163 obscure facts from the depths of WWII history. Even Mike might not know these.
Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr., age 56 with a heart condition, was the only general officer to land with the first wave on D-Day. Carrying a walking stick, he landed on Utah Beach 2,000 yards off course. Rather than relocate thousands of in…
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…
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…
The Normandy American Cemetery at Coleville-sur-Mer overlooks Omaha Beach and contains 9,387 graves — mostly of Americans who died in the invasion of Normandy and later operations in France. But the lesser-known fact is that approximately 300 of thos…
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…
Between November 1944 and April 1945, Japan launched approximately 9,300 'fire balloons' — paper hot-air balloons carrying incendiary and anti-personnel bombs — across the Pacific on jet streams toward North America. The first intercontinental weapon…
The Normandy bocage — thick hedgerows of earth and tangled bramble that separated centuries-old farm fields — created conditions worse than any Allied planner expected. The hedgerows were over 2,000 years old, some originally planted by the Romans an…
Major General Percy Hobart designed specialized tanks for D-Day that were unlike anything the Germans had ever seen. There were 'Duplex Drive' (DD) swimming tanks with inflatable canvas screens, 'Crab' flail tanks that cleared minefields with chains …
The Canadian 3rd Infantry Division achieved the deepest penetration of any Allied force on D-Day at Juno Beach, advancing 10 km inland — further than any other unit. But at a cost: they faced 14% casualties, the highest of any D-Day beach assault. Th…
In the winter of 1944, during the brutal fighting in the Huertgen Forest, an unofficial localized ceasefire occurred when American and German soldiers independently stopped firing and sang Christmas carols across the lines in Sector 7 near Vossenack.…