60 Cruel World War 2 Facts That’ll Make You Emotional – Part 2

During World War 2, British secret services created a special edition of Monopoly for prisoners of war held by the Nazis. The games were distributed by fake charity groups created by the secret services and contained maps, compasses, real money, and other objects useful for escaping.

52. During World War 2, British code breakers became so proficient at cracking German messages that it was jokingly said it would've been quicker for a German commander to call Bletchley Park to get his orders.

53. The German War Graves Commission still finds over 25,000 bodies from World War 2 every year.

54. During the Battle of Stalingrad, German soldiers suffered more casualties attempting to take a single apartment building (Pavlov’s House) than they did taking over the city of Paris.

55. The most successful and feared allied spy of World War 2 was an American woman with a prosthetic leg named Virginia Hall. She escaped France on foot through the Pyrenees mountains, re-entered before D Day, and organized havoc behind the Nazi lines.

During World War 2, British newspapers falsely claimed that the Germans rendered down soldiers’ corpses to make soap, candles, and nitroglycerin. As a result, when the news of the Holocaust reached Britain during World War 2, the government assumed it was another made-up atrocity story.

57. The largest number of graves of any cemetery for U.S. personnel killed during World War 2 is located in Manila, Philippines. It has 17,206 graves, 16,636 of which were U.S. personnel.

58. Germany’s World War 2 invasion of France was aided by crystal meth. New research says tablets of the stimulant enabled German troops to stay awake for three days and three nights and push through the Ardennes Mountains.

59. Wilfred Pickles was a northern English BBC newsreader during World War 2. Because of his strong Yorkshire accent, he was chosen for the job as “a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters.”

60. A dog named Judy spent a good part of World War 2 in a Japanese prison camp protecting prisoners from being beaten, by taking the beating herself. Judy received the Dickin Medal for her effort.