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Channel: WWII – Crazy Facts
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A Hungarian chemist during WWII…

A Hungarian chemist during WWII hid his Nobel Prize by dissolving it in acid and leaving it on a shelf due to the Nazi ban on its citizens from accepting the Nobel Prize. After the war, he...

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In a study of 640 dream journals…

In a study of 640 dream journals conducted by Harvard, psychologists determined the dreams of prisoners in WWII POW camps were less aggressive than the standard male population. Rather than visions of...

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Notorious mafia boss “Lucky” Luciano…

Notorious mafia boss “Lucky” Luciano aided the WWII effort from his prison cell by ordering his men to protect the East Coast from foreign invasion and convincing his Italian mafia contacts to help the...

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A Hungarian chemist during WWII…

A Hungarian chemist during WWII hid his Nobel Prize by dissolving it in acid and leaving it on a shelf due to the Nazi ban on its citizens from accepting the Nobel Prize. After the war, he...

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During WW2, the winner…

During WW2, the winner of the Tour de France, Gino Bartali, put his fame to a good cause. He hid counterfeit document in his bicycle and smuggled them through Nazi checkpoints. These documents saved...

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In 1944 Dutch Resistance members…

In 1944 Dutch Resistance members dressed as German SD (intelligence agents) went into Leeuwarden prison, and walked out with 39 prisoners, and all vanished into the city. No shots were fired, and the...

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BMW used prisoners from concentration…

BMW used prisoners from concentration camps like Dachau to build their cars and plane engines during the second world war. By the end of the war, almost 50% of the 50,000-person workforce at BMW...

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The F-82 “Twin Mustang” fighter…

The F-82 “Twin Mustang” fighter plane, designed to escort bombers thousands of miles to Tokyo, was literally two P-51 Mustangs joined at the wing. Both cockpits were fully functional, so one pilot...

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Among the thousands of men…

Among the thousands of men on the Normandy beaches on D-Day there was one single woman. Martha Gellhorn, a rogue war correspondent who stowed away in the toilet of a hospital ship and also happened to...

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The WWII era B-29 bomber…

The WWII era B-29 bomber didn’t require fighter escorts because it had a computer aided gunnery systems that allowed incredible firing accuracy against attackers. One B-29 was attacked by 79 fighters...

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Vaclav Bozdech, a soldier in WWII…

Vaclav Bozdech, a soldier in WWII, found a puppy while on the run and planned to kill it so its barking would not alert the Germans. Unable to bring himself to do so, he took it with him, and the dog...

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Christoper Robin, the kid whose teddy bear…

Christoper Robin, the kid whose teddy bear inspired the Winnie the Pooh stories, was credited with killing 28 Wehrmacht soldiers in the Battle of the Bulge.

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Japanese Emperor Hirohito, in his…

Japanese Emperor Hirohito, in his radio announcement declaring the country’s capitulation to the Allies in WWII, never used the word “surrender” or “defeat” but instead stated that the “war situation...

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During WW2 the Japanese…

During WW2 the Japanese built a deathray inspired by ideas from Nikola Tesla, the problem was that enemies would have to stand perfectly still for 10 minutes before it would work.

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Dr. Seuss drew anti-Japanese…

Dr. Seuss drew anti-Japanese cartoons during WWII. When he met the survivors of Hiroshima, he realized “A person is a person no matter how small”. He later created Horton Hears a Who! as an apology,...

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During WWII, an entire Italian…

During WWII, an entire Italian island surrendered to a British RAF pilot named Sydney Cohen who emergency landed his plane there. There were 4,200 Italian troops, but only 1 pilot and 2 other officers...

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Nancy Wake was a secret agent…

Nancy Wake was a secret agent during WWII. In 1944, she led 7000 guerrillas to defeat 22000 German soldiers, killing 1400 Germans and only losing 100 men. They accounted for 70% of the Germans killed...

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During WWII US Navy seamen…

During WWII US Navy seamen would drain the fuel from torpedos (180-proof grain alcohol) then filter it though bread to make a cocktail called torpedo juice.

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During WWII, Russian soldiers…

During WWII, Russian soldiers took “heat pills” that kept them warm in the winter; however, they would also lose weight despite eating well. 2,4-dinitrophenol spikes metabolic rate as potential energy...

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During WW2, Ernest Hemingway led a….

During WW2, Ernest Hemingway led a small Militia in a village outside Paris, and this caused him to be brought up on formal charges for violating the Geneva Convention “because a correspondent is not...

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