On May 8, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the German Armed Forces was signed, which meant the cessation of hostilities on all fronts and the end of the Great Patriotic War for the Soviet people. May 9 of the same year went down in history as Victory Day. Very soon we will celebrate the 70th anniversary of this important event for all of us. On the occasion of the holiday, we have collected the most interesting facts not only about the Great Patriotic War, but also about the Second World War in general.
1. During World War II, Japan dropped bombs filled with fleas infected with bubonic plague on China. This entomological weapon caused an epidemic that killed between 440 thousand and 500 thousand Chinese.
CDC
2. During World War II, Princess Elizabeth (the current Queen of Great Britain) served as an ambulance driver. Her service lasted five months.
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3. Japanese soldier Hiro Onoda surrendered 27 years after the end of World War II. The junior lieutenant of military intelligence of the Japanese armed forces hid on the island of Lubang until 1974, not believing in the end of the world conflict and continuing to collect information about the enemy. He regarded the information about the end of the war as massive disinformation on the part of the enemy and surrendered only after former Imperial Japanese Army Major Yoshimi Taniguchi personally arrived in the Philippines and gave the order to cease combat operations.
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4. The number of Chinese killed by the Japanese during World War II exceeds the number of Jews killed due to the Holocaust.
Ministry of the Navy
5. During World War II, the Paris Cathedral Mosque helped Jews escape German persecution; Fake Muslim birth certificates were issued here.
LPLT
6. 80% of all Soviet men born in 1923 died during World War II.
ww2gallery/CC BY-NC 2.0
7. Winston Churchill lost the election in 1945 after winning World War II.
United Nations Information Office, New York
8. In 1942, during the bombing of Liverpool, carried out on the orders of the Fuhrer, the area where his nephew, William Patrick Hitler, was born and lived for some time was destroyed. In 1939, William Patrick left Great Britain for the United States. In 1944, he enlisted in the US Navy, burning with hatred for his uncle. He later changed his last name to Stewart-Houston.
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9. Tsutomu Yamaguchi is a Japanese man who survived both atomic bombings of Japan - Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The man died in 2010 from stomach cancer at the age of 93.
Hiromichi Matsuda
10. During World War II, Japan accepted Jewish refugees and rejected German protests.
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11. At least 1.1 million Jewish children were killed during the Holocaust.
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12. A third of the Jews alive at that time were killed during the Holocaust.
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13. Czechoslovak President Emil Haha suffered a heart attack during negotiations with Hitler regarding the surrender of Czechoslovakia. Despite his serious condition, the politician was forced to sign the act.
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14. In October 1941, Romanian troops under the control of Nazi Germany killed more than 50,000 Jews in Odessa. Today the event is known under the term “murder of the Jews of Odessa.”
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15. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Canada declared war on Japan even earlier than the United States.
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16. During World War II, Oscar figurines were made of plaster due to a metal shortage.
Prayitno / Thank you for (6 million +) views/CC BY 2.0
17. During the German occupation of Paris, Adolf Hitler was unable to get to the top of the Eiffel Tower because the elevator drive was deliberately damaged by the French. The Fuhrer refused to go up on foot.
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18. During World War II, doctor Eugeniusz Lazowski and his colleague saved 8,000 Jews from the Holocaust. They simulated a typhus epidemic and thus stopped the entry of German troops into the city.
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19. Hitler planned to capture Moscow, kill all the inhabitants and create an artificial reservoir on the site of the city.
Recuerdos de Pandora/CC BY-SA 2.0
20. The Russians killed more Germans during the Battle of Stalingrad than the Americans did in the entire Second World War.
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21. Carrots do not improve vision. This is a false belief that was spread by the British in order to hide from the Germans information about new technologies that allowed pilots to see German bombers at night during the Second World War.
Nicholas Noyes/CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
22. Spain remained neutral in World Wars I and II, but suffered a civil war (1936-1939) in which 500,000 people died.
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23. During the German invasion of Poland, Wizna was defended by only 720 Poles, holding back the onslaught of the German 19th Army Corps, which consisted of more than 42 thousand soldiers, 350 tanks and 650 guns. They managed to stop the advance for three days. In World War II, 20% of Poland's population died - the highest figure of any country.
