Interesting Facts

[jaycee]

My friend sent me this from his Canadian Navy List ;
[COLOR=#777777]
You might enjoy this from Col D. G. Swinford, USMC, Ret and history
buff. You would really have to dig deep to get this kind of ringside
seat to history:

1. The first German serviceman killed in WW II 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.

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. 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, an airman's 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 big 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 New York City , but
they decided 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 US Army.

11. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 United States and
Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands . 21
troops were killed in the assault on the island....... It could have
been worse if there had actually been any Japanese on the island.

12. The last marine killed in WW2 was killed by a can of spam He was
on the ground as a POW in Japan when rescue flights dropping food and
supplies came over, the package came apart in the air and a stray can
of spam hit him and killed him.

[Bo D]

That is insane. Where would come up with that kind of information... Very interesting ....

[Sharon]

Fascinating. Thank you.
To the day he died, my Dad was mad that the Canadians who reached Rome first , had to stand back and let the Americans enter the city. Americans needed the PR as support back home was waning.

[jaycee]

That is insane. Where would come up with that kind of information... Very interesting ....

Lots of digging , anything the Military does is always written and logged daily and is in the archives.

[trimmer21]

I especially noted item#11 that mentions 21 KIA in an operation on Kiska Island (where there weren't any enemy troops present). I remember a veteran that said "When the Luftwaffe flew a bombing run,the allies ducked. When the RAF flew a bombing run,the Germans ducked. When the USAF flew a bombing run,EVERYBODY ducked."

[Marker]

#2; There was a movie about this called Too Young the Hero, he was played by Ricky Schroder.


#10: These guys were sold to the Japenese by their own government, they were told they were going on a work program. The Korean gvmnt later applogized.

[mosquito]

This was an interesting article on some interesting paint jobs in WW2 that I just heard about and you might find interesting.
https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war...ion-ships.html