Soldiers awaiting the Japanese at Guadalcanal
The History Channel has been showing a documentary about World War II (in HD) and it has the history buff in me all excited. I can’t get enough of the show, and now that war is all I have been interested in reading about while browsing the Internet. I have found many websites that are loaded with tons of (I did not know that) facts about World War II. Here are five facts that I found most interesting courtesy of www.world-war-2.info.
The German power grid was more vulnerable than the U.S. realized. It is estimated that if just a lowly 1% of the bombs dropped on the German industry would have been dropped on German power plants, then Germany would have collapsed. Man, imagine if we would have known this back then, it could have relieved a lot of headaches and saved a lot of lives.
Germany lost 45% of their aircraft during World War II due to accidents. What?!? Imagine if the Germans wouldn’t have been such cluts. They could have really done a lot more damage with 45% of their aircraft up and running. This falls back on the leadership and training of the German army. Unless they classified an accident as a Russian pilot flying his plane into a German plane. Which brings me to my next interesting fact…….
Approximately 500 German aircrafts were destroyed by Russian pilots by flying their planes into the Germans in midair. I guess the Russians would use their fighter planes as ammo once they ran out of ammo. Talk about dedication. It is also said that Russian ground troops would clear out minefields by marching over them. I think we now know why “Russian” Roulette was invented.
Calving Graham was the youngest person to ever serve for the U.S. He was 12 years old when he enlisted. He was wounded in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal and received the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. Can you imagine what was going through a 12 year old boy’s mind when he was aboard the USS South Dakota while it was being fired upon by the Japanese? Graham’s real age was later revealed and he was stripped of his medals and dishonorably discharged by the military and his benefits were taken as well. Congress later reinstated his benefits and gave his medals back after Graham battled to receive them.
Approximately 80% of Soviet men born before the year 1923 did not make it through World War II. I cannot even begin to imagine the heartache and fear that the Soviet women and children had to endure. If they were scared, imagine what the men that entered into the war in the later years were thinking as they saw the alarming death toll of Soviet soldiers. Once again, I can’t even imagine!
World War II was a very uneasy time for America and the rest of the world. It brought about so much death and destruction that we, who didn’t live during that time, can imagine. The War was one of the biggest and deadliest ever, and I’m sure as time goes by, more and more interesting facts will surface, only time will tell.
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