Very interesting WW II Trivia from a friend... You might enjoy this from Col D. G. Swinford, USMC, Ret and history buff. You would really have to dig deep to get this kind of ringside seat to history: 1. The first German serviceman killed in WW II was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940); highest ranking American killed was Lt Gen Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for allies. 2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. His benefits were later restored by act of Congress. 3. 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. 4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%. 5. 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. 6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet 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. This 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. 7. 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). 8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City, but they decided it wasn't worth the effort. 9. German submarine U-1206 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet. 10. 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 captured by the US Army. SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST.... 11. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 United States and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. 21 troops were killed in the assault on the island. It could have been worse if there had been any Japanese on the island. Mike
my wife's grandfather was shot down, captured and later became part of the great escape. you know the movie with steve mcqueen? he talked of taking lots of dirt out in his socks to the yard. said the germans knew they were digging tunnels, but not location. he didn't escape with the group as a few days prior the germans seperated the american officers from the brits. he said after the escape hitler was so mad that he ordered everyone in the camp to be executed, but the guy who ran it was more compasionate so he suggested killing only 50 or 75 so that is what they did and he knew every one of them.
I'll sometimes spend a whole day reading WW2 stuff on Wikipedia. It is endlessly fascinating to me. My grandfather was a secret agent in WW2. He would go ahead of the troops and scope out the land, lay communication wire, and spy on enemy soldiers. He spent a LOT of time lying perfectly still. He told me the most scared he's ever been was when he had a group of high ranking German officers come within 5 feet of him. They were out for a stroll and were talking in private about plans. He overheard these plans and reported it up the ranks. Apparently, the intelligence saved some lives. I never heard him talk about it though...everything I know was told to me by my father...who heard it from some of his buddies that were over there. A number of years ago I saw the pistol he carried on him during the war. Probably one of the smallest guns I've ever seen...but very cool.
Wow... just... Wow. All I can say is, like the rest of my family, I'm sworn to secrecy on what rather interesting things with the initials "AH" my Grandfather returned home with.
My grandfather's 2nd wife's brother (so step-great-uncle?) flew in the Dolittle Raid. Sadly, I only met him once or twice when I was about 10 before my grandfather died and we lost touch with that part of the family. I think I still have a copy in a box somewhere of Carroll Glines' book on the raid that he inscribed for me. Wish I'd had a chance to listen to those stories at an age where I could appreciate them...
I absolutely LOVE this sort of information. I also have the photo of Patton peeing in the rhine, when I lived in Army Barracks I had it hanging on my wall. When officers came through to see my room they saw that (and some of my other historical autographs and military memoribilia) I tended to be able to get away with a few more things that others might not. One other thing that I might add - James (Jimmy) Stewart entered the Army Air Corp to serve in WW2 and ended up staying on in the Reserve and later retired as a Brigadier General in the AF - the only Hollywood guy I know of that did that. I have an autographed photo of him as a Lieutenant in uniform and another of him with his star and his Flag. PDG
It was actually U-1206 that was sunk by it's malfunctioning toilet, not U-120. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_submarine_U-1206#Sinking
Interesting list. I think that #8 is a bit misleading. The ME-264 never got past the prototype stage (maybe one or two built?), and its ability to do a bomb-laden NYC round-trip, even from Western France (a round trip of roughly 7000 miles), is questionable. Once France fell to the allies, things became even more tenuous, and the project was dumped due to the need for defensive weapons like the ME-262 jet fighter. Developing and producing the big bombers would have consumed a vast amount of very limited resources. Even if the Germans had been able to carry out raids, it's highly unlikely that they would have affected the outcome of the war. Ongoing raids would have resulted in beefed-up American radar and fighter deployment, which would have been lethal for big bombers at the very limit of their range. German planners were no doubt aware of all this when they scrapped the project.
My Mothers uncle flew for the luftwaffe though he was'nt a fighter pilot,He flew the Junkers troop transport.I have his Flack helmit at home used to have his Knife,He is alive still today at 98 He's a Watch maker now,some of you guy's might have herd his name Helmut Sinn, the former CEO of Sinn Watches pretty Cool !
The 71% casulty rate for air corps is also misleading. It may have been that at the beginning but not for the entire war. My father was in the 8th AF flying in B17s. I visited the 8th AF museum in Savannah GA a few years ago and one of things I noted was the casualty rate was about 20% killed and captured. Still very high, of course. I felt lucky to be around. Dave
I think anytime you try to boil down years of 'facts' to a single paragraph, what will be lost in the brevity will be substantiation of the facts and the basis for the statement... Having said that, I looked at this more as a generalization as opposed to 'absolute' facts. Interesting stuff, IMHO, even if, in it's conciseness, it isn't 100% verifiable. Mike
From what I've heard, my granddad was a photographer off the coast of Normandy in a submarine before the invasion. I never did get a good feel for what all he did in the war, it was all still very hush-hush when he died in the 1970s.
As an addendum to my previous post... I'd underscore that it's the winners that write the history books... Mike
IIRC, General Patton was killed just after WWII in a car wreck that was not considered to be a serious wreck. I think he was in the back seat and hit his head on the seat in front of him, and that broke his neck--like Dale Earnhardt. I think he was paralyzed and died a few days later, while everyone else walked away from the wreck without a scratch. A testament to seatbelts.
4 of my Dads uncles were in the war in various roles. The most interesting story was the uncle that was on a ship in the Pacific that was torpedoed by the Japanese. He was in the water for a couple of days before he was rescued.
The X-ray room at the US Army Hospital, Nachreichten Kaserne, Heidelberg, is where he died. A family member comes by yearly and lays a wreath in a small ceremony. There is a plaque next to the door in the hallway. Had lots of photos taken there of various parts of me.
