74 obscure facts from the depths of WWII history. Even Mike might not know these.
The 442nd was composed almost entirely of Japanese-American soldiers, many of whose families were held in internment camps on American soil while they fought in Europe. They fought in North Africa, Italy, and southern France, becoming the most decora…
Juan Pujol Garcia — code-named 'Garbo' by the British and 'Arabel' by the Germans — was a Spanish citizen who managed to convince the Germans he was a fanatical Nazi, then convinced the British he was a valuable spy, then simultaneously played both s…
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…
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 method…
Rommel, anticipating airborne landings, ordered the flooding of low-lying fields behind Utah Beach. The resulting marshlands were 5-6 feet deep — deadly for paratroopers who landed in them with 80+ pounds of gear and couldn't swim. Many drowned in th…
Group Captain James Stagg, a Scottish meteorologist, personally convinced Eisenhower to launch D-Day on 6 June based on a brief window of improving weather that German meteorologists had completely missed. The Germans believed no amphibious landing w…
While Anne Frank's diary is known worldwide, Dawid Sierakowiak — a 15-year-old Polish Jewish boy — kept a detailed diary in the Lodz Ghetto from June 1939 to April 1944. His entries, written in Polish, are among the most devastating primary documents…
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 b…
Jean-Baptiste Biaggi, a French schoolteacher and resistance member, memorized the names of every German officer in the Cherbourg area and their daily routines. He smuggled this intelligence to the British using invisible ink written on children's exe…
When Cherbourg fell to American forces on June 26, 1944, German General Karl-Wilhelm von Schlieben was ordered by Hitler to fight to the last man and destroy the port facilities completely. Von Schlieben defied these orders and instead surrendered, k…
The Germans had built a sophisticated coastal radar network along the Atlantic Wall, but Allied intelligence had missed that the major radar installation at Pointe de la Percée, overlooking Omaha Beach, had been dismantled three days before D-Day. Th…
Before D-Day, the U.S. 23rd Headquarters Special Troops — known as the 'Ghost Army' — deployed inflatable tanks, sound trucks broadcasting fake radio traffic, and even fabricated unit patches near Calais. Their deception operation convinced German in…