Little-known facts about the most tragic page of world history.
The Second World War is the most destructive military conflict in the history of mankind. It covered 80% of the world's population, was conducted on the two largest continents - in Eurasia and Africa - and claimed the lives of tens of millions of people.
1. Losses of the Soviet Union
Only 20% of the total male population, born in the USSR in 1923, survived during the war.
2. Declaration of war
Germany officially declared war on only one state - the United States of America. With the rest of the participating countries, the 2 nd world Nazi state waged war de facto.
3. The first American, who died in World War II
The first dead American is Captain Lousy, who served as military attache in Norway. He was bombed in April 1940, when a train was waiting for one of the stations.
4. The first German soldier who died in World War II
The first dead German is Lieutenant von Schmeling, a former military adviser in China who was at war with Japan since 1931. Von Schmeling was killed during the command of an infantry battalion in Shanghai in 1937.
5. Torpedoes, controlled by suicide bombers
The Japanese used submarines-torpedoes of the type "Kaiten" (in Japanese translation - "changing destiny"), which were controlled by suicide pilots. In total, about 100 such torpedoes were dropped, and the largest hit was the American destroyer "Underhill", sunk in July 1945.
6. Finnish snipers
At that time the finest snipers were the Finns. During the Soviet-Finnish war, which lasted only 3.5 months (from the end of 1939 to the beginning of 1940), there were 40 killed Soviet soldiers per dead Finn.
7. Rosa Shanina
Rosa Shanina was a Soviet sniper, capable of accurately firing at moving targets. On her account, 59 confirmed hits in German soldiers and officers. Despite the fact that the girl was at the front for less than a year, German newspapers called her "the invisible horror of East Prussia." Rosa Shanina died of wounds at the age of 20 years.
8. The defense of Leningrad
More than 300 thousand Soviet soldiers were killed during the defense of Leningrad. This means that for one city the losses of the USSR amounted to 75% of all American soldiers killed in the 2nd World War.
9. Air ram
Soviet pilots destroyed hundreds of German aircraft, using an air ram from the first days of the war. Several pilots managed to catapult. Military pilot Boris Kovzan rammed German planes four times, during the last ram, he was thrown out of the cab, and he fell into a swamp from a height of 6,000 m with an incompletely opened parachute. Having broken his leg and several ribs, he survived, and died 40 years after the war.
German pilots began using the air ram near the end of the war.
10. Stalin's cleansing
During the Stalinist purges, more "enemies of the people" were killed than in the Nazi concentration camps. According to some estimates, 25 million people became victims of Stalinist repression, while victims of Nazism are estimated at 12 million.
11. The submarine-giants
In 2005, divers from the University of Hawaii investigated the remains of a Japanese submarine of the type I-401, also known as "Sentoku", which was flooded in 1946. The largest boats of the second world were underwater aircraft carriers and were built to deliver bombers to anywhere in the world, including for the bombing of the Panama Canal. The submarine carried three partially folded bombers placed in a waterproof hangar inside the boat.
The range of such a swim - 69500 km - exceeded by 1.7 times the circumference of the Earth. A total of three were built, at the end of the war they were transferred to the US and flooded. The size of the boat is impressive: the length of 122 m, the width of the hull is 12 m, according to various data, the crew could include from 144 to 195 people.
12. German submarines
During World War II Germany lost 793 submarines, which had about 40 thousand crew members - 75% were killed at sea.
13. Reevaluation of enemy forces
The power supply system in Germany during the war was more vulnerable than the allies believed. Some experts believe that if instead of industrial enterprises at least 1% of the bomb strikes were inflicted on power plants, the entire infrastructure of Germany would be instantly destroyed.
14. The Ases
During the 2nd world among pilots there were no half measures: either you ac, or cannon fodder. One of the best Japanese pilots, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa, shot down more than 80 aircraft and died when a passenger was flying on board a transport plane. German ace Oberst Werner Melders, the first in the history to cross the line of 100 shot down aircraft, ended his days during the crash of a passenger airliner on board which he flew as a passenger.
15. Tracer bullets
In order to be able to correct the shooting, the aircraft guns on the fighters were partially loaded with tracer bullets, leaving a visible trail and allowing to see the flight trajectory. This was every fifth shot of a machine gun. But it turned out that the trajectory of the tracer bullets was different from the usual ones, and if such a bullet hit the target, then the number of hit bullets released on its trail was only 20%.
Moreover, the enemy also perfectly saw the light from the tracer bullets and knew where the attack was from.
The worst thing was that often the pilots loaded tracer bullets at the end of the cartridge belt to know when they were running out of ammunition. However, the enemy also knew this, so those pilots who stopped using tracer bullets, returned from missions twice as often, and the percentage of hits they also had higher.
16. Coca-Cola
When American troops landed in northern Africa, in addition to the armament and ammunition they brought in, they opened three coca-cola plants to supply the army.
17. Dachau
The Dachau Concentration Camp was opened six years before the outbreak of World War II - in 1933. Subsequently it turned into a whole complex, uniting about 100 concentration camps.
18. Poland
Of all the countries affected by the war, Poland suffered the biggest losses - 20% of the country's population was destroyed.
