Wacky Military History
Read through these "That's
Incredible" historical vignettes about real events during World War II, and
choose one to expand into a short story. These tidbits are from Col. D.G.
Swinford, USMC, Ret.
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 U.S. Army Air Corps. . . . So much for allies!
2. The youngest U.S. 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 an act of Congress.)
3. At the time of Pearl Harbor, the top U.S. Navy command was called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the
shoulder patch of the U.S. Army's 45th Infantry division was the swastika,
and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika."
All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
4. More U.S. servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your
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 fifth round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was
a 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 River 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. George Patton (who had
himself photographed in the act).
8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but 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 captured by the Japanese and 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 U.S. Army
and finally given a rest.
AND COL.
SWINFORD SAVED THE BEST FOR LAST:
11. Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian
Islands. Twenty-one troops were killed in
the firefight. It would have been even worse if there had been any
Japanese on the island.
By Susan Darst Williams • www.GoBigEd.com • After School Treats 021 • © 2006
