WWII Challenge

Thousands of Soviet orphan children were taken in by partisan units during the Eastern Front. The partisans in Belarus maintained schools, newspapers, and hospitals in forests - running a shadow government with its own currency of wooden chips, courts, and postal service across hundreds of miles. The Germans launched Operation Cottbus to eliminate it but never succeeded.

On March 21, 1945, the Danish resistance provided detailed floor plans and timing intelligence for a RAF bombing raid on the Gestapo headquarters in Copenhagen — the Shellhus building. The low-level bombing raid by Mosquitoes was so precise that it destroyed only the targeted floors while leaving adjacent buildings largely intact. The building collapsed, burning the Gestapo's files and freeing approximately 55 political prisoners. The raid killed 125 German soldiers and 80 Danish civilians (unfortunately most from a nearby French school accidentally hit when one Mosquito crashed into a tree during the low-altitude approach), but it effectively ended organized Gestapo operations in Denmark. The Danish resistance had planned this operation for months, providing the RAF with detailed architectural drawings of the building, security patrol patterns, and optimal timing windows.

The village of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, made famous by the movie 'The Longest Day,' was not the first town liberated — that honor goes to Ranville, taken by British paratroopers of the 6th Airborne Division at 00:30 on D-Day. But Ranville was recaptured by the Germans and had to be taken again the next day. The actual first PERMANENTLY liberated town held continuously from D-Day was La Madeleine, near Carentan, secured by the U.S. 101st Airborne Division at approximately 04:00 on 6 June, 1944.

Portuguese consul Aristides de Sousa Mendes issued visas and passports to over 30,000 refugees fleeing France in 1940, including up to 10,000 Jews, in direct violation of Portugal's Circular 14 which forbade issuing visas to Jews. He personally told the border guards 'I would rather stand with God against man than with man against God.' He was dismissed from the diplomatic service and died in poverty, with his children scattered and his family fractured. He was only posthumously recognized decades after his death.

Belgian Andrée de Jongh, age 24, founded the Comet Line, helping 800 Allied airmen escape to Spain. She personally escorted 118 airmen across the Pyrenees on foot, crossing 24 times. She wore a red carnation as her signature. Arrested in 1943, she never broke under interrogation.

Private Keith Gaze of 12th Parachute Battalion was shot in the head on June 6, 1944. Comrades covered him with a parachute. Hours later he woke, pushed it aside, and returned to fighting. He was shot again later that day, fatal this time. A Normandy memorial reads: Died twice for his country.

The 23rd Headquarters Special Troops (Ghost Army) didn't just deceive before D-Day. After the invasion, they mounted over 20 deception operations across Europe, using inflatable tanks, planes, and artillery — plus sound trucks broadcasting the movement of entire divisions and fake radio traffic. They moved through France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany, always appearing to be a larger force. The Sonic Deception unit could broadcast the sound of an entire armored division from six locations simultaneously. Their efforts are estimated to have saved 15,000-30,000 American and Allied lives.

Lieutenant Colonel John Malcolm Thorpe Fleming 'Mad Jack' Churchill entered battle throughout WWII armed with a Scottish broadsword, a longbow, and bagpipes. He used his longbow to kill an enemy officer with an arrow during the retreat to Dunkirk in 1940 — believed to be the last confirmed longbow kill in recorded combat. He led a raid on a German position in France while playing the bagpipes. He was captured by the Germans in Yugoslavia in 1944, sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, escaped, and was recaptured. Despite being a POW, he was still fighting the war until the final day. His famous quote: 'Any officer who goes into action without his sword is improperly dressed.' He died in 1996 and was cremated; his ashes were scattered at the base of the statue of William Wallace in Stirling, Scotland — where he had fought a battle centuries earlier. His son donated his sword and bow to the Imperial War Museum.

Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., son of President Theodore Roosevelt, was the only general officer to land with the first wave on D-Day. At 56 years old and with a bad heart (he carried a cane), he landed at the wrong beach in the first wave — over 2,000 yards off target. Instead of demanding a correction, he walked the beach in the rain under fire, reconnoitered, and found a causeway exit. He then returned to the landing zone and personally directed subsequent waves to land at the correct location, telling troops 'We'll start the war from right here.' He died of a heart attack in France 36 days later and was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously.

Fourteen Comanche code talkers served in the European Theater, using their language to transmit tactical messages on D-Day and throughout the Normandy campaign. They were among the most effective code talkers because Comanche, with only a few hundred speakers, was even rarer than Navajo. Comanche code talker Charles Chibitty recalled transmitting 50+ messages per day during the Normandy breakout. One message in particular asked for 88mm ammunition — they had to invent a Comanche word for it since the language had no military terminology. The Comanche code was never broken.

