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President Roosevelt used Al Capone's Limousine
On the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Secret Service realized they did not have a have a bulletproof car to transport President Roosevelt safely to Congress to deliver his Infamy Speech. A quick thinking Secret Service agent realized that the U.S. Treasury had seized the bulletproof limo of Al Capone in 1931.
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Calvin Graham was the youngest U.S. serviceman, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Navy at age 12 in 1942, it wasn't until after he was wounded that his real age was discovered.
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In 1942, American radio DJs were prohibited from taking listener requests. The government feared that enemy spies would embed secret messages.
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The term Third Reich was first used by German author Arthur Moeller van den Bruck in his 1923 book Das Dritte Reich ("The Third Reich"). His book heavily influenced the Nazi party.
Moeller van den Bruck wrote that there were two previous Reichs:
- The First Reich was the Holy Roman Empire (962-1806)
- The Second Reich was the German Empire of 1871-1918
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The SS ran a brothel named "The Kitty Salon," that was frequented by foreign diplomats. They gathered intelligence by wiretapping it and training the prostitutes on how to get information from clients.
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Russia and Japan have never signed an official peace treaty with each other to end World War II.
Both countries are still disputing over the rightful ownership of the Kuril Islands.
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Almost 80% of the males born in the Soviet Union in 1923 did not survive World War II.
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Russia was also the country with the largest number of casualties, with an estimated 21 million.
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Niju hibakusha is the Japanese term for survivors of both atomic bombings. The word translates to "explosion-affected people".
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"Monopoly" board games helped thousands of Allied POWs escape German camps.
Germany allowed the Red Cross to send care packages to POWs and among the items that could to be sent were board games. Special Monopoly boxes were created that contained items to help the prisoners escape:
- German, French, and Italian money currency was hidden within the Monopoly money;
- A metal file, hidden within the board;
- A small compass hidden in a play piece;
- Silk maps of the prison and it's location hidden inside the hotel pieces.
10 curious facts about WWII
// Some curious facts about the WWII.
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