100 Fascinating Facts About World War II

1. World War II began on September 1, 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.
2. Over 30 countries took part in World War II.
3. World War II lasted six years and one day, ending on September 2, 1945.
4. The Holocaust resulted in the genocide of 6 million Jews.
5. Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, and dictator in 1934.
6. The United States didn’t enter the war until December 7, 1941, when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor.
7. Over 60 million people died in World War II.
8. The United Kingdom declared war on Germany just two days after Germany invaded Poland.
9. Operation Barbarossa was Hitler’s plan to invade the Soviet Union.
10. The largest battle in WWII was the Battle of Stalingrad between Germany and the Soviets.
11. D-Day (June 6, 1944) was the largest amphibious invasion in history.
12. The Blitz was a sustained bombing campaign against Britain by the German Air Force between 1940 and 1941.
13. Code breaking played a huge role in the war. The German Enigma and Lorenz ciphers were broken by the Allies at Bletchley Park, England.
14. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the operation that launched the invasion of German-occupied Western Europe.
15. Fanta was invented in Germany during World War II due to difficulties importing Coca-Cola syrup into Nazi Germany.
16. The United Nations was established after the war, in 1945.
17. World War II was the first war where jet aircraft and nuclear weapons were used.
18. In the USA, income tax was widely implemented to fund the war efforts.
19. The Japanese used kamikaze pilots for suicide attacks on American warships in the Pacific.
20. Hitler’s book, Mein Kampf, was a bestseller in 1940 in the Netherlands.
21. Approximately 600,000 Jews fought for the Allies during World War II.
22. Over 2.8 million women worked in factories to support the American war effort.
23. The U.S. interned over 110,000 Japanese-Americans in camps during the war.
24. The B-24 Liberator was the most produced American aircraft of World War II.
25. The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to Japan’s surrender.
26. The U.S. built a top-secret city in Tennessee (Oak Ridge) for the Manhattan Project.
27. The Jeep was invented and mass-produced for the U.S. military during WWII.
28. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill developed the “special relationship” between the U.S. and the U.K. during the war.
29. General George S. Patton was famous for his aggressive and successful tank warfare.
30. The German V-2 rocket was the world’s first long-range guided ballistic missile.
31. Hitler’s nephew, William Patrick Hitler, served in the US Navy during World War II.
32. About 70% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn’t survive World War II.
33. British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain is best known for his policy of “appeasement” toward Hitler’s Germany.
34. Hitler suffered from a variety of health problems including stomach pain, skin lesions, and a severe form of Parkinson’s disease.
35. The longest battle of WWII was the Battle of the Atlantic, which lasted from 1939 to 1945.
36. Switzerland remained neutral throughout the war.
37. The Nazis stole countless pieces of art and hid them, many are still missing to this day.
38. By the end of the war, the U.S. was producing half of the world’s oil and 72% of its vehicles.
39. Only 20% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 survived the war.
40. The youngest U.S. serviceman was Calvin Graham, 12 years old.
41. The most decorated unit in U.S. history was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, a unit composed of Japanese-Americans.
42. The Battle of the Bulge is the largest and deadliest battle for U.S. troops to date.
43. The original abbreviation of the National Socialist Party was Nasos. The word ‘Nazi’ derives from a Bavarian word meaning ‘simple minded’ and was first used as a term of derision by journalist Konrad Heiden.
44. The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese in China.
45. Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe.
46. More U.S. servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps.
47. Polish Catholic midwife Stanisława Leszczyńska delivered 3,000 babies at the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust in occupied Poland.
48. In World War II, British soldiers got a ration of three sheets of toilet paper a day. Americans got 22.
49. In 1941, more than three million cars were manufactured in the United States. Only 139 more were made during the entire war.
50. Four of every five German soldiers killed in the war died on the Eastern Front.
