51442nd Infantry Regiment
The 442nd Infantry Regiment, a largely Japanese American unit that served during World War 2, did so while their families were held in internment camps. Their motto was “Go for Broke” and they were the most decorated unit in U.S. military history.
52. Volkswagen was sued by Czechoslovakian car maker Tatra before World War 2 because the original Beetle was so similar to the Tatra T97. After Germany invaded Czechoslovakia in 1938 the lawsuit was canceled by the Nazis.
53. Wolfgang Doeblin was a Jewish-German mathematician fighting for the French during World War 2. He committed suicide at the age of 25 after his company was surrounded by enemy forces. A sealed letter he had sent to the French Academy of Sciences was finally opened in 2000, revealing that he had already proven a famous result in stochastic calculus.
54. The United States occupied Greenland during World War 2 to prevent it from being captured by the Nazis. After the war ended, they offered to buy it from Denmark for $100 million, but Denmark refused.
55. 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.
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56British Code Breakers
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.
57. The German War Graves Commission still finds over 25,000 bodies from World War 2 every year.
58. 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.
59. 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.
60. 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.
61Manila American Cemetery
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.
62. 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.
63. 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.”
64. 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.
65. During World War 2, Steinway & Sons airdropped pianos with large parachutes and complete tuning instructions into the battle for the American troops. Called the Victory Vertical or G.I. Steinways, the pianos were to provide a bit of relaxation. The pianos came in olive, blue, and gray drab.
