74 obscure facts from the depths of WWII history. Even Mike might not know these.
POWs building the Burma Railway (the 'Death Railway') developed a sophisticated communication system using the tapping code based on Morse code, which allowed them to warn each other of approaching guards during sabotage. When Allied commando Operati…
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…
British inventor Geoffrey Pyke proposed building an aircraft carrier from 'Pykrete' — a mixture of 86% sawdust and 14% water frozen together. Pykrete was as strong as concrete but would float and would self-repair — you could shoot a hole in it and i…
On October 14, 1943, Jewish prisoners at the Sobibor extermination camp carried out a mass escape led by Polish-Jewish officer Alexander Pechersky and Polish partisan Leon Feldhendler. They used axes and knives to silently kill 11 SS men — one by one…
The Venona project decrypted Soviet communications from 1943-1980, revealing deep Soviet penetration of the Manhattan Project, Treasury, State Department, and OSS. Over 3,000 messages decoded, identifying hundreds of agents including Julius Rosenberg…
The Venona project was a top-secret American-British intelligence effort that decrypted Soviet communications from 1943-1980. The project revealed that the Soviets had deeply penetrated the Manhattan Project, the U.S. Treasury, the State Department, …
Of the 29 DD (Duplex Drive) Sherman tanks launched from landing craft toward Omaha Beach, 27 sank in the rough seas because the canvas flotation screens collapsed. Only two made it to shore. The tank commanders and crews drowned inside. The decision …
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…
Omaha Beach was divided into sectors named with colors: Easy Red, Easy Green, Fox Red, Fox Green — but the two least talked about sectors were 'Uncle Red' and 'Dog White.' The 116th Infantry Regiment assaulted Dog White sector and suffered devastatin…
The Normandy bocage — thick hedgerows of earth and tangled bramble that separated centuries-old farm fields — created conditions worse than any planner anticipated. The hedgerows were over 2000 years old, planted by the Romans and reinforced over mil…
At Pointe du Hoc, Rangers found the German coastal guns had been relocated to an orchard 1,300 yards away — but they didn't know this when climbing the cliffs under fire. A two-man patrol, Sgt. Leonard Lomell and Sgt. Jack Kuhn, stumbled upon the gun…
On D-Day night, the RAF dropped 500+ dummy parachutists (code-named 'Ruperts') across Normandy. Each dummy was rigged with explosive charges and firecrackers to simulate gunfire. German troops were dispatched to hunt phantom paratroopers, tying up en…