51. Only 20% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 survived the war.
52. The highest scoring ace of the war was German Luftwaffe pilot Erich Hartmann with 352 aerial kills.
53. The largest Japanese spy ring during WWII was in Mexico.
54. The mortality rate for POWs in Russian camps was 85%.
55. The first bomb dropped on Berlin by the Allies killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
56. Germany lost 136 Generals, which averages out to one dead General every two weeks.
57. More than 650,000 Jeeps were built during WWII.
58. American factories produced 300,000 aircraft for the war effort during WWII.
59. Germany made the first jet fighter, the Messerschmitt Me 262.
60. During the war, more than 2/3 of the world’s gold was stored in the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
61. Over 3 million people, including Jews, Soviets, and Romani people were killed in extermination camps during the Holocaust.
62. On D-Day, the Allies gathered the largest air, land, and sea force in history to invade Normandy, France.
63. During the Battle of Stalingrad, temperatures dropped as low as -30 degrees Celsius.
64. Japan and Russia have never signed an official peace treaty with each other to end World War II.
65. More than 1.5 million children were killed during the Holocaust.
66. Hitler and his wife, Eva Braun, killed themselves on April 30, 1945.
67. Vichy France was a puppet state established by the Germans in 1940.
68. The Nuremberg Trials were held to bring Nazi war criminals to justice.
69. Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest was a gift for his 50th birthday.
70. Auschwitz concentration camp was liberated by Soviet forces in January 1945.
71. Over 10 million Germans were forced to move from Eastern Europe after the war.
72. The “Double V Campaign” was a call for victory over fascism abroad and racism at home in America.
73. “Rosie the Riveter” was a cultural icon representing American women who worked in factories during the war.
74. Finland was the only European country bordering the Soviet Union in 1939 to resist communism throughout the war.
75. German and Italian POWs in the U.S. were used to work on farms and other labor-intensive jobs.
76. Hawaii was put under martial law from December 1941 to October 1944, the only time in U.S. history that has happened.
77. America’s first peacetime draft was established in September 1940.
78. King George VI of the United Kingdom stayed in London during the Blitz to boost morale.
79. The Warsaw Uprising was the largest military effort taken by any European resistance movement during WWII.
80. When Paris was liberated in August 1944, legend says the French switched back the “entrance” and “exit” signs at the metro stations to confuse the Germans.
81. German POWs interned in Canada were treated so well that they didn’t want to leave when the war was over.
82. The first concentration camp, Dachau, opened in March 1933.
83. The U.S. dropped two atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, leading to Japan’s surrender.
84. The Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, was shot by Italian partisans in April 1945.
85. The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the bloodiest in the Pacific, with over 26,000 American casualties.
86. The British broke the German Enigma code, which was instrumental in winning the war.
87. The U.S. rationed items like gasoline, coffee, and food during the war.
88. The U.S. dropped over 2 million tons of bombs during WWII.
89. WWII veterans are dying at a rate of approximately 300 per day.
90. The Japanese launched over 9,000 “wind ship weapons” of paper and rubberized-silk balloons that carried incendiary and anti-personnel bombs to the U.S.
91. German U-boats sunk around 2,779 ships during the Battle of the Atlantic.
92. The idea for the United Nations was conceived towards the end of the war.
93. Women were allowed to serve in many combat roles for the first time in WWII.
94. Japan’s Emperor Hirohito was not prosecuted for war crimes due to lack of evidence.
95. American GIs sent 450,000 tons of food back home from Europe.
96. The German city of Dresden was heavily bombed by the Allies in February 1945, killing approximately 25,000 people.
97. “Kilroy was here” was a famous piece of graffiti seen all over Europe by American soldiers.
98. The first concentration camp liberated by the Allies was Majdanek in Poland.
99. Walt Disney created insignias for the U.S. troops during WWII.
100. The U.S. produced more than 300,000 military aircraft during WWII.

Originally posted 2023-09-21 21:10:34.

Please share this page on social media and help us grow!