Interesting WWII facts

[Alexanderofmacedon]

A friend of mine's mom is a history teacher and while I was over, she gave me a book of interesting WWII facts. Tell any here you know of.

I'll start...

Did you know in WWII, in 1939 Germany owned 230,000 square miles of Antarctica?

[Ice]

# A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)

[AwesomeArcher]

# A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)

Yes, that was interesting, i did a speech on the luftwaffe and i had that as one of my facts, another interesting one i had was that the soviet union downed more German planes by ramming them than shooting them.

[Pontifex Rex]

Yes, that was interesting, i did a speech..., another interesting one i had was that the soviet union downed more German planes by ramming them than shooting them.

I hope it was fantasy convention because that is absolute nonsense.

The Red Airforce destroyed something more than 10,000 German aircraft between June 1941 and May 1945,...they most certainly did not ram over 5,000 aircraft. There was no need to ram simply because the Red Airforce, like the Red Army, gained in experience and received newer and better equipment as the war went on and were perfectly capable of shooting down German aircraft. Other posters are correct about a lot of this being nonsense.

In regards to German kill verification, iirc, they had the most stringent 'confirmation' sytem of any airforce. I tend to trust the claim of their best pilots but that does not change the fact that they simply fought more often and thus scored more kills. Hartmann, for example, flew from the second half of 42 through 45 almost non-stop.

[Patriarch of Constantinople]

# A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)

im srry for the family when the segeant has to tell the family the news

"Ma'm your son has died in a farting accident"

[Avicenna]

im srry for the family when the segeant has to tell the family the news

"Ma'm your son has died in a farting accident"

It happened outside of war as well. This person, I forgot his name, was a musician, and his instrument was his bum-hole and the farts were his music. Apparently, one day he farted one time too many, and the pressure or something caused an artery to pop and bye-bye Mr Fart-Man.

[English assassin]

That was Le Petomane. UK posters over 30 will be absolutely delighted to lear that a film of his life was made, with Leonard Rossiter playing the flatulent hero. A role he was born for surely.

http://www.ljhelms.com/pet/_pujol/thestory/retro.htm

Through a weird mixture of motions, extortions and contortions, Pujol could "inhale" as much as two quarts of air (as measured by Dr. Marcel Baudouin in 1892) through his distended bottom. The young man quickly found that by varying the force with which he expelled this air, he could produce musical notes of varying pitch and timbre. He soon mastered simple tunes, and found himself entertaining astonished school chums with impromptu Bel cantos and arias.

Sort of thing that could happen to anyone, that.

He died peacefully of old age rather than as a result of farting though.

[KrooK]

During Battle of Britain polish pilots fought together with Brits but sometimes they got problems with british culture. One of them had no ammo into his fighter and decided to land on british airfield. Every second was important because Germans attacked like mads. When he did it, he noticed that airfield is ... completely empty.

After searching for a while, he entered shelter and notice that all Brits are there. When he asked why they don't fight (it was one of the hardest days), they replied "5 o'clock". All airfield crew (even with AA guns crew) was into shelter calmly drinking tea........

[Kaiser of Arabia]

The legend that Polish lancers charged German tanks on horseback is a modification of the actual story. In reality, the Polish lancers had just routed a German infantry formation when it was ambushed by tanks. In the fleeing action, some of the lancers are reported to have charged the tanks.

[cegorach]

The legend that Polish lancers charged German tanks on horseback is a modification of the actual story. In reality, the Polish lancers had just routed a German infantry formation when it was ambushed by tanks. In the fleeing action, some of the lancers are reported to have charged the tanks.

Krojanty 1st September 1939. No tanks but armoured cars of 2nd Motorised division, retreated with loses noone ever charged tanks, though at Wolka Weglowa there were 3 tanks which were not ready ( crews were restng) and Poles charged infantry position close to those.

Whe tanks were met by Polish cavalry it ended with loses, often much higher on German side.

[cegorach]

The only situation when cavalry unit stopped Panzer corps happened in Poland on 1st-2nd September 1939. 4th Panzer division lost many vehicles without much success and the entire corps stopped.

[Homo Sapiens]

The only attack on an mainland American military installation during World War II occured on the night of June 21-22, 1942. A Japanese submarine surfaced in the Columbia River in Oregon and fired shells at Fort Steven. The only damage reported was to a baseball field's backstop.

The only occupation of North American land mass during World War II occured on September 18, 1943. U-537 landed at Martin Bay, Labrador and the crew established an automatic weather station. They stayed the night on shore, then departed next morning.

[Aenlic]

Are you not counting islands which are a part of North America as part of the North American landmass? The Japanese bombed the U.S. military installation at Dutch Harbor on the island of Unalaska in the Aleutians on June 3rd, 1942 and landed an invasion force on the islands of Kiska and Attu, further west in the Aleutian chain. Both of these were part of the Territory of Alaska (which didn't become a state until 1959). I suppose a case could be made that they weren't on the American mainland, as islands; but I'd certainly call them part of the North American landmass as I would Vancouver Island or Baffin Island.

[Warluster]

[QUOTE=Homo Sapiens]The only attack on an mainland American military installation during World War II occured on the night of June 21-22, 1942. A Japanese submarine surfaced in the Columbia River in Oregon and fired shells at Fort Steven. The only damage reported was to a baseball field's backstop.

What about Pearl harbour?

[Kralizec]

Yeah, they send expeditions to the south pole. There are also conspiracy theories that say that the Nazis had a huge naval bay there for refueling their submarines. Supposedly Karl Donitz remarked to the allies something along the lines of "at this moment, the Third Reich is rebuilding her navy in a far away place!"

Wich is off course bull, but that would be excellent stuff for a badly written techno thriller. Fascists coming out of the ice, to conquer the world!