WW II Facts

The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937) The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland, 1940). 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2 The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by friendly fire from the US Army Air Corps. Between 1939 and 1945 the Allies dropped 3.4 million tons of bombs, An average of about 27,700 tons of bombs each month. 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2 2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed 3 or 4 ground men were wounded for each killed 6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe There were 433 Medals of Honor awarded during World War 2, 219 of them were given after the receipiant's death From 6 June 1944 to 8 May 1945 in Europe the Allies had 200,000 dead and 550,000 wounded The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress). At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top US Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced sink us), the shoulder patch of the US Armys 45th Infantry division was the swastika, and Hitlers private train was named Amerika. All three were soon changed for PR purposes. Germany lost 110 Division Commanders in combat 40,000 men served on U-Boats during World War 2; 30,000 never returned More US servicemen died in the Air Corps that the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%. Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5 tons of machine gun ammo. The US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired. Germanys power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had instead been dropped on power plants, German industry would have collapsed. 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 the cargo plane he was in was shot down by F6F Hellcats. He was on his way to pick up a new A6M3 Zero fighter plane. One of Japans methods of destroying tanks was to bury a very large artillery shell with only the nose exposed. When a tank came near the enough a soldier would whack the shell with a hammer. "Lack of weapons is no excuse for defeat." Lt. Gen. Mataguchi Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire-fight. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island. The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for US artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing. Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. It is unknown where they put them since the MISS ME only had two seats. Most members of the Waffen SS were not German. Most men in the German Army hated the Nazi Party. Air attacks caused 1/3 of German Generals' deaths By D-Day, the Germans had 1.5 million railway workers operating 988,000 freight cars and used 29,000 per day The only nation that Germany officially declared war on was the USA. During the Japanese attack on Hong Kong, British officers objected to Canadian infantrymen taking up positions in the officers mess. No enlisted men allowed! By D-Day, 35% of all German soldiers had been wounded at least once, 11% twice, 6% three times, 2% four times and 2% more than 4 times Nuclear physicist Niels Bohr was rescued in the nick of time from German occupied Denmark. While Danish resistance fighters provided covering fire he ran out the back door of his home stopping momentarily to grab a beer bottle full of precious water. He finally reached England still clutching the bottle, which contained beer. Perhaps some German drank the water.

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