Hiuppo
24. Brazil was the only independent country in Latin America to directly participate in the hostilities of World War II.
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25. Mexico was the only country to oppose the German annexation of Austria in 1938 just before the outbreak of World War II.
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26. During World War II, 2 million German women aged 13 to 70 were raped by Red Army soldiers. Source
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27. During World War II, the United States and New Zealand secretly tested 3,700 tsunami bombs that were intended to destroy coastal cities.
The long-awaited one is approaching Victory Day. We cannot ignore this event, so we want to present you with 9 little-known, but surprisingly interesting facts about the second world war. We will always honor the feat of our ancestors!!!
Fun Fact #1:Why was St. Isaac's Cathedral almost undamaged during the war?
During the years of the Great Patriotic War, St. Isaac's Cathedral was never subjected to direct shelling - only once did a shell hit the western corner of the cathedral. According to the military, the reason is that the Germans used the highest dome of the city as a target for shooting. It is unknown whether the city leadership was guided by this assumption when they decided to hide in the basement of the cathedral valuables from other museums that had not been removed before the start of the blockade. But as a result, both the building and the valuables were safely preserved.
Interesting fact #2:How to destroy tanks with a hammer?
In 1940, the British, fearing a possible German land invasion and their multiple superiority in tanks, looked for all possible ways to resist them. One of the instructions recommended that the militia use a hammer or an ax to fight tanks. The fighter had to choose an elevated position, such as a tree or the second floor of a building, and wait there for the enemy vehicle, and then jump onto it and start hitting the tower with a hammer. And when the head of a surprised German appears from there, throw a grenade inside the tank.
Interesting fact #3:How did Edith Piaf help French prisoners of war escape from German camps?
During the occupation, French singer Edith Piaf performed in prisoner-of-war camps in Germany, after which she took souvenir photographs with them and German officers. Then in Paris, the faces of the prisoners of war were cut out and pasted into false documents. Piaf went to the camp on a return visit and secretly smuggled these passports, with which some prisoners managed to escape.
Fun Fact #4:To whom and when did the bear help unload boxes of ammunition?
During World War II, Anders' Polish army found a bear cub in Iran, took him as a ration and named him Wojtek. The soldiers loved the bear very much, fed him and even gave him beer for his special services. By special order, Wojtek was assigned to the 22nd Artillery Supply Company. The bear reached Italy with the army, where he distinguished himself in the battle of Monte Cassino, helping to unload ammunition and bringing shells to the guns. The 22nd Company made the image of this process its new emblem.
Fun Fact #5:When was the flying tank designed and tested?
During World War II, work was carried out in the USSR to create an aircraft based on the A-40 tank. During flight tests, the tank glider was towed by a TB-3 aircraft and was able to rise to a height of 40 meters. It was assumed that after unhooking the towing cable, the tank should independently glide to the desired point, drop its wings and immediately enter the battle. The project was closed due to the lack of more powerful towing vehicles, which were needed to solve more important tasks.
Fun fact #6:Which episode in “Operation Y” was filmed by Gaidai based on personal army experience?
Leonid Gaidai was drafted into the army in 1942 and first served in Mongolia, where he trained horses for the front. One day a military commissar came to the unit to recruit reinforcements for the active army. To the officer’s question: “Who’s in the artillery?” - Gaidai replied: “I am!” He also answered other questions: “Who is in the cavalry?”, “In the navy?”, “In reconnaissance?”, which displeased the boss. “Just wait, Gaidai,” said the military commissar, “Let me read out the whole list.” Later, the director adapted this episode for the film “Operation “Y” and other adventures of Shurik.”
Interesting fact #7:On whose side in World War II, besides the Third Reich, did Hitler fight?