When Brigadier General Norman Cota waded ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day, he reportedly told Col. George Taylor of the 16th Infantry: 'There are only two kinds of people on this beach: the dead and those who are going to die. Now let's get the hell off this beach.' Taylor famously responded: 'There are only two kinds of people who are staying on this beach: the dead and those who are going to die. Now let's get the hell off this beach.' But lesser known: Cota personally grabbed an M1 Garand, a pistol, a rifle, and a machine gun from dead soldiers and carried them forward, handing them to troops and directing them into the fight. He was 50 years old.

The Vierville draw at Omaha Beach was defended by just 96 German soldiers in concrete casemates — yet they held off the 116th Infantry Regiment for over six hours. The German position was stronger than intelligence suggested because Colonel Gotthard Frantz had doubled the machine-gun placements without reporting to Berlin. The breakthrough came when Lt. Spurgeon of the Navy directed a destroyer (USS Carmick) to fire within 800 yards of the beach — the closest naval gunfire support of D-Day. The crew had to depress their guns beyond designed limits.

The Military Intelligence Service trained over 6,000 Japanese-Americans as translators and interrogators. Many had families in internment camps. They translated captured documents including the Z Plan revealing Japanese fleet positions before Leyte Gulf. General MacArthur called their work invaluable. General Willoughby estimated they shortened the Pacific War by two years.

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 advanced. Kolobanov single-handedly destroyed 22 tanks and 2 anti-tank guns in 30 minutes. His gunner loaded 150+ rounds. The rest of the Germans retreated in panic. He received only the Order of the Red Banner despite being recommended for Hero of the Soviet Union.

POWs building the Burma Railway (the 'Death Railway') — constructed by the Japanese using 60,000 Allied POWs and 200,000 Asian forced laborers — developed a sophisticated communication system using tapping codes based on Morse code. But their most ingenious sabotage method involved termites. POWs deliberately weakened wooden bridge supports and then allowed them to be eaten by insects during the monsoon. The bridge over the River Kwai collapsed seven times during construction. The POWs would then 'repair' it just enough for the Japanese to think the bridge was functional, knowing it would collapse again. When the Japanese finally discovered the sabotage, they could not determine who was responsible because the damage appeared to be natural. Over 12,000 Allied POWs died during the railway's construction, and an estimated 90,000 Asian laborers perished.

The 588th Night Bomber Regiment, composed entirely of women pilots, flew over 23,000 sorties during WWII. They flew obsolete wooden Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes — crop-duster designs — and attacked by cutting their engines and gliding to their targets at night, making them nearly silent and undetectable by radar. German soldiers nicknamed them 'Nachthexen' (Night Witches). The sound of their planes was compared to broomsticks. Twenty-three received the Hero of the Gold Star award. They faced triple discrimination: as women from commanding officers who didn't want them, from Soviet society at large, and from the German enemy who put a high bounty on their heads.

In February 1944, US forces attacked Japanese naval base at Truk Lagoon, sinking 12 warships, 32 merchant ships, and 275 aircraft in two days. The lagoon floor now holds 60+ shipwrecks, a premier wreck diving site. Sunken Fujikawa Maru still has Zero fighters in its hold.

Born in London to a British father and French mother, Violette Szabo married Etienne Szabo, a French Foreign Legion officer. After he was killed at El Alamein during their daughter's first year, Violette learned to channel her grief into action and volunteered for the SOE. On her first mission, she parachuted into occupied France, collected intelligence, and was extracted again. On her second mission — June 1944 — she was caught in an ambush outside the village of Salagnac after completing her objective. She provided covering fire for two fellow agents, single-handedly killing a German NCO and several soldiers, and only stopped when her ammunition was spent. She walked to the edge of the clearing and was captured. She was subjected to brutal torture by Klaus Barbie ('The Butcher of Lyon') and was eventually executed at Ravensbruck concentration camp at age 23. Before her execution, she told a fellow prisoner: 'I won't give anyone any names... I'll hold firm to the end.' She was posthumously awarded the George Cross.

London stockbroker Nicholas Winton organized the rescue of 669 Jewish children from Czechoslovakia in 1939. He chartered trains, forged documents, found British foster families - all independently. His wife discovered the truth in 1988 in a scrapbook. On BBCs That Is Life in 1988 the host revealed that everyone around Winton was a child he saved. The audience of 669 stood and applauded.

In April 1942, a young Polish soldier of the II Corps in Iran purchased a Syrian brown bear cub from a boy who had tied it to a string. The bear was named Wojtek (Polish for 'joyful warrior') and was officially enlisted as a Private in the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps. He was given a paybook, serial number, and rank. He drank beer, smoked (and ate) cigarettes, and wrestled with soldiers in camp. During the Battle of Monte Cassino in 1944, Wojtek was trained to carry heavy 25-pound artillery ammunition crates. He carried multiple crates without dropping any, even under heavy fire — the only animal to be credited as an official combatant in a major WWII battle. After the war, he was shipped to Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, where he lived out his remaining years. Polish veterans who had served alongside him in the war regularly visited with beer and cigarettes.