnel wanted to use Nuclear Weapons in the tactical bombing before Operation Downfall went into effect

Most German U-Boats had a ‘S***-Man’, a crewman aboard primarily to help manage the complicated toilets within the U-Boats themselves (not used for hygiene purposes, but mechanical purposes entirely).

Originally there was a 5 foot, 8 inch height requirement for the Waffen SS; which happens to be Heinrich Himmler's actual height

Over 600000 Jeeps were made during World War 2

The British had planned and made preparations for a Biological attack against any German seabourne invasion of the British Isle

The first American citizen killed in the conflict volunteered and fought in the Winter War

The first shots of WW2 were fired from the German ship Schleswig Holstein on Danzig in Poland. The Schleswig Holstein was on a public peace mission in Danzig when it opened fire

The French made a small, and basically unopposed, attack near Lorraine during the Sitzkrieg

The Germans built the first stealth aircraft in 1944, with the prototype Horten Ho 229

The last person executed in the Tower of London was Josef Jakobs, a German spy killed by firing squad in 1941

The Lippisch P.13a was an experimental ramjet that was powered by coal

The original target of 'Bock's Car' and 'Fat Man' was Kokura, but cloud cover forced the USAAF to look to the next hightest priority target, Nagasaki

The same Australian gun fired the first Allied shots in both World Wars, World War 1 in Europe, and World War 2 in the Pacific (albeit 1914 and 1939 respectively), from Point Nepean

The US Army suffered almost a million cases of battlefield fatigue

Throughout the war, there were no less then 15 operations or attempts to kill Adolf Hitler

U-1206 was sunk due to a toilet malfunction

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