20 obscure facts from the depths of WWII history. Even Mike might not know these.
Coastwatchers were Australian civilians and Solomon Islanders behind Japanese lines reporting ship movements and aircraft deployments. They provided crucial warning of Japanese forces at Guadalcanal. Coastwatcher Lt. Reginald Evans maintained a radio…
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 pinned down, recovered downed Allied airmen, and established a complet…
The 1st and 2nd Filipino Infantry Regiments of the U.S. Army were composed of Filipino-Americans, many of whom were California farm workers who volunteered after Pearl Harbor. They served as scouts, interpreters, and intelligence specialists in the P…
The Papuan Infantry Battalion was composed of indigenous Papuans serving in the Australian Army. Known as the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels,' they carried thousands of wounded Australian soldiers down the steep Kokoda Trail on stretchers made from local timber…
After the fall of Bataan, a group of 1,100 Filipino and American soldiers escaped the Death March by slipping through a gap in Japanese lines that a local fisherman had discovered. Led by Lt. Col. Ed Ramsey, they formed a guerrilla force that survive…
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 G…
Klaus Fuchs, a German-born British physicist, passed atomic secrets to the Soviets from inside the Manhattan Project for five years. He provided detailed descriptions of the implosion mechanism, the plutonium core, and the Trinity test results. His i…
Attu Island, in Alaska's Aleutian Islands chain, was the only part of U.S. territory to be occupied by Japanese forces during WWII — the Japanese captured it (along with Kiska Island) in June 1942, just days after the Battle of Midway. The U.S. launc…
While the 442nd Regimental Combat Team is celebrated for their battlefield heroics, a smaller group of Japanese-American soldiers performed equally critical work in intelligence. The Military Intelligence Service (MIS) trained over 6,000 Nisei (secon…
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…
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…
On September 12, 1944, the Japanese transport Arisan Maru carried approximately 1,800 Allied POWs, mostly Americans from Bataan, crammed below deck. The ship was torpedoed by USS Shark. Japanese guards abandoned ship while nearly all 1,800 POWs drown…