WW2 Archives - MadGhosts

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Elizebeth Friedman was America’s first cryptoanalyst who played a crucial part in busting Nazi spy ring in WW2. She decoded hundreds of enemy ciphers and saved thousands of lives.

by HistoryBuff January 26, 2022, 12:33 am

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TIL Operation Alaska, Finalaska or New Finland was a proposed plan to evacuate entire Finnish population (3.8 million) to Alaska during the WW2

by whatilearned January 25, 2022, 10:18 am

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TIL: The second officer of the Titanic (Charles Lightoller), who survived by swimming from the sinking ship to a capsized raft, later in life sailed his civilian craft to Dunkirk (France) and saved/evacuated about 130 people in WW2.

by whatilearned January 24, 2022, 8:12 pm

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TIL: The Trakehner breed of Prussian horses survived WW2 because an estate owner (Colonel Alexander zu Dohna-Schlobitten) escaped the Russian advance with 31 brood mares. He was home after being cashiered from the Wehrmacht for refusing to execute 15 captured American soldiers in Italy.

by whatilearned January 19, 2022, 3:38 pm

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Did (or why didn’t) many of the Japanese kamikaze planes of WW2 fly high and nosedive towards the target at a steep angle? (compared to flying low at the ship)

by HistoryBuff January 19, 2022, 10:28 am

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Germans, how is WW2 taught to students in history class?

by QuestionGuy January 16, 2022, 6:53 pm

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TIL the US incarcerated over 120 000 Japanese living in the US during WW2. They were relocated in to concentration camps until the war ended. Two thirds of them were American citizens.

by whatilearned January 12, 2022, 5:29 am

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TIL During WW2, Dick Best led a dive bomber attack during the pivotal battle of Midway. The attack’s success was led by the fact they showed up late. Because of this the Japanese defense planes were engaged elsewhere leaving Best’s forces free to sink 3 Japanese carriers and turn the tide of the war

by whatilearned December 11, 2021, 2:24 pm

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TIL that during WW2 a Spanish man convinced the Nazis that he was a spy living in London, and fed them false information. This grew to him working for Britain with captured spies, creating a fictional network of other spies, and being awarded a medal from both Britain AND Nazi Germany.

by whatilearned December 10, 2021, 8:54 pm

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TIL of Qian Xuesen, a Chinese rocket scientist and mathematician, who worked on the Manhattan Project during WW2 to help America build the world’s first atomic bomb. During the Cold War, he was accused of being a communist and fled America to China, where he helped China build its first atomic bomb.

by whatilearned December 6, 2021, 7:03 pm

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TIL about Project Paperclip, a secret United States intelligence program in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians were taken from former Nazi Germany to the U.S. for government employment after WW2 ended. Many of these personnel were former members of the Nazi Party.

by whatilearned December 5, 2021, 4:56 pm

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TIL Kim Philby, a high ranking MI6 spy and chief liaison for American/British intelligence relations was actually a Soviet agent during WW2 and the Cold War. He betrayed John le le Carré which is why he left spying to became a writer. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was partly inspired by him.

by whatilearned December 4, 2021, 9:35 pm

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