You might enjoy this from history buff Col D. G. Swinford, USMC, Ret.
You have to dig deep for facts like these:
1. The first German serviceman killed in WW II was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940); highest ranking American killed was Lt Gen Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for allies.
2. T he youngest US 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 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. 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% 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 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.
8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City, but they decided it wasn't worth the effort.
9. German submarine U-1206 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 forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans, and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army.
SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST....
11. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 United States and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. 21 troops were killed in the assault. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese on the island.
H/T Shelly
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
WWII Trivia....
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3 comments:
Some of the Kiska casualties were caused by Japanese booby traps.
...very interesting stats. Love the WW2 anecdotes and memorabilia. Just been speaking to a frail WW2 fighter pilot. Please see
http://mickysmuses.blogspot.com/2008/12/off-topic-anecdote.html
France invaded Germany in 1939. It was just a token attack involving a few platoons, and withdrawn before meeting any resistance. The French felt it discharged their treaty obligations to the recently invaded Poles.
The first German submarine sunk in WWII was sunk by itself. It launched a torpedo whose rudder immediately jammed, causing it to turn in a tight circle.
Better yet: The only loss inflicted by the RAF's 100-lb antisubmarine bomb was the bomber that dropped it. The bomb was dropped in a shallow drive and if it hit water, it skipped like a stone. Sooner or later one was bound to hit the plane that dropped it, and indeed this happened.
There is one (1) case of the antisubmaqrine bomb hitting a surfaced German sub, but the sub made it back to port.
The greatest number of US troops ever surrendered was surrendered by MAJ GEN Ed King on Bataan. He was probably the officer in the US Army best prepared for such an awful responsibility: his father was a Confederate veteran who was part of the previous record-setting surrender.
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