26Major Bletchley
Agatha Christie wrote a novel in 1941 about World War 2 code breaking featuring a character named Major Bletchley. She was investigated by MI5 due to this name, but it turned out that the name she chose was entirely coincidental and unrelated to the then-secret code-breaking facility in Bletchley Park.
27. “The Momsen Lung” was a device that was invented during World War 2 to escape from submarines that sank over the depth of 100ft. It recycled oxygen in your breath while filtering C02. It was used only once, in 1944, by 9 members of the USS Tang after it torpedoed itself and sank in 180 feet of water.
28. During World War 2, when the allies lost the battles of the Java Sea and the Sunda strait, HNLMS Abraham Crijnssen evaded Japanese aircrafts by camouflaging itself with jungle foliage giving it the appearance of a small island. It was the only one of three ships to escape Java.
29. Nazis left behind so many of their Karabiner 98k rifles at the end of World War 2 that they ended up being used for the rest of the 20th century all over the world, and some were even used in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
30. Winston Churchill got Iran to change its name to Persia, to avoid confusion with Iraq during World War 2.
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31Women in Red Army
Over 800,000 women served in the Red Army during World War 2, a significant portion of whom did so in combat roles. There were female snipers, machine-gunners, anti-air gunners, tank crews, and even pilots, with some bomber regiments being made up entirely of women, including the ground crews.
32. The autistic spectrum and the distinction between “high functioning” and “low functioning” autism were discovered by Hans Asperger in an attempt to save children in his clinic from the Gestapo during World War 2, who killed disabled children in preparation for the Holocaust.
33. When German intelligence discovered the phrase “Kilroy was here” during World War 2, Hitler believed Kilroy was the name of a high-level Allied spy.
34. Some of the important decisions for Germany during World War 2 could not be made because Hitler was sleeping (and he liked to sleep up until noon). On D-Day invasion, the German officers couldn't get further command from Hitler, because of strict orders not to wake him up for any reason.
35. During World War 2, American pilots flew P-51 Mustangs in very long-range missions operating from the island of Iwo Jima. These 7+ hour missions involved flying 3 hours across the open Pacific to targets in Japan and then 3+ hours return flight. Threats included bad weather, flak, enemy planes, etc.
