More World War 2 Facts

12-12-2017

gestapo

• The Graf Spee never sank,    The scuttling attempt failed and the ship was bought 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 on ly the nose exposed. When a tank came near the enough a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. “Lack of weapons is no excuse for defeat.” – Lieutenant. General  Renya Mataguchi 
• Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire-fight. 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. It is unknown where they put them since the MISS ME only had two seats.
• Most members of the Waffen SS  were not German.
• Air attacks caused 1/3 of German Generals’ deaths
• By D-Day, the Germans had 1.5 million railway workers operating 988,000 freight cars and used 29,000 per day
• 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!
• By D-Day , 35% of all German soldiers had been wounded at least once, 11% twice, 6% three times, 2% four times and 2% more than 4 times
• 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. Perhaps some German drank the heavy water…
• Germany lost 136 Generals, which averages out to be 1 dead General every 2 weeks