Interesting World War 2 Facts

[tkjaer21]

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

World War 2 Facts

• The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937)
• The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).
• 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2
• The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps.
• Between 1939 and 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs, An average of about 27,700 tons of bombs each month.
• 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2
• 2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed
• 3 or 4 ground men were wounded for each killed
• 6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded
• Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe
• There were 433 Medals of Honor awarded during World War 2, 219 of them were given after the receipiant's death
• From 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 in Europe the Allies had 200,000 dead and 550,000 wounded
• 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).
• 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.
• Germany lost 110 Division Commanders in combat
• 40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2; 30,000 never returned
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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).
• German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn’t worth the effort.
• A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)
• Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War 2 to accidents
• 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
• The average German officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times
• The US Army had more ships that the US Navy.
• 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.
• When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants.
• 84 German Generals were executed by Hitler
• 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.
• 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.” – Lt. Gen. 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… -Ilike this one because I'm Danish. Good ol' Carlsberg and Tuborg.
• Germany lost 136 Generals, which averages out to be 1 dead General every 2 weeks

[aferguson]

heh.....some interesting stuff. Some i knew, most i did not. A few comments below:

• 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2...in fact 90% of all Russian males between age 18 and 23 were killed during the war. Needless to say this had a big impact on the population for a time and the surviving males were kept quite 'busy' for years.

• 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2
• 2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed....the RAF bomber losses were the worst. Ironic since the night time bombing raids they favoured were supposed to be safer than daylight ones.

• 6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded...i find this one very hard to believe. Isn't it the other way around?


• 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....heheh, 'sink us'.

• Germany lost 110 Division Commanders in combat...due in large part to Hitler's constant demands that there be no retreats.

• 40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2; 30,000 never returned....75% mortality rate, the highest of any service and of any nation of the war.

• Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target.....very true. It's estimated that 90% of the aircraft shot down in the war in air to air combat were done so by 10% of the pilots. You were either a skilled marksman and flier or you weren't and if you weren't shooting anything down was pure luck.

• 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....very, very interesting.


• 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....ramming aircraft was actually something that was practiced during pilot training and was considered a valid and common tactic by the Russian airforce. Most pilots survived the ramming attacks, which were directed at the target plane's tail surfaces. Many pilots had several successful ramming attacks. Stalin's quote was made because if you didn't carry out the duty you were ordered to do (because you were a 'coward') you were shot....the way i heard the quote was "it takes a brave man to be a coward in the Russian army".

• The average German officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times...this was largely in part to the efficiency of Soviet snipers, who specifically target german officers and NCO's.

• When the US Army landed in North Africa, among the equipment brought ashore were 3 complete Coca Cola bottling plants....sounds like something from a MASH episode.

• 84 German Generals were executed by Hitler....a few for making attempts on his life, most for disobeying orders and retreating to save their troops lives, against Hitler's express orders. Ironically, the generals of the famous 'Lucy' spy ring, which probably caused germany more harm, militarily, than anything else, were never executed or even discovered.

• 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....one of my very first customs i made was of an asian soldier in a german uniform (using a VC head from the early Vietnam line). There were also captured Mongolians, forced to fight for Germany at Normandy.

• Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.....???? This one i find very hard to believe. That may have been true at the end of the war but i can't believe it was true for total overall numbers.

• The only nation that Germany declared war on was the USA.....Hitler was famous for his surprise attacks, with no prior declaration of war. He was a dirty rotten scoundral to be sure.

[Threetoughtrucks]

The term CINCUS for "sink us" was used in the 30's for the Commander of all Navy operations.

In early 1941 it was divided into two offices, Atlantic and Pacific operations.

At the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the commander of Navy operations at Pearl was CINCPAC. Not as funny as "sink us".....

Interesting body of facts. I do doubt some of the "facts" but interesting.

TTT

[ostketten]

Germany lost 110 Division Commanders in combat

Not difficult to believe at all. Practically all of the divisions that fought on the Eastern front were decimated at some point during the war and then rebuilt, some several times over. Being a division commander on the Russian front was almost equivalent to a death sentence in many cases, especially in the Panzer and Infantry divisions.

[tmanthegreat]

Very interesting stuff

[Quixote511]

I like the part about the 12 year old kid. I wonder how the hell he made it through basic without being found out.

[Threetoughtrucks]

The story of the 12 years old kid in the Navy was made into a TV movie a few years back. The star was Ricky Schroeder.

Interesting movie.

TTT

[MIGMADMAVIS]

wow, those facts are amazing, Thanks tkjaer21!!!

[VMF115]

if you go to this website And scroll down to verifications It offers explanations, the quotes also come for a book called Dirty Little Secrets of World War II.

http://wilk4.com/humor/humorm175.htm

[zhukov]

• Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.....???? This one i find very hard to believe. That may have been true at the end of the war but i can't believe it was true for total overall numbers

interesting, but not really a surprise. think of the flemish/wallonien, ss wiking, nordland, charlemagne, etc units, the "hiwis" that were technically ss...the austrians, and so forth. its one of those uncomfortable truths, but if you think about it, not that surprising.

[chunks]

• Most members of the Waffen SS were not German.....???? This one i find very hard to believe. That may have been true at the end of the war but i can't believe it was true for total overall numbers

interesting, but not really a surprise. think of the flemish/wallonien, ss wiking, nordland, charlemagne, etc units, the "hiwis" that were technically ss...the austrians, and so forth. its one of those uncomfortable truths, but if you think about it, not that surprising.

Plus the Cossacks, Croates, some mid-easterners, and many others that either fought against Stalin (not for Hitler) or agreed with the Reich's dreams were SS. Even Ireland, who was technically neutral but due to historic differences with England, started WWII sympathetic with Germany (though was not active in this sympathy and is only included as an example of how far such things can go).