Obscure facts, untold stories of heroes, and rare photographs from World War II — the kind of deep-cut history that even a WWII buff like Mike might not know. From the flooded fields of Normandy to a bear who carried artillery shells.
On August 20, 1941, Soviet Lt. Zinoviy Kolobanov buried his KV-1 tank in a swampy overlook near Krasnogvardeysk. A column of 43 German vehicles from the 4th Panzer Division advance…
German Luftwaffe pilot Leutnant Franz Stigler spotted a badly damaged American B-17 bomber named 'Ye Olde Pub,' piloted by 2nd Lt. Charles 'Charlie' Brown, limping across the North…
Albert Gortz was a Danish schoolteacher in Jutland who used his school to hide Allied airmen shot down over Denmark. Under the guise of teaching, he ran a network that moved over 2…
When the Japanese cargo ship Lisbon Maru was torpedoed by an American submarine in 1942, the Japanese guards locked the holds containing 1,816 British POWs below deck and covered t…
After the fall of Bataan, Major Macario Peralta organized a guerrilla army of over 30,000 fighters on the island of Panay in the Philippines. His forces kept 8,000 Japanese troops …
During the brutal fighting in the Eastern Front, thousands of Soviet children became orphans and wandered into the forests. Many were taken in by partisan units. But the most remar…
Krystyna Skarbek, a Polish countess, was one of the first and longest-serving Special Operations Executive agents. She parachuted into Nazi-occupied Poland and crossed the Tatra mo…
In the mountain village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon in southern France, the entire Protestant community — led by Pastor Andre Trocme and his wife Magda — conspired to hide Jewish refu…
Heartfelt stories of people who fought against all odds — heroes who should be, deserved to be, or simply need to be remembered.
Wojtek the bear was the most extraordinary combatant of World War II. Born in the mountains of Iran in early 1942, he was purchased as a cub for a can of condensed milk and a pocketknife by a young Po…
In the village of Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a Protestant community in the mountains of southern France, the entire village conspired to hide Jewish refugees and resistance fighters. Led by Pastor Andre T…
Wojtek the bear was adopted by the 22nd Polish Artillery in Iran. Enlisted as a Private with serial number and pay book, he carried 25-pound artillery ammo crates under fire at Monte Cassino. Became t…
In 1932, a 23-year-old Polish mathematician named Marian Rejewski accomplished what every intelligence service in Europe had tried and failed to do: he broke the German Enigma cipher machine. Using pu…
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." — Often attributed to Edmund Burke, a phrase that resonated throughout WWII
Every day we highlight a different piece of obscure WWII history.
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