The Red Army machine gunner Semyon Konstantinovich Hitler, a Jew by nationality, took part in the Great Patriotic War. The award list has been preserved, according to which Hitler was nominated for the medal “For Military Merit” for performing a feat. True, the “Feat of the People” database reports that the medal “For Courage” was awarded to Semyon Konstantinovich Gitlev - it is unknown whether the surname was changed accidentally or intentionally.
Fun Fact #8:What popular carbonated drink was created by the Germans during World War II?
At the beginning of World War II, the German Coca-Cola bottling plant lost its supply of ingredients from the United States. Then the Germans decided to produce another drink from food waste - apple pulp and whey - and called it “Fanta” (short for the word “fantasy”). The director of this plant, Max Keith, was not a Nazi, so the popular belief that Fanta was invented by the Nazis is a misconception. After the war, Keith contacted the parent company, Coca-Cola restored its ownership of the factory and did not abandon the new drink, which had already gained popularity.
Interesting Fact #9:When were the reports on World War II dictated by Levitan recorded?
Levitan's reports and messages were not recorded during the Great Patriotic War. Only in the 1950s was a special recording of them for history organized.
How was camel dung used against German tank crews?
While in the North African theater of World War II, German tank crews began the tradition of running over piles of camel dung “for good luck.” Seeing this, the Allies made anti-tank mines disguised as these piles. After several of them worked, the Germans began to avoid untouched manure. Then the Allies made mines that looked like piles of dung with traces of caterpillars that had already run over them.
In 1940, the British, fearing a possible German land invasion and their multiple superiority in tanks, looked for all possible ways to resist them. One of the instructions recommended that the militia use a hammer or an ax to fight tanks. The fighter had to choose an elevated position, for example, a tree or the second floor of a building, and wait there for the enemy vehicle, and then jump onto it and start hitting the tower with a hammer. And when the head of a surprised German appears from there, throw a grenade inside the tank.
On July 17, 1975, the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and the American Apollo docked. It was planned that at the moment of docking the ships were supposed to fly over Moscow, but the calculations turned out to be not entirely correct, and the astronauts shook hands while flying over the Elbe River. It is symbolic that 30 years earlier, a meeting of Soviet and American soldiers, allies in the Second World War, took place on the Elbe.
The operation to land allied forces in Normandy in June 1944 was prepared in strict secrecy. Not long before, British intelligence was greatly puzzled by crossword puzzles in the Telegraph newspaper, in which code words for the operation kept appearing. Among them were Utah and Omaha - the code names of the beaches where the landing was planned, as well as Mulberry, Neptune and even Overlord - the code name of the entire operation. The crossword editor, during interrogation, stated that these were ordinary words, and their choice was not dictated by any special circumstances. It later turned out that the editor was also a teacher and often asked his students what words they would like to include in the crossword puzzle, and the boys heard these five words in the conversations of American soldiers stationed near the school.
In August 1943, American and Canadian forces conducted Operation Cottage to liberate Japanese-occupied Kiska Island in the Pacific Ocean. Intelligence reported that the Japanese garrison on the island could number up to 10,000 people, but the Americans did not know that the entire garrison was evacuated under cover of fog two weeks before the start of the operation. More than 8,000 Marines took part in the landing, and after nine days of surveying the island, they became convinced that it was empty. Despite the lack of resistance, the losses of the Americans and Canadians amounted to more than 300 people - most were victims of friendly fire, the rest were blown up by mines.
Nazi Germany spent large resources on the development and production of the world's first long-range ballistic missiles, the V-2, but their combat effectiveness turned out to be very weak. Rocket factories made extensive use of the labor of concentration camp prisoners under harsh conditions, and it was established that more people died in the production of V-2 rockets than from bombing with these weapons.
Aircraft carriers are not only surface sea vessels. There were projects for aircraft carrier-submarines, the Japanese were especially successful in creating them during the Second World War - aircraft took off from the surface of the vessel. It was from one of these submarines that the Japanese carried out the only bombing of the continental United States during the war. Another unusual type is the aircraft carrier, which is an aircraft that carries other aircraft. They were used in the First World War by the Germans, in the Second World War by Soviet and Japanese troops (the latter used kamikaze aircraft to carry planes to the target). In addition, the Americans had two aircraft-carrying airships in the 1930s. Aircraft carriers lost relevance as refueling aircraft developed.
