Britain Shares War Innovations
26. In 1940, while fighting the Battle of Britain and urgently seeking American backing to win World War 2, Great Britain gave the USA technologies that included radar, sonar, plastic explosives, the jet engine, and the first practical calculations for the atomic bomb.
27. Stanisława Leszczyńska was a Polish midwife imprisoned at Auschwitz during World War 2. She was told to euthanize the newborns she delivered. She refused, did not kill a single child, and delivered more than 3,000 children.
28. David Niven was the only British star in Hollywood to enlist during World War 2. When suspicious American guards asked him during the Battle of the Bulge who had won the 1943 World Series, he replied, “Haven’t the foggiest idea … but I did co-star with Ginger Rogers in ‘Bachelor Mother’!”
29. Tommy Prince, a Native American who served in World War 2, was so quiet because of his pair of moccasins that sometimes, instead of killing Germans, he would steal something from them. At other times, he would slit their throats and make no sound.
30. A pigeon named Gustav carried the first message about the Normandy invasion back to the British mainland during World War 2 because the fleet was under radio silence at the time. He flew 150 miles in 5 hours and 16 minutes. He received the Dickin Medal for bravery. He died after the war when he was accidentally stepped on.
31. In World War II, Luftwaffe pilot Franz Stigler chose not to shoot down a badly damaged B-17. He guided the B-17 toward the English Channel, then saluted the American pilot before heading back home. Roughly 40 years later, the two met again and formed a close friendship that continued until they died.
32. When Russian troops pulled back during a German attack, they generally demolished most buildings that could be used as command posts. Even so, they would sometimes leave a few large structures standing, but only after filling them with time bombs arranged to detonate weeks later, destroying whole German headquarters at once.
33. The idea of gremlins was first formed during World War II, when aircraft mechanical problems were joked about as being caused by tiny monsters.
34. The United States dropped thousands of leaflets over 35 Japanese cities, including Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They warned residents that “some or all of the cities … will be destroyed by American bombs” and told them to “evacuate the cities named and save your lives.”
35. During World War II, American soldier John R. Fox was killed after deliberately directing an artillery strike onto his own position. After he saw German troops overrunning his unit’s location, the strike held the enemy back long enough for other American forces to prepare a counterattack.
Mail Drops Spread Propaganda
36. During World War II, the Allies caused the German postal service to unknowingly deliver anti-Nazi propaganda by dropping sacks of mail near bombed mail trains from the air.
37. In 1945, during World War II, a US Marine named Jack Lucas survived and received the Medal of Honor after pulling two live grenades beneath his body. He later joined the airborne and survived a training jump when both parachutes failed to open.
38. A Korean soldier in World War II was inducted into the Japanese Imperial Army. Later, he was taken prisoner and forced to fight for the Red Army. After that, he was captured again and compelled to fight for the Wehrmacht in Germany. This made him a veteran of three armies.
39. During World War II, President Dwight D. Eisenhower anticipated that people would later try to deny the Holocaust ever occurred, and so he ordered that as many photographs as possible be taken of Nazi crimes to prevent such efforts.
40. The US playing card company Bicycle produced a playing card in World War II that, when soaked, would reveal an escape route for prisoners of war. These cards were Christmas gifts for all prisoners of war in Germany. The Nazis were none the wiser.
41. In World War II, Russian aviator Alexey Maresyev was shot down above Nazi Germany. He crawled for 18 days until he reached Soviet land, after which both of his legs had to be amputated. He later learned to use prosthetic limbs and went back to flying combat sorties.
42. During World War II, Finnish sniper Simo Häyhä, known as “White Death,” killed more than 542 Soviet soldiers in 100 days, using only his rifle’s iron sights and no scope. When asked what he felt when killing an enemy soldier, he answered, “The recoil.”
43. Christopher Lee, the actor who portrayed Saruman in The Lord of the Rings and Count Dooku in the Star Wars prequels, was a relative of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, was the step-cousin of James Bond author Ian Fleming, served as a Flight Lieutenant in the British Royal Air Force during World War II and killed multiple Nazis, climbed Mount Vesuvius three days before it erupted, stumbled over a live bomb and lived, and put out a symphonic death metal album at 88 years old.
44. Singer Tony Bennet is a World War II veteran who came close to death several times and helped liberate a concentration camp. He was later demoted for eating with a Black friend.
45. In 1945, during World War II, nine crew members survived when their warplane went down. Eight were taken prisoner by the Japanese and eaten. One lived because a passing submarine rescued him. That survivor was George H.W. Bush.
Turing’s Tragic Final Chapter
46. Alan Turing, regarded as the father of computer science and artificial intelligence and known for helping crack German World War II ciphers, died by suicide after being compelled to receive hormonal treatment for homosexuality and prevented from continuing his cryptographic work.
47. The Philippines has banana ketchup. During World War II, tomatoes were in short supply, so bananas were used instead to make ketchup. It is made from mashed banana, sugar, vinegar, and spices.
48. During World War II, the Japanese invaded most of Malaysia while traveling on bicycles.
49. Coconut juice, or the water inside, is not only sterile but also has the same electrolyte balance as human blood, which allowed medics in the Pacific Theater during World War II to use it as an emergency substitute for plasma.
50. Berlin still has not regained its pre-World War II population.
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