People Share The Craziest WWII Facts They Know

"Albert would actually use the fact..."

"The story of the Göring brothers is mind blowing. I can't believe Hollywood hasn't made a movie about it."

"Hermann Göring was a high ranking Nazi party member. He was head of the Luftwaffe and he was designated to be Hitler's successor after the world was conquered and Hitler eventually died."

"His brother was Albert Göring. Albert was staunchly Anti-Nazi. Albert saw the regime for what it was, brutal, horrible, murdering racists. He especially objected to the treatment of the Jewish people."

"Albert would actually use the fact of who his brother was to get out of trouble for helping Jews escape. He would do things like drive a transport truck to the camps or ghettos where they were held, and demand to be given multiple people for work, or whatever excuse he would give."

"When he got resistance, he would drag out "Do you know who my brother is? NOW BRING THEM TO ME!" He would then drive them to safety and release them."

"He once saw a bunch of Jewish women being forced to scrub a street, so he hopped down on his knees and joined them. When the Nazi officer realized who he was, the scrubbing stopped."

"He did many things like this. Saving Jews from almost certain death. Defying the party. Defying his brother. Again, using his brothers political clout to derail Nazi objectives."

It's wild."

"AND THEN..."

"He gets captured, at the end of the war, and is going to be killed with the other captives, because OF COURSE Göring's brother must be Nazi scum. By sheer dumb luck, a person in charge of processing his termination paperwork was a Jew he saved! That person spoke up, and many others did, and he was set free."

OregonMrBear

This is quite the story! Yes, Hollywood, get on this! What are you waiting for?

"Not only..."

"Jumping Joe Beyrle of the 101st Airborne."

"Not only was he enough of a bad@ss to earn that nickname among people who jump out of planes for a living, but he also escaped a POW camp to the Soviet line and became the only known person to fight for both the USA and Red Army in the war."

jah05r

This is the guy at the bar with the wild and crazy life that you don't want to stop listening to. How could you?

"He then returned to his job..."

"Tsutomu Yamaguchi was on a work trip to Hiroshima when the atom bomb went off. He then returned to his job/home in Nagasaki and was describing the blast to his unbelieving boss when the Nagasaki bomb went off. He survived both atom bombs."

[deleted]

He has been dubbed as one of the most unlucky people in history. But he survived, sooo...

"He got demoted..."

"A Belgian pilot flying for the RAF found out the Nazis had executed his father in occupied Belgium. So after an escort mission he took a side trip and did a solo attack on the Gestapo headquarters in Brussels, dropping down to ground level in front of the building and machine-gunning the f*ck out of it."

"He killed the local Gestapo commander along with some SS officer and the AA crew on the roof. Then he did a victory lap tossing little Belgian flags out the window. Oh, and he swung by his niece's place and dropped a big flag."

"Then he went home. He got demoted for violating his orders and a medal for what he did while he was violating his orders."

dieinafirenazi

Now that's a true legend. I need to brush up on more of my World War 2 history because there are so many cool stories like this.

"The rest..."

"Only about 4% of Londoners used the Tube stations for bomb shelters in the Blitz. About 40% used Anderson shelters under their back gardens or cage-like shelters in their homes. The rest stayed in their usual bedrooms and hoped for the best."

ThisQuietLife

Very British. "We'll deal with it, stiff upper lift and all."

"I read somewhere..."

"I read somewhere that Russia’s losses were so great in the war that the population declines of the 60s and 90s were a direct result of the dead soldiers because their children that were meant to be born during these periods never were."

ButtonJensen

80% of Russian men born in 1923 did not live to see the end of WWII. About 40% died during the war, the rest died before it due to infant mortality and starvation.

"The United States..."

"The United States produced 150% more planes in 1944 alone than Japan did in the whole war."

sonofabutch

The Japanese hand built their Zeros in a factory that was 50 miles from the nearest runway and used OXEN to carry them one by one to the runway for takeoff!

"Operation Aphrodite..."

"Joseph Kennedy, Jr, the eldest brother of President John Kennedy was killed in WW2 as part of Operation Aphrodite. Operation Aphrodite involved flying unmanned bombers into targets. Kennedy was killed after arming the explosives in an unmanned bomber but before the crew bailed out."

"Joe Kennedy, Jr died working on the precursor to the modern day drone."

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And Joe Jr. was the son that Joe Sr. wanted to be President. Apparently he was the favorite son, and John was seen as rebellious and sickly.

"Winston Churchill had an oxygen mask for flying in airplanes specially made for him that would allow him to smoke cigars while he had the mask on."

ProbablyaDrugDealer

Ummm... I can't imagine that was safe.

Doesn't this make you want to pick up a history book and find out more? You should! With everyone worrying about the possibility of a third world war on the horizon, it is absolutely worth learning about the past and taking notes.

Know some more cool facts? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!