During World War II, German sailors carried a cat aboard the battleship Bismarck. The battleship was scuttled by a British squadron 9 days after going to sea, only 115 of the 2,200 crew members survived. The cat was picked up by English sailors and taken on board the destroyer Cossack, which 5 months later was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank. Subsequently, the cat, nicknamed Unsinkable Sam, was transferred to the aircraft carrier Ark Royal, which also sank. Only after this they decided to leave Sam on the shore, and he lived until 1955.
1. During World War II, the Taj Mahal was covered with a huge canopy to make it look like a bamboo reserve. In this way, any Japanese bomber pilot could be misled. In 1971, it was again camouflaged during the Indo-Pakistan War.
2. After World War II, Jewish mercenary groups nicknamed “Nokmim” appeared who sought out those who terrorized Jews or their families during the war and meticulously executed them.
3. The Red Army (USSR) defeated 75-80% of German troops during World War II. US forces destroyed only 20-25%.
4. During World War II, there was a secret American program to disguise plastic explosives as flour. This was such a disguise that even baked goods could be made from this “flour”, which could later be used to make explosives.
5. A U.S. Army private during the Italian campaign single-handedly forced the surrender of four machine gunners and captured 10 Italian prisoners of war. He was stripped of his medal simply because he is a combat private in the US Army.
6. During World War II, the official gesture that accompanied the Pledge of Allegiance in the United States was similar to the Nazi salute (Hitler). Therefore, Franklin Delano Roosevelt ordered it to be changed and put his hand on his heart.
7. During World War II, US Army Lt. Robert Clingman used the propeller of his F4U Corsair (a single-seat carrier-based fighter) to destroy an enemy reconnaissance aircraft. His weapon jammed, but he attempted an air ram, went into the enemy’s tail and, with the propeller of his plane, disrupted the control of the enemy plane, as a result of which it crashed. Robert Clingman returned to base and was awarded the Navy Cross.
8. There is an account where events that occurred during the Second World War are posted, which correspond in date and time in real time (only with a difference of 70 years).
9. The "Night Witches" were members of the Russian Women's Bomber Aviation Regiment. These pilots turned off their engines to avoid being heard as they approached, glided across the sky and bombed German targets. The “Night Witches” dropped 3,000 tons of bombs on German positions and constantly evaded enemy aircraft, as a result of which the German command had no choice but to promise the German pilots the “Iron Cross” for the destruction of at least one aircraft from the “Night Witches”.
10. The prototype for the plot of the battle near the Death Star from the cult film Star Wars was the combat operation of the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.
11. During World War II, three bombs hit the same church in Malta. Two of them simply bounced to the side and did not explode. The latter pierced the roof of the church, fell among the people who had taken refuge during the raid, but never exploded.
12. The common bear was included in the ranks of the Polish Army as a private soldier during World War II and, ultimately, its presence played an important role in the Battle of Monte Cassino.
13. only finished paying off her World War II debts in 2006.
14. declared neutrality during World War II and therefore thousands of people invested their hard-earned money in banks. When depositors passed away, relatives were deprived of any access to their money, and banks continued to receive interest on the invested funds.
15. During World War II, Italy issued an ultimatum demanding acceptance of the Italian occupation. The Greeks replied “then it’s war.” In the ensuing battle, the unarmed Greeks steadfastly held the line against the Italian troops, thereby forcing Germany to intervene, diverting resources from the upcoming invasion of the USSR.
16. During World War II, the Manhattan Project used the code name “copper” for the element plutonium.
17. During World War II, Canadian soldier Leo Major, alone, captured about 93 Nazis in the Netherlands. He also later single-handedly captured the city of Zwolle, also in the Netherlands, to escape the Germans. He was blind to everything.
