Interesting and Strange WW2 facts

[Henrik]

Any on there that can be rubbished or are they all true?

http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/

The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).

Is it true? Quite interesting, I had never heard it before

[Poach]

'tis a most amusing list of facts, indeed. Whether or not all are true I cannot say.

[eisenkopf]

Any on there that can be rubbished or are they all true?

http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/

The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).

Is it true? Quite interesting, I had never heard it before

Yeah, some amusing facts, but none referenced. Some are obviously true, but give a wrong impression by omitting other facts. For example, look at the Graf Spee entry - everything is correct. But the most advanced Radar system of Germany certainly was not in working condition anymore when the British could lay their hands on it, something that is insinuated by omitting to mention that the Graf Spee was a completely burned out wreck. It did not matter that it did not sink.

[OTZ]

Any on there that can be rubbished or are they all true?

http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/

The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).

Is it true? Quite interesting, I had never heard it before

I believe there may have been American casualties when the Panay was destroyed in 1937 by the Japanese.

I also believe that there may have been German service men killed in Spain - and not in China as the article claims (even then, the German advisors killed in China were killed during hand-grenade training exercises).

It all depends on persepctive - when did WWII start, etc?

[Spartacus the Irish]

Some seems to be down to suspct reasoning. Tracer bullets do indeed have a different ballistic profile to the 'regular' bullets in an aircraft's ammunition, but to thus say that 80% of the shots would therefore miss is absurd. Most aircraft engagements took place at distances of 200 yards and less (at least most successful engagements did), and thus the range was usually short enough that the diffrent ballistics did not cause an undue grouping.

Others - well, they're true, but simply require common sense to realise. It may at first glance seem rather strange that 5% of pilots possessed 80% of the kills (in the article boiled down to, "you were either an ace or a target", but to be a successful fighter pilot you had to marry good flying skills (hard on it's own) with shooting ability (very hard), and numerous other factors (navigation, situational awareness, teamwork, luck, etc.).

[Dr. Croccer]

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.

I've read something similair in several books, but they were Mongolian or Tibetan herdsmen who had been arrested by the Soviets and later enlisted, and who were then captured by the Germans and recruited and put on the Atlantikwall.

[Spartacus the Irish]

I've read something similair in several books, but they were Mongolian or Tibetan herdsmen who had been arrested by the Soviets and later enlisted, and who were then captured by the Germans and recruited and put on the Atlantikwall.

There were two Georgian Battalions in the 739th Grenadier Regiment, 709th Static Division, over Utah Beach. I wouldn't be surprised if they included Asian prisoners or volunteers, either in those divisions or somewhere else.

[cegorach]

I've read something similair in several books, but they were Mongolian or Tibetan herdsmen who had been arrested by the Soviets and later enlisted, and who were then captured by the Germans and recruited and put on the Atlantikwall.

In addiiton there was a sizable Korean minority which also has been the first target of Stalin's resettlement policy.

[Lyonn]

80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2

damn that seems unreal, but certainly believable considering the statistics.

[Numenor]

•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. <- lol, nice one.

damn that seems unreal, but certainly believable considering the statistics.

i'm readying a book where it says it's 90%, so it musnt be far from the truth

[rusina]

The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).

Is it true? Quite interesting, I had never heard it before

Quite likely. There were about 300 American volunteers in Finland, and 30 of them got to fight alongside Finns against Russians.

[conon394]

German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing but it wasn't worth the effort

On this point beyond the ability of would be a better characterization.

The Germans built 3 prototypes of this plane - and it lost out to other planes do to bad performance. Thus it is difficult to really gauge the effectiveness of the plane if it really went into production at extreme range – one should remember to be really effective even the B-29 had to have its weapons stripped to maximize bomb load from Mariana Islands; considerably closer to Tokyo than even Brest was from New York. Not to mention Germany simply did not have the capacity to build that many heavy bombers, train the crews and lacked the uncontested bases or air space to fly over…

It was just not worth the effort it was more or less beyond the ability of Germany to do so except as an odd suicide mission at best.

edit - weird no matter how often I edit this post it insist on making two quotes.

[cegorach]

[COLOR=#212121][FONT=Helvetica]

It was just not worth the effort it was more or less beyond the ability of Germany to do so except as an odd suicide mission at best.

Which was supposed to be launched by the Japanese. Tachikawa Ki-74 could be the airplane used in the mission.

[Spartacus the Irish]

...

The Germans would not have had aerial superiority either. Even were a squadron of these behemoths (either the Me 264 or the Ju 390) built, what damage would they be able to cause with only 6,000lbs of bombs? And how would they get through the defending US fighters, especially considering that US naval power could allow interception over the sea via carrier-borne aircraft, as well as aircraft based in the UK?

It was not worth the effort to produce a weapon that would do little damage at best, especially regarding how overstretched the German aircraft research and production industries were.

[Domen123]

"Why didn't Stalin defeat Finland?" - picture comes from an American newspaper from 1940:

[Hanny]

Any on there that can be rubbished or are they all true?

http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/

The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).

Is it true? Quite interesting, I had never heard it before

First american naval serviceman killed could be in the USN running in the Atlantic convoys on US DD Kearnt 11 killed when torpedoed in Oct 41, or U.S. PILOTS. Seven American volunteer pilots fought alongside the RAF pilots during the Battle of Britain. One, P/O William Fiske, died of wounds on August 17, 1940.

First American to die in war, The first American casualty of the Pacific War was seaman Julius Ellsberry from Birmingham, Alabama, who was killed during the attack on PH.

http://members.iinet.net.au/~gduncan...own_misc_facts is well worth a gander.

http://www.ncgenweb.us/ncwwii/facts.htm
The first American military officer killed in the war was Air Corps Captain, Robert M. Losey.

While in Norway in 1940, on a meteorological mission, the country was invaded by Germany.

Anxious to observe the front line fighting, Losey was caught in an air-raid on the town of

Domras. Sheltering in the mouth of a tunnel, he was killed instantly by shrapnel from a German

bomb.

[cpdwane]

The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).

Well I am fairly certain that here were volunteer groups of American ( and other nationalities) fighting in the winter war in Finland against Russia, so it wouldn't be such a great suprise to me if that fact were true.

[Capt. Fozdike]

Some very interesting facts there. So many people died for the time that it was fought