WW2 Facts

Site Issues 2005 Archive Room
#1

Post any weird facts you may know about WWII. Ill start off with some.

  • the believed most successful ambush ever in history resulted in the deaths of 700 or so Japanese soldiers in Malaya who were riding bicycles. 1 Australian soldier was wounded during the ambush.

  • 55 000 000 deaths in WW2 is suppose to be a conservatice estimate. Believed the death toll could be even as high as the 70 millions.
    Soviets - 20 million
    Chinese - 10 Million
    Allies - 44 Million
    Axis - 11 Million

  • France was the world’s most powerful nation in 1940 when the Germans rolled them in 6 weeks.

  • A German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.

  • Heinrich Himmler, the evil head of the Nazi SS, was once a chicken farmer.

  • The Strategic bombing survey concluded that japan was too weak and would have to surrender before november 1945’ making the dropping of the bombs unneeded

  • The Soviet Red Army once trained dogs to destroy enemy tanks. The dogs were trained to associate the underside of tanks with food and were fitted with a 26lb explosive device strapped to their backs. Once the dogs crawled under the tanks, the device was triggered and exploded destroying the tank (and of course the dog). Unfortunately this didn’t always work as planned as the dogs were trained using Soviet tanks so were more likely to run under these than the German tanks. As many as 25 German tanks were put out of action this way during the battles for Stalingrad and Kursk.

  • Entry found in the diary of a German officer killed at Anzio:
    “American parachutists – devils in baggy pants – are less than 100 meters from my outpost line. I can’t sleep at night; they pop up from nowhere and we never know when or how they will strike next. Seems like the black-hearted devils are everywhere…”

  • 40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2; 30,000 never returned

  • An average of around 25 000 people a day were killed in WW2.

  • The last Japanese soldier surrendered in the 1970s. He spend a few decades murdering Phillippino civilians. He’s now a hero in Japan and says that he doesn’t regret murdering dozens of civilians for decades after the war ended because that’s war. Hiroo Onada

  • in emergency times soldiers used condoms to keep water out of their barrels

  • soldiers would take the garand magazine and throw it against the ground to mimmick the sound of the magazine ejecting after emptying causign the germans/japanese to look out thinking they were reloading - they were wrong

  • WW2 was the first time we saw a soldier w/ the title of Supreme Allied Commander, and it was a American soldier Gen. DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER.

  • When the ground was too frozen in Russia to make foxholes, Hitler wanted them to blast holes using heavy artillery, WW1 style

  • 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 Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps.

  • German anti freeze froze in the USSR.

  • 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).

  • 90 000 German troops surrendered at Stalingrad (The 6th Army). 70 000 died in the next 2 weeks. Only 6 000 ever saw Germany again.

  • The Germans offered to trade Stalin’s son (who was a POW) for Paulus.
    Stalin said he couldn’t trade a Private (his son) for a Field Marshall. His son died in captivity and no one ever heard Stalin mention his son again.

  • On May 30, 1942, Cologne was hit by 1,000 allied bombers. RAF chief bomber gave strict instructions that noone was to bomb the great cathedral in Cologne.
    …It was the only building that remained.

  • the japanese tried to fly unmanned balloons with napalm bombs and set fire to forests in Oregon. A few of them made it, but no major forest fires were started.

  • At the beginning of the war German Uboats were sinking, on average, 8 allied ships a month…each.

  • The Allies lost 2,500 men on “D-Day” however, they expected to lose 10,000.

  • The Japanese planned a biological war on America.

  • More allied soldiers died training for Operation Overlord than on the actual day. During one training operation (Operation Tiger I believe) around 600 US naval and army personnel died when German E-Boats showed up.

  • Australia had 1.08 million from a population of 7.1 million.

  • 25% of the British Royal Air Force were Canadian flyers.