18. The total losses of the United States, Great Britain and France during World War II together were approximately equal to the losses of the Soviet Union in the decisive battle of Leningrad. Overall, Soviet losses were 26 times greater compared to those of other allies.
19. Fritz Haber, a German chemist, created a process for producing fertilizers that today produce about half of the world's food. He also created chlorine gas. After his death, chlorine gas was used in gas chambers and pesticides were used to fertilize the soil.
20. Lauri Terni was a soldier who fought under three flags: Finnish, German (when he fought the Soviets in World War II), and American (where he was known as Larry Thorne) when he served in the US Army as a special forces soldier in the war.
21. During World War II, Great Britain shipped most of its stocks and foreign securities in boxes labeled “fish.” They were stored for years in an office building in downtown Montreal where some 5,000 people worked throughout the war with no idea what was hidden in their basement.
22. The US bombed Tokyo repeatedly during World War II, causing more than 100,000 casualties, more than the total number of casualties in and combined.
23. There is a separate cemetery in France for American soldiers who were executed for rape or murder during World War II.
24.The United States produced only 139 automobiles during World War II because all factories were using production capacity and supplies for the army.
Almost 70 years have passed since the Great Victory over the Nazis in World War II. The war, which lasted from 1939 to 1945, claimed millions of lives, but still ended in victory (naturally thanks to the Soviet people) and was left with nothing. Therefore, I would like to highlight several interesting facts about the Second World War in general and the Great Patriotic War in particular.
1. The well-known song about Smuglanka-Moldavanka was written in 1940, but the song was not broadcast widely until Alexandrov’s Song and Dance Ensemble performed it at the All-Union Military Song Contest in 1944. But even then the song was not allowed to be widely broadcast, although many people liked it and often sang it. She gained the widest fame only in 1974 after the release of the film “Only Old Men Go to Battle.” The song became one of the most popular from the military repertoire.
2. Everyone knows that at the end of the war the Americans dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but not everyone knows that initially Nagasaki was not a target, or rather a fallback option. The main targets were the cities of Hiroshima and Kokura. But due to high clouds over Kokura, it was decided to use a backup option.
3. Almost at the end of the war, the Americans developed the T13 grenade. It was identical in weight and shape to a baseball. Since baseball has been a favorite game for Americans since childhood, it was assumed that it would be easy for them to throw such grenades without special training.
4. It turns out that hundreds of Jews fought for the Nazis, though not for them, but for the Finns. Since Finland was under the influence of Nazi Germany, Finnish Jews were forced to serve the Nazis. The only thing is that the Finns immediately refused to solve the “Jewish Question” and left them all rights and freedoms. Several Jews even received the German Iron Cross, but they all refused to accept the award.
5. An interesting coincidence. On June 21, 1941, Soviet scientists opened Tamerlane's grave. There was a warning on the gravestone, saying that if the grave was opened, war would begin. The next day the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. But this really cannot be considered more than a coincidence, because Hitler did not plan to attack our country in one day.
6. During the Second World War in Astrakhan, during the battles of Stalingrad, the 28th reserve army was formed. An interesting fact is that there were not enough cars or even horses to pull the cannons, so camels were used. Most of the camels died, but a few even reached Berlin.
7. In the Red Army there was a machine gunner whose name was Semyon Konstantinovich Hitler. He was a Jew and fought for the Soviet Union and even received a medal “For Military Merit.” True, he was added to the database as Semyon Konstantinovich Gitlev. It is unknown whether this was misspelled by accident or on purpose.
9. By the way, one more thing about Levitan. His reports and announcements were not recorded, incl. and about the beginning and end of the war. Only in the 50s was a special entry made for history, completely identical to the original text. Actually, such records are the only ones that have reached us.
10. During the bombardment of Hiroshima, Japanese engineer Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in this city, but in a bomb shelter. The next day he returned to his hometown of Nagasaki, but even here it was bombed. Yamaguchi remained alive after this event, and died only in 2010. He was the only one to survive the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (combined).