WWII Challenge

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr (German military intelligence), was simultaneously running operations against the Allies AND helping anti-Nazi resistance. He recruited agents he knew were British, deliberately sent false intelligence to Hitler, helped Jews escape to Switzerland, and was actively involved in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. Canaris kept detailed diaries of his activities, knowing he would likely be discovered. He was arrested after the failed bomb plot and executed at Flossenburg concentration camp on April 9, 1945 — just weeks before the war ended.

During the Philippine campaign, U.S. PT boats engaged Japanese supply barges in the rivers and narrow waterways around Luzon — a battle not fought at sea but in river channels no wider than a city street. The PT boats had to be modified, their deep-draft hulls replaced with shallower ones. The engagements happened so close that PT boat crews sometimes threw grenades at Japanese positions from the decks of their boats. One PT boat commander, Lt. John D. Bulkeley, sank 27 Japanese barges in one month in these inland waters.

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg arrived in Budapest in July 1944 and immediately began issuing 'Schutz-Pass' — protective passports that identified bearers as Swedish subjects awaiting repatriation. He created safe houses for Jews throughout the city, personally intervened when deportation trains were loaded, and climbed onto train roofs and handed protective documents through the windows to terrified passengers. He personally saved an estimated 100,000 people. When the Soviets entered Budapest, Wallenberg was arrested and disappeared. He was held in Lubyanka prison in Moscow and was reportedly executed in 1947, though the Soviets claimed he died in prison.

In April 1944, four Slovak Jewish prisoners escaped from Auschwitz — Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler — and compiled a 32-page detailed report describing the camp's layout, the gas chambers, the crematoria, the selection process, and the killing methods with precise architectural details. This was known as the Auschwitz Protocol or Vrba-Wetzler Report. Copies were sent to the Vatican, the International Red Cross, the British and American governments, and Hungarian Jewish leaders. Despite the extraordinary level of detail — including maps, dimensions, and even the schedule of the gas chambers — the Allied governments took no military action to bomb the camp or its rail lines. Churchill ordered the report investigated, but no action was taken. In mid-1944, over 400,000 Hungarian Jews were deported to Auschwitz — many to their deaths — despite the fact that the gas chambers and railway tracks could have been bombed.

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 remarkable story is of Masha Bruskina — a 17-year-old Minsk girl whose photo of her being led to the gallows by the Germans, with a defiant expression and a white dress, became one of the most haunting photographs of WWII. The partisans in Belarus maintained schools, newspapers, and even hospitals deep in the forests — effectively running a shadow government. The 'Forest Republic' of western Belarus had its own currency (wooden chips used as payment between partisans), its own courts, and its own postal service connecting partisan groups across hundreds of miles. The Germans could never fully eliminate it even with massive anti-partisan sweeps like Operation Cottbus.

A mixed-breed terrier named George was adopted by the 3rd Canadian Infantry Division and smuggled onto Juno Beach. When artillery fire became too intense, George would run between foxholes, apparently comforting wounded soldiers. He was officially enlisted as a military dog and survived the entire Normandy campaign. Upon returning to England, he was nearly shot for being a 'stray' but was saved when a general recognized him from a newspaper photo. George was made an honorary corporal.

Most people know Alan Turing cracked Enigma. Fewer know he also designed a voice encryption device for Churchill's transatlantic phone calls to Roosevelt called 'Delilah.' It used mathematical scrambling rather than physical key rotation and was never deployed because by the time it was perfected, transatlantic cable encryption was sufficient. Turing also worked on the bombe machine's later versions, which could break the even more complex naval Enigma used by German U-boats. His work specifically helped end the Battle of the Atlantic, where U-boats were sinking 60+ ships per month.

The Allies created two massive artificial harbors (Mulberry A at Omaha Beach, Mulberry B at Arromanches) by towing 115 massive concrete caissons — each the size of a small building — across the English Channel. Each caisson weighed up to 6,000 tons. They sank them in place to create breakwaters, then built floating roadways with articulated bridges that flexed with the tides. Mulberry A was destroyed by a storm on June 19 but Mulberry B operated for 10 months, unloading 2.5 million men, 500,000 vehicles, and 4 million tons of supplies. Remnants of the Mulberry B harbor are still visible at Arromanches today.

Nicholas Winton was a London stockbroker who organized the rescue of 669 mostly Jewish children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of WWII. He chartered trains, forged documents, and found British foster families — all on his own. The operation was kept secret and his wife Greta only discovered the truth in 1988 when she found a scrapbook in their attic containing the children names and photos. On the BBC show 'That's Life!' in 1988, the host revealed that every person sitting around Winton was one of the children he saved. The audience of 669 stood and applauded. He received no official recognition until he was 89.

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, recruited British agents, sent false intelligence to Hitler, helped Jews escape to Switzerland, and participated in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. He kept detailed diaries. Arrested July 23, 1944, executed at Flossenburg on April 9, 1945 weeks before the war ended.