  • Canada participated in WWII from September 1939 until victory in Europe and Japan in 1945

  • The “best” sniper in WW2 only used iron sites. (Simo Hayha)

WWII Snipers With Kill Counts:
Simo Hayha W.W. II Finland 500+
Nikolay Yakovlevich W.W. II Russia 496
Ilyin Vasili Zaitsev W.W. II Russia 400
Matthias Hetzenauer W.W. II Germany 345
Sepp Allerberger W.W. II Germany 257
Billy Sing W.W. I AIF 150
Adelbert Waldron III Vietnam U.S. Army 109
Charles B. Mawhinney Vietnam RVN 103
Neville Methven W.W. I South. Africa 100+
Carlos Hathcock Vietnam U.S.M.C 93
Helmut Wirnsberger W.W. II Germany 64
Joseph T. Ward Vietnam U.S.M.C 63
Philip G. Moran Vietnam 5th SFG(A) MACV-SOG 53
TATANG K E. TIMOR & Indonisia Armed Forces 41
Tom Ferran Vietnam N. SUMATRA U.S.M.C 41
William Lucas Vietnam U.S. Army 38
Riel W.W. I Canada 30
Ron Szpond Vietnam U.S.M.C 12
Gary J. Brown Vietnam U.S. Navy 17
Jeffrey N Tucker Panama U.S.M.C 3

  • If you were a male aged 18 to 21 in 1941 in the USSR you only had a 10% chance of surviving the war.

  • Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII. If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.

  • The term ‘the whole 9 yards’ came from WW2 Fighter pilots in the South Pacific. When arming their airplanes on the ground, the .50 caliber machine gun ammo belts measured exactly 27 feet, before being loaded into the fuselage. If the pilots fired all their ammo at a target, it got ‘the whole nine yards’.

  • Daimler Benz was a military vehicle company. benz was also contracted by the government to use the same iron used for engine blocks to cast some of the people ovens.

  • Hitler hired ferdinand porsche to design a small peaople friendly car known as the volkswagon or “peoples car”, andc this is the same guy who started building Porsche 356’s later which look damn similar to the early beetles. He is now known for the 911turbo

#2

Don’t know were drop this image:

http://victory.rusarchives.ru/catalogue/photo.php?photo_id=267&id=14

:smiley: I like this photo, it’s interrogating infantry general Golvintcer and general-lieutenant Zitger. Interogating by marshal Vasilevskiy.

#3

#4

-Just before D-day Britain underwent a major construction operation, to build a bridge over the canal between England and France. This meant continues ressources to the Allied troops on the beaches fast. Two bridges where built one for the American beach and one for the British beach. The Americans did not spend enought time to set up the bridges and so after a fierce storm only the British bridge had survived. Many people are unaware of these “floating bridges” but with out them we could of lost D-day or lost many many lives.

#5

Ah, the Mulberrys. Artificial ports more than bridges. They didn’t reach from England to France. Allies also scuttled some old ships to help with the artificial harbor at Normandy. History Channel did a thing on the Mulberry once upon a time. I’m sure you could Google “Mulberry” and D-Day or Normandy and come up with more info.

benjamin l clark

#6

I am interested in that , have you any links or resources about it?

#7

Wasn’t that the thing to transport the trucks and whatnot from halfway straight to the beach. However like you said ours fell apart so we gave parts to the British or something. Or am I thinking of somethign different>?

#8

I do not know the exact name of the operation when they had to build these bridges. It was a humangus operation, and these things where being built all over the country.Winston Churchill himself ordered the go ahead, and he even had to persuade the Americans. It was an amazing engineering feat. They actually did build floating bridges accross the channel from England to France, and they also had to build huge floating pieces of concrete to make the artificial port. The reason why they needed to build the whole lot was because it would cost too many lives in securing a port from the Germans. Every thing worked BETTER than planned and proved to be a great success even when the American one broke down. They even named one of towns which they built the bridge to, Port Winston. If you go to France today and visit that town (which has a different name now) you can still see some massive pieces of concrete in the sea.

The British military actually designed these floating bridges, and the key to success was because it was soo flexible it basically went up and down with the sea. If only I could fine the exact name of the operation I could get alot more info.

#9

Yess I think you are right. After the American one broke down, I think they used some of the pieces of concrete to help build up the British one.

#10

During WWII, both Allied and Axis pilots saw what has come to be called “Foo Fighters” in the skies. They were spotted by American, British, German, and Japanese pilots many times. Don’t know if any Russian pilots saw them, just never heard that they did. They were spotted over the Pacific, Atlantic, Mediteranian, and European mainland.

The pilots universally described them as balls of light which sometimes followed their planes for many miles. Some pilots went after them to get a better look but they could never get close enough. They were seen to make astonishingly fast movements and accellerate at untold speeds. One pilot tried maneuvers to ditch one that followed him, but the thing followed the tail of his plane with perfect and effortless accuracy. Some pilots got a closer look, but all it looked like was a bigger ball of light than when it was farther away. Nobody has ever found a reasonable explaination of what these things were.

