In WW2 when the US Air Force were trying to reduce losses of their bombers, they wanted to add armor to the areas that received the most damage, but a mathematician suggested they add the armor in areas that did not receive damage, as planes shot in those areas never made it back to be analyzed.
WWII
In 2015 authorities in Germany …
In 2015 authorities in Germany seized a World War Two tank which was being kept in a senior’s basement. The Panther tank was removed from the 78-year-old’s house in the town of Heikendorf, along with a variety of other military equipment, including a torpedo and an anti-aircraft gun.
Vincent Speranza made a beer…
Vincent Speranza made a beer run for a wounded buddy during the Battle of the Bulge that became a legend in Belgium and he did not find out until 65 years later.
The bazooka anti-tank weapon…
The bazooka anti-tank weapon is named after a its resemblance to a novelty musical instrument created by a radio comedian of the 1930s called Bob Burns. After firing the weapon during testing a General commented: “It sure looks like Bob Burns’ bazooka”, and the weapon gained its WWII nickname.
In Feb 1945, Mikhail Devyataev, a Soviet fighter…
In Feb 1945, Mikhail Devyataev, a Soviet fighter pilot escaped a Nazi concentration camp near Peenemünde with nine other POWs by taking over the commandant’s He 111 bomber. The NKVD didn’t believe his story and classified him as a criminal, but in 1957 he became a Hero of the Soviet Union.
The first Soviet citizen to visit….
The first Soviet citizen to visit the White House was a female WWII sniper with 309 confirmed kills, one of which was a sniper she dueled for 3 days.
But as the tour progressed, Pavlichenko began to bristle at the questions, and her clear, dark eyes found focus. One reporter seemed to criticize the long length of her uniform skirt, implying that it made her look fat. In Boston, another reporter observed that Pavlichenko “attacked her five-course New England breakfast yesterday. American food, she thinks, is O.K.”
Soon, the Soviet sniper had had enough of the press’s sniping. “I wear my uniform with honor,” she told Time magazine. “It has the Order of Lenin on it. It has been covered with blood in battle. It is plain to see that with American women what is important is whether they wear silk underwear under their uniforms. What the uniform stands for, they have yet to learn.”
The long-standing notion of late WWII…
The long-standing notion of late WWII ‘Kamikaze’ pilots as hyper-nationalist zealots was largely fiction. Many pilots were reluctantly drawn from the educated and liberal in Japan, and many expressed frustration at the futility of their nation’s cause and the sanctity of the Emperor.
The iconic photo of the sailor kissing…
The iconic photo of the sailor kissing a nurse in Times Square on V-J day was actually a non-consensual kiss by a drunk sailor. The “nurse” was a dental assistant named Greta Friedman who later said “it wasn’t my choice to be kissed. The guy just came over and kissed or grabbed.”
Over 8,000 pieces of music were secretly….
Over 8,000 pieces of music were secretly created in Nazi concentration camps; including symphonies, operas, and songs scribbled on everything from food wrappings to potato sacks. One prisoner composed an entire symphony on toilet paper using the charcoal given to him as dysentery medicine.
During the attack on Pearl Harbor…
During the attack on Pearl Harbor, only 5 American pilots managed to get into the air against 353 Japanese planes, the first two were George Welch and Kenneth Taylor. They shot down 6 enemies. They were DENIED the Medal of Honor because … they didn’t have permission to take off from their CO.