heres a few interesting facts... The British Army issued licorice bars to all its soldiers during the Second World War after they discovered Japanese troops fighting in the jungle used it to quench their thirst. Very bizarre – Among the first “Germans” captured at Normandy in 1944 were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians, then forced to fight for the Russian Army until captured by the Germans and further forced to fight for the German Army until captured by the Allies in Western Europe!! The most costly war in terms of human life was World War II (1939 -1945). The total number of fatalities of all is estimated roughly 73 million people. Poland was the country that suffered most with 6,028,000 of her population of 35,100,000 killed Queen Elizabeth II is the only British Queen to volunteer for active Military service in the Auxiliary Territorial Service in Feb 1945 More than 1,000 aircrew and ground staff lost their lives at RAF St Eval between 1939 and 1959 whilst the station was operational Susan Travers, a British woman in the French Foreign Legion, lead a wartime desert escape in 1942 It was the British who were the first to fully exploit radar as a defence against aircraft attack. This was precipitated by fears that the Germans were developing death rays 70,000 RAF airmen died in the Second World War and 50 per cent of the Bomber Command personnel lost their lives The RAF Mosquito combat aircraft excelled in versatility during the Second World War. But it’s little known that it was made of wood!
heres a few more... <LI class=factlist type=disc>The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937) <LI class=factlist>The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940). <LI class=factlist>80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2 <LI class=factlist>The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. <LI class=factlist>Between 1939 and 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs, An average of about 27,700 tons of bombs each month. <LI class=factlist>12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2 <LI class=factlist>2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed <LI class=factlist>3 or 4 ground men were wounded for each killed <LI class=factlist>6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded <LI class=factlist>Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe <LI class=factlist>There were 433 Medals of Honor awarded during World War 2, 219 of them were given after the receipiant's death <LI class=factlist>From 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 in Europe the Allies had 200,000 dead and 550,000 wounded <LI class=factlist>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). <LI class=factlist>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. <LI class=factlist>Germany lost 110 Division Commanders in combat <LI class=factlist>40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2; 30,000 never returned <LI class=factlist>More US servicemen died in the Air Corps that 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. <LI class=factlist>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. <LI class=factlist>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. <LI class=factlist>It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th found with a tracer round to aid in aiming. That 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. That 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. <LI class=factlist>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). <LI class=factlist>German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort. <LI class=factlist>A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!) <LI class=factlist>Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War 2 to accidents <LI class=factlist>The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (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 <LI class=factlist>The average German officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times <LI class=factlist>The US Army had more ships that the US Navy. <LI class=factlist>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. <LI class=factlist>When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants. <LI class=factlist>84 German Generals were executed by Hitler <LI class=factlist>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 capture by the US Army.
Here is the link to the "interesting facts" thread we had back in August (I think), and it contains a sub-link to the page by Duncan for year by year "fun facts" of WW2. Goto: http://www.ww2f.com/wwii-general/34006-obscure-facts-wwii.html#post415213 As I mentioned some have been proven incorrect, some perhaps mis-understood because of wording, and some simply "myths" that were too funny not to be included.
Found some more "fun ones" which came as a bit of a surprise to myself. But considering the "fog of war" the first one is understandable, but let’s not forget that the first "kill" for a Spitfire in WW2 was one of it’s own. A Hurricane. John Freeborn was a 19 year old Spitfire pilot when war was declared on 3rd September 1939. Three days later, he found his squadron being scrambled into the air. In the confusion, he shot down one of his own, earning the unwanted distinction of being the first pilot of WWII with a 'kill'. The Hurricane aircraft shot down in the 'Battle of Barking Creek' is also the first ever 'plane to be shot down by a Spitfire. See: BBC - The One Show - One Passions Blog: Watch: Spitfire pilot John Freeborn's story And the last WW2 designed,prop against prop fighter battle was in 1969’s Border War between Honduras and El Salvador when both Corsairs and Mustangs battled for their respective "new owners" in the FAS and FAH. See: About.com: http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/printer_156.shtml
Well it is so good to know that !! u have a big Handbook of Aircraft anatomy which talks about all kinds of air-planes !! a cousin gave it to me when he was back from UK he is a military transportation Pilot and for the spitfire it was a piece of art !