There were a few instances however, of pilots who saw what appeared to be some type of strange craft with windows and crew members or “beings” as they called them inside the windows. One pilot described the vehicle he saw as absolutely “huge” - as big as a warship.

#11

“The “best” sniper in WW2 only used iron sites. (Simo Hayha)”

He’s got telescopic sights on his rifle in that photo :?:

#12

No, they didn’t. What you’re thinking of are the Mulberry Harbours which included floating bridges out into the harbour to allow ships to unload without beaching.

There were multiple pipelines carrying petrol to France (known as “PLUTO”), but no bridge.

#13

No, they didn’t. What you’re thinking of are the Mulberry Harbours which included floating bridges out into the harbour to allow ships to unload without beaching.

There were multiple pipelines carrying petrol to France (known as “PLUTO”), but no bridge.[/quote]

MMMM, im just not sure about that, I watched this documentary on the History channel and Im pretty sure they built some sort of “floating bridge” But its hard to find information on the net.

#14

That thing (points up*)

"WHALE Installation:

    The floating bridge equipment consisted of a series of 80-foot spans connected end to end and supported at each joint by a steel or concrete bridge float.  Each bridge span was steel decked, with a heavy duty roadway 10 feet in width.  Two types of spans were used, designed for a tank or vehicle loading of 25-ton (Mark I) or 40-ton (Mark II), respectively.  Two Mark I and one Mark II bridges were constructed and connected to six floating pierheads, as shown on Appendix E-1.  The pierhead assemblies were provided with electrically operated spuds on each corner to anchor the pierhead and compensate for the tide variation.

    The 108th Naval Construction Battalion was assigned the task of manning, outfitting, riding under tow and operating the units, and therefore began accepting the WHALE and PHOENIX units from the British Royal Engineers in April.  The 108th Battalion established camps a Selsey Bill, Richborough and the Isle of Wight, and began the assignment and training of crews.  Each unit was outfitted for towing to and operation when installed on a French beachhead."

"THE WHALE

Leading from the Lobnitz pier to shore was a half-mile long floating causeway called the “Whale.” The Whale was made of 80-foot long steel bridge sections that would float on a pontoon, named a “Beetle,” at each end.

Mulberry A had three Whale causeways, two that could sustain a 25-ton load and one that could hold up to 40 tons for tanks and other heavy equipment.

Up to four sections were attached together for the trip across the English Channel. The Army ST tugs were responsible for towing numerous sections of the Whale and putting it together off Omaha Beach.

Right maybe im wron (my bad) I guess they werent built all the way to England to France.

But this:

" Up to four sections were attached together for the trip across the English Channel."

Please correct me if I am wrong…

#15

They were towed across the channel and assembled between the floating harbours and the shore. If it went all the way across the channel it would be a danger to shipping, and speaking as an engineer, the forces involved at the anchor points would be phenominal as the tides pushed up and down the channel.

Google for “mulberry harbour” for chrissakes!

#16

As been pointed out this is all part of Mulberry. Mulberry was a direct result of a recognisance in force, Dieppe. Following Dieppe it was decided that they would not be able to capture a usable harbour. Dieppe was seen by many as a disaster but it provided much information on the practical problems of returning to Europe. From this raid came the requirement for funnies and other obstacle crossing tools. From this information it was decided to build a temporary one.

Mulberry

The caissons were made of concrete and floated cross then sunk. Old ships were also sunk as breakwaters. The bridges were needed to connect the caissons to the beach. This is very well illustrated by pdf27’s picture. It was not until they captured Antwerp that Mulberry could be closed. So every thing that the armies needed from combat stores to replacement tank and crew had to come through Mulberry. Much of the engendering used in Mulberry is now used for RORO ferries.

Another very important element of the resupply chain was PLUTO (pipe line under the ocean search using the full name). This was a pipeline laid from the Isle of Wight to Normandy to supply fuel. Again another massive undertaking.

#17

If you care to look at the illustration/plan I posted above you will find sections marked as “whales” and “phoenix caissons”, not to mention the other components such as Bombardons, Spuds, Gooseberries, Beetles and the like. :roll:

#18

Right, my bad, thnx for clearing that up :slight_smile:

#19

Is it true that China and Japan were at War before WW2, around 1937
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#20

Have Google will travel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Japanese_War_(1937-1945)