WWII Insights

Jim · Post by **Jim** » December 6th, 2006, 6:47 am

Interesting WWII facts

You'll love this from Col. 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
(China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. . . So much for allies.

2. The youngest US 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 US Navy command was Called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US 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 US 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.

YOU'VE GOT TO LOVE THIS ONE....

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). found the photo (hand tinted black and white)

8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City 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 figh t 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 US Army.

AND I SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST....

11. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US 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.

RANGER513 · Post by **RANGER513** » December 6th, 2006, 7:25 am

WOW !

Very awesome reading, Jim.

Thanks.

Chiron · Post by **Chiron** » December 6th, 2006, 7:40 am

Very interesting indeed.

christopherjshim · Post by **christopherjshim** » December 6th, 2006, 9:54 am

Thank you Ranger Jim for that interesting history.

My Google-fu came up with this website:
http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/

Colonel Swinson does show up on the retired service list at Marine Online (our version of AKO), but I wonder if this list was falsely attributed to him?

Nonetheless, an outstanding read!

***EDIT: More from Snopes.com
http://msgboard.snopes.com/cgi-bin/ulti ... 000494;p=1

Ranger Ron · Post by **Ranger Ron** » December 6th, 2006, 1:21 pm

Tnanks Jim that was facinating.

mikelogics · Post by **mikelogics** » December 6th, 2006, 9:04 pm

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 figh t 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 US Army.

Makes me wonder if they ever made it back to Korea under MacArthur.

Flesh Thorn · Post by **Flesh Thorn** » December 7th, 2006, 6:15 am

According to Wikipedia this is a Native American symbol or maybe that should be Native Amerikan.

Looon · Post by **Looon** » December 7th, 2006, 6:27 am

Flesh Thorn wrote:

According to Wikipedia this is a Native American symbol or maybe that should be Native Amerikan.

That sign has different meanings, in multiple cultures.