163 obscure facts from the depths of WWII history. Even Mike might not know these.
Most people confuse the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1943) with the Warsaw Uprising (1944). They were entirely separate events. The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 was led by the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa) who rose up expecting Soviet support. Stalin delibe…
British-French SOE agent Violette Szabo provided covering fire outside Salagnac, France, killing a German NCO and several soldiers to cover two agents escape. Overwhelmed, she was subjected to brutal torture by Klaus Barbie and executed at Ravensbruc…
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 v…
Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of the Abwehr, recruited British agents, sent false intelligence to Hitler, helped Jews escape to Switzerland, and participated in the July 20, 1944 plot to assassinate Hitler. He kept detailed diaries. Arrested July 23,…
A Syrian brown bear named Wojtek was enlisted as a Private in the 22nd Polish Artillery Supply Company. He carried 25-pound artillery shells under fire at Monte Cassino. He drank beer, smoked cigarettes, and became the regiments official insignia. Af…
On May 5, 1945, four days after Hitler died, US soldiers and German Wehrmacht troops fought side by side against Waffen-SS at Castle Itter in Austria. The castle held French VIP prisoners including former Prime Ministers. German Major Josef Gangl def…
Audie Murphy was rejected by every branch including the Marines for being 5 foot 5 and 112 pounds. He was accepted by the infantry and became the most decorated American soldier of WWII. He received the Medal of Honor at Holtzwihr, France on January …
Desmond Doss, a Seventh-day Adventist conscientious objector, became the most decorated medic of WWII. At Hacksaw Ridge on Okinawa, he lowered 75 wounded men down a 400-foot cliff one at a time using rope and pulley while under heavy fire. Each time …
Conscientious objector Desmond Doss served as a medic with the 77th Infantry Division and single-handedly lowered 75 wounded men from the Maeda Escarpment (Hacksaw Ridge) on Okinawa — one by one — while under heavy Japanese fire. He used a rope-and-p…
General Douglas MacArthur was a 33rd-degree Scottish Rite Freemason and served as Grand Master of the Philippines. During the occupation of Japan after WWII, several Japanese military officers who were Freemasons before the war (the Japanese military…
Hermann Goering's personal art collection contained over 1,500 works stolen from Jewish collectors across Europe, valued at over $200 million at the time. The collection was so vast that it required a special train to transport it to his country esta…
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 d…