-WORLD WAR II-

STRANGER THAN FICTION



* 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. So much for

allies.



* 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)



* 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.



* 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%.



* 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.



* 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.



* 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.



* 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.



* 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).



* German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it

wasn't worth the effort.



* A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in

an unpressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%).



* The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming

them in mid-air (they also sometimes cleared minefields by marching over

them). "It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army" - Joseph

Stalin



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



* 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 who WERE capable of airborne

operations. Go figure.



* When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment

brought ashore was 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.



* 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.



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



* 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.



* 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." - Lt Gen. Mutaguchi



* Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian troops

stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the firefight. It

would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.



* The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for 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.



* Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.



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



* 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.



* 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

RETURN