19. The Aleutian Islands
Two islands of the Aleutian Range, part of the state of Alaska, were occupied by Japanese troops for over a year. For 13 months, during which the American troops tried to recapture the islands, nearly 1,500 soldiers were killed.
20. 3000 babies
Polish midwife Stanislava Leszczynska took delivery of 3000 women in Auschwitz, where she was with her daughter for helping Jewish families during the Holocaust in occupied Poland.
21. The nephew of Hitler
Hitler's nephew, William Hitler, served as a sailor in the US Navy during World War II.
22. Not a step back
The junior military intelligence lieutenant of the Imperial Army of Japan, Hiroo Onoda, for nearly thirty years after the end of the war, he continued to occupy his position on one of the Philippine islands. He refused to believe in Japan's defeat in World War II and surrender without an order. Onoda obeyed only his former commander, who in 1974 came specially from Japan to remove his powers.
23. US troops
In the 2nd world took part 16 million American soldiers, 405 thousand of which were killed.
24. Million-dollar losses
The number of deaths in the Second World War can not be accurately calculated, according to various estimates, the losses on both sides were from 50 to 80 million people, 80% of which fall to just four countries: the USSR, China, Germany and Poland.
25. Coconut Juice
This seems incredible, but in the battles on the African continent, coconut juice was used as a replacement for blood plasma in emergency cases.
26. Prisoners
Soviet military leaders released prisoners to the minefields to clear the way for the troops.
27. The Elephant
The first bomb, which fell on Berlin, killed the only elephant in the Berlin zoo.
28. The Phantom Army
To disinform the enemy and create an erroneous representation of the advantages of the Allied forces, special forces were created in the US Army that used non-real weapons: inflatable tanks, wooden planes and cars with loudspeakers that transmitted pre-recorded sounds of battles that were heard over 20 km. These troops were called "ghost army."
29. Constance
The German city of Konstanz, located near the border with Switzerland, has not lost a single Allied bomb during the entire period of hostilities. The fact is that during the raids in the city the light was never turned off, and this misled the pilots who believed that they were flying over the territory of Switzerland.
30. Adrian Cardon di Viart
British Lieutenant-General Adrian Carton di Viart took part in the Anglo-Boer, 1st and 2nd World Wars. He lost his left eye and brush, was wounded in the head, stomach, leg, thigh and ear, survived two plane crashes, was captured and tore his fingers when the doctor refused to amputate them. For his incredible vitality from the nickname "lucky Odysseus."
31. Memorial to the Victims of the Holocaust in Berlin
Plates opened in the 2005 memorial to the victims of the Holocaust in Berlin have a special coating that does not allow them to put graffiti on them. Ironically, this special coating against vandals was developed by the same firm that once produced Cyclone B gas, used in gas chambers of concentration camps to destroy prisoners.
32. With the revolver on the tank
British officer James Hill captured two Italian tanks, carrying only a revolver. However, when he tried to capture another tank, he was wounded.
33. Cat Bullets
The use of cats to combat rodents on merchant ships and warships was a long-standing practice, not interrupted during the war. Cat Bullets, catching mice on one of the ships of the US Navy, was a veteran of the 2nd World War, for his service was awarded three medals and four stars.
34. Disagreements on the date of the outbreak of war
Some experts count the beginning of the war with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on September 18, 1931.
35. Alexey Maresiev
Soviet pilot Alexei Maresiev was hit over the territory controlled by Germany. For 18 days he crawled along enemy territory, after which both legs were amputated as a result of the wound, but he returned to aviation and flew with prostheses.
36. The most effective aces
The most productive ace of all times is the pilot of the Luftwaffe Erich Hartmann, on his account 352 shot down aircraft. The best ace of allies is Ivan Kozhedub, who shot down 66 enemy aircraft.
37. Plane aircraft
At the end of the war, the Japanese developed a projectile Ohka, which means "cherry blossom". But despite such a lyrical name, this aircraft was controlled by a kamikaze and was used primarily against the American Navy.
38. Nurses of the US Army
At the beginning of the war with Japan in 1941, the US Army had 1000 nurses. By the end of the war, their number had risen to 60,000.
39. Prisoners of war in the United States
During the military operations, more than 41,000 US troops were captured, of which 5.4 thousand were captured by the Japanese - half of them were killed.
40. A child-sailor
The youngest American soldier was 12-year-old Calvin Graham, who added his age to go to war. In one of the battles he was wounded and given up under a tribunal for lying about age. But later his merits were evaluated by Congress.
41. Terrible coincidences
A bit of irony:
- The emblem of the 45th Infantry Division of the US Army was a swastika. This division was part of the National Guard of the Oklahoma Army, and the swastika was chosen as a tribute to the indigenous population - American Indians living in the southwest.
- Hitler's personal train at the beginning of the war was called "America."
- At the time when Pearl Harbor was subjected to Japanese bombing, the US Navy's supreme command was called CINCUS, an abbreviation pronounced "sink us" - sink us.
42. Accidents in aviation
According to the US Air Force's statistical directory, during the war, only in the United States, the US Air Force lost about 15,000 pilots killed in accidents. Another thousand aircraft disappeared from the radar on the way from the base to the further deployment.