National Geographic Channel had a marathon of Adolf Hitler shows running the other day. I learned a few interesting facts.
- Hitler may have offspring running around this day in age. - The leader of Auschwitz died in 2001 of natural causes. - Hitler had 1 testicle - The Germans also came up with the first blow-up doll - Most know this one: He had Jewish blood relatives...making him JEWISH.
- Hitler was buried and dug up 5 times before he was burned. The only remains of him is a bridge from his mouth and part of his skull with a bullet hole in it. - The Soviet Union lied about killing him for months. When he wasn't even in Berlin when it fell. - There were more sightings of Hitler around the world after WWII than UFOs today.
The Russians and the Germans were actually allied until 1941, in a 'treaty of convienience.' Hitler made a deal with Stalin that would enable them to share central Europe while Germany would be free to conquer the West. Of course no side had any intention of honouring this for longer than was absolutely necessary. When the Germans eventually marched on Russia, the Russians replied with a 'scorched earth' policy. Retreating quickly and destroying everything that they passed (particularly railways and factories) so that the Germans captured nothing but barren land. With this done, they then held their lines in Stalingrad and other Cities in the west of Russia in wait for the winter. This drained the German resources who couldn't cope with the intense cold and had no easy way of getting supplies to the front line. It was one of the greatest contributions towards the eventual allied victory.
It is supposed that Hitler had Parkinson's and was in the middle to late stages towards the war's end. He went to great lengths to hide this, though, but there is footage of his tremors and medical records left behind.
joint commonwealth air training program. canada trained more than a quarter million aircrew during the war. canada also built the 3rd largest navy (in hulls) from scratch in 6 years. the only war memorial in london commemorating foreign troops is dedicated to the canadians.
was reading a book on the OSS once and they nearly ambushed the president's motorcade once. their training base was not far from camp david. one night they had a bunch of poles out to practise a convoy ambush and someone pooched the map reading. the first thing along the road was the presidential motorcade and they very nearly jumped out at it loaded with blanks.
Allied POW officers were paid whilst imprisoned by the Japs the same as the equivalent jap rank.
hitler admitting later that germany would've had to "run back with our tails between our legs" had the allies done something about the rhine occupation.
Anyone got any? I know that after Germany invaded Poland they had run out of ammo and were in an extremely vulnerable position yet the allies did nothing.
# 6 is particularly interesting
1. The first German serviceman killed in World War II was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest-ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the U.S. Army Air Corps â" so much for allies.
2. The youngest U.S. serviceman was 12-year-old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).
3. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top U.S. Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced âsink usâ), the shoulder patch of the U.S. Armyâs 45th Infantry Division was the Swastika, and Hitlerâs private train was named âAmerika.â All three names were soon changed for PR purposes.
4. More U.S. servicemen died in the U.S. Army Air Corps than in the Marine Corps. While completing the required 25 missions your chance of being killed was 71 percent.
5. Generally speaking, there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so at long range if your tracers were hitting the target 80 percent of your rounds were missing. Worse yet, tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.
7. When the allied armies reached the Rhine River in Germany, the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal, from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. George Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City, but it wasnât worth the effort .
9. The German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.
10. Among the first âGermansâ captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and then forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and further forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the U.S. Army.
11. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. Twenty-one troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese soldiers on the island.
asherlee, thanks for making me remember about Hitler´s only testicle. The RAF (Royal Air Force) came up with a rather entertaining song when they found out. It´s a bit rude, so i won´t post it. Post on my profile if you want to hear it. But, here are my facts: Stalin was a Jew. Hitler was Austrian. The Japanese had no plans of world domination, only Pacific Asia. The USSR could have destroyed the German forces whenever they liked, but it was when Hitler captured Stalingrad, STALINgrad, named after the USSR´s "great" leader, that they got pissed off enough to retaliate.
Yea he made a nazi summer camp for kids and made it for free so kids could be sent away for free for a little bit and was a relief for parents to send their kids to camp for free so that they can have fun and be fed (which was a big deal especially in the depression) some are still open, not for free but for cheap.
