World War II was filled with unexpected alliances, remarkable acts of courage, unusual inventions, secret operations, and strange moments that rarely make it into standard history books. These 50 facts reveal another surprising side of the conflict.
Secret Aid to Poland
1. Although Japan was allied with Nazi Germany and Italy during World War 2, it secretly backed Poland by helping Poland evacuate a gold reserve from German-occupied territory and by sheltering Polish Jews fleeing the occupation, even after Poland declared war on Japan in 1941.
2. The Death Match was a historic World War 2 football match between the occupying German forces, Falkelf, and a team of Ukrainian locals. It was meant to display German sporting superiority, but the Germans lost 5-3, not realizing that the opposing players were former Dynamo Kiev players.
3. The term ‘Blitzkrieg’ was a term coined by the Western Media to describe German tactics during World War 2, and Hitler himself dismissed it as ‘a completely idiotic word’ (ein ganz blödsinniges Wort).
4. The “Lazy Dog” bomb developed during World War 2 was a 2-inch steel kinetic projectile that was dropped by the thousands from 3,000 feet. It could penetrate up to 9 inches of solid concrete without any explosives.
5. During World War 2, Ford Motor Company produced a B-24 bomber every 63 minutes.
6. During World War 2, American bomber “ye olde pub,” was almost shot down. A German fighter chased it and, once close enough, he saw the dead and wounded crew and the fear on the pilot’s face. He did not attack and instead escorted the plane. Both pilots lived through the war and eventually met in 1990.
7. During World War 2, over 120,000 Japanese Americans were kept in concentration camps across America, most with no reason beyond their race. The US government did not publicly recognize it as a human rights violation until four decades later.
8. Winston Churchill prepared plans for a surprise assault on the then-allied Soviet Union. Called “Operation Unthinkable,” the plan would have rearmed up to 100,000 former Nazi soldiers and started World War 3 almost before World War 2 had ended.
9. To work around the Versailles Treaty restrictions, before World War 2 began, the Germans built their tanks in Stalingrad and aircraft factories near Moscow.
10. UK’s highest-paid entertainer during World War 2, George Formby, went to Normandy after the landings and performed 9 shows for frontline troops who had held out for 56 days without relief. His audiences sat in foxholes. He also crawled through trenches to tell jokes when the enemy was too close for a show.
Churchill Renames Persia
11. Winston Churchill persuaded Iran to change its name to Persia in order to prevent confusion with Iraq during World War 2.
12. “The Momsen Lung” was a device invented during World War 2 to allow escape from submarines that sank below the depth of 100ft. It recycled oxygen in your breath while filtering C02. It was used only once, in 1944, by 9 members of the USS Tang after it torpedoed itself and sank in 180 feet of water.
13. One of the most effective weapons in World War 2 was the proximity fuzed shell. The Allies were so afraid of the enemy obtaining samples that they were first used only over water by the Navy. There was an embargo on their use over land until 1944.
14. During World War 2, an edible explosive was made under the code name “Aunt Jemima.” It was a blend of flour and the powdery explosive HMX. It could pass for flour and was even used in cooking. It was smuggled by the Chinese guerrillas to get around Japanese checkpoints.
15. During World War 2, the British Royal Navy and Royal Marines invaded Iceland to stop Nazi occupation. This operation was codenamed Operation Fork and its only casualty was a suicide.
16. During World War 2, it was common for desensitized US troops to murder German POWs if they were wearing American boots, because that reminded them one of their buddies had been killed.
17. Toward the end of World War 2, while US Army Captain Moffatt Burriss and two others were riding in a Jeep, they unexpectedly came upon a 15,000 strong German Panzer Corps outside of Berlin. He went alone to the enemy commander and deceived him into surrendering his army and being taken captive.
18. In 1942, the Canadian government sold the homes of Japanese-Canadians to cover the cost of their own detention in camps during World War 2. Most were Canadian citizens by birth. Compensation in 1988 amounted to $21,000 to each surviving internee.
19. Northern Ireland’s Parliament building was coated with cow dung and bitumen to conceal it during World War 2. Traces of cow dung still remain on the building today, since it is so difficult to remove.
20. During World War 2, Navajos Code Talkers were not the only ones. Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota, Meskwaki, and Comanche Code Talkers also served.
Unrug Rejects German Speech
21. After Polish Admiral of German descent Józef Unrug was captured during World War 2, his former friends from the Imperial German Navy came to see him. Unrug would not speak German with them, saying he had forgotten that language in September 1939, the day Germany invaded Poland.
22. The Japanese officer who suggested using Kamikaze pilots during World War 2 killed himself after the war out of guilt for sending so many young men to their deaths.
23. When German intelligence found the phrase “Kilroy was here” during World War 2, Hitler thought Kilroy was the name of a top-level Allied spy.
24. The Nazis abandoned so many of their Karabiner 98k rifles at the end of World War 2 that they were used throughout the rest of the 20th century around the world, and some were even used in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
25. The Siege of Leningrad during World War 2 killed more civilians than the bombing of Hamburg, Dresden, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki combined. The Soviet casualties during the siege were greater than the combined American and British casualties during the entire war.
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