Some World War II Historical Facts

  

  You'll enjoy this from D.G. Swinford, USMC,

  Ret. and history buff. You would really have to dig to get

  this kind of ringside seat to history:

  

  1. The first German serviceman killed in WW2

  was killed by the Japanese (1937), the first American

  serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (1940), the

  highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair,

  killed by the Army Air Corps. 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 "Sink

  Us"), the shoulder patch of the U.S. Army's 45th

  Infantry Division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private

  train was named "Amerika." All three were soon

  changed for PR purposes.

  

  4. More servicemen died in the Air Corps than

  the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions,

  your chance of being killed was 71%.

  

  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% 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 allied armies reached the Rhine, 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. Patton 

 (who had himself photographed in the act).

  

  8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of

  bombing, but it wasn't worth the effort.

  

  9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a

  malfunctioning toilet.

  

  10. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy 

 were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the 

 Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and 

 forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by 

 the Germans and 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. 21 troops were killed in the

  firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any

  Japanese on the island.