Thread: Odd WWII facts

Some intresting facts thanks for posting this.

There is one thing that I read in a book of facts that I have not confirmed elsewhere; there was a ship in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Fleet whose sole purpose was to make ice creem?! Anyone else heard of this?

that seems a bit of a stretch - however, the larger US warships (carriers, battleships, maybe cruisers ?) had the necessary equipment and made ice cream to sell to the crew at the gedunk stand, and carriers used to have to "pay" destroyers with ice cream for the return of rescued aviators.

Originally Posted by Dunkel

There is one thing that I read in a book of facts that I have not confirmed elsewhere; there was a ship in the U.S. Navy in the Pacific Fleet whose sole purpose was to make ice creem?! Anyone else heard of this?

Well don't take that at face value.
In 1943, the U.S. Armed Forces became the world’s largest ice cream manufacturer with a specified program of equipment and ingredients supplied by the domestic industry. The project, planned and carried out by the Quartermaster Corps of the U.S Army, in effect created an entire sub-industry, and one big enough to supply the machinery and ingredients for making approximately 80,000,000 gallons of ice cream per year to be consumed by American fighting men the world over.

Here is the interesting part:

While recognizing that Ice Cream was so popular it wasn’t until 1945 the U.S. Navy reconstructed, at a cost of one million dollars, a floating ice cream parlor. This was one of the older concrete barges which had been originally designed and produced as a refrigerated barge, and it was now reto-fitted to produce ten gallons of ice cream per second as the war was winding down.

This data is outside of the Duncan site.

Another thing which some tend to ignore is the Coca-Cola plants which were shipped to and set up in the MTO, ETO, and PTO. While it is true this was a great marketing move by Coke, the fact is that the processing of the local water made it not only "sterile" but palatable when turned into Coke. Many US and other allied servicemen may owe their lives to the fact they could have a "Coke" instead of a beer when they wanted something cool to drink on duty; instead of a boiled beverage.

That was very interesting, thanks!

Thanks, Clint. My father mentioned drinking Coke (as a Canadian serviceman in Britain), and now I assume also in ETO. He remained a drinker of Coca Cola most of his life mostly straight, but on the occasions he did drink other beverages it was also the mix of choice! Perhaps, your explanation may be why - particularly as post WWII he was with NATO occupation forces in the 1950s.

The Japanese use airballons and winds (to move the baloons) over the pacific to america, where the bomb in the baloon would detonate causing havok. ( It didn't work, bombs are still being found today)

Here's a post or two on the Japanese balloon bombs...

Japanese balloons brought death in 1945: World at War

fsbof & brndirt1! Thanks for the response. The time and distance from then to now would allow things to morph and change where rumours could become facts and vis versa. Thanks again.

The military did produce a lot of ice cream. As a missionary's kid in the post-war Philippines we bought cans of USN dry powdered ice cream mix, and froze it in our hand-cranked freezer. We also bought soft drink syrup and carbonated it with ex-USN equipment.

at the Hitler w/ Blue Crayon.

Thanks for reading my Odd Fact page on World War Two. I work real hard on confirming the facts.

Interesting stuff.