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WW2 FACTS
There were no land combat operations on the Western Front from June 1940 until 4 years later, with the Normandy landings in June 1944
Rice Terraces of Vietnam
Beachy Head, England, United Kingdom
WELCOME TO PAGE 111 - THE PAGE OF BEAUTIFUL PLACES & WAR FACTS !!!!
Cape Town, South Africa
Easter Island
Tulip Fields of Netherlands
Maranhenses National Park, Maranhao, Brazil
Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands
WW2 FACTS
President Franklin D. Roosevelt popularized labeling the conflict the “Second World War,” using the term publicly in 1941.
Mount Rushmore National Park, South Dakota, United States
Neuschwanstein Castle, Bavaria, Germany
WW2 FACTS
Nearly a quarter of the population of Nazi Germany served in the Armed Forces during World War 2
WW2 FACTS
American military officials discussed dropping a third atomic bomb on Japan, with Tokyo the target on August 19th, 1945, but President Harry S. Truman ordered no more to be dropped without his direct approval
Monument Valley, Arizona-Utah Border
Dominican Republic
Geirangerfjord, More og Romsdal County, Norway
Tikal, Northern Guatemala
WW2 FACTS
France had more tanks, guns and men than Germany in 1940
It is always assumed that during the Second World War the Germans bludgeoned their way to victory with a highly modern and mechanised army and Air Force that was superior to anything the Allies could muster in May 1940. The reality of WW2 was very different.
On 10 May 1940, when the Germans attacked, only 16 of their 135 divisions were mechanised – that is, equipped with motorised transport. The rest depended on horses and cart or feet. France alone had 117 divisions.
Copenhagen, Denmark
WW2 FACTS
The priority for manpower in the UK is surprising
Britain had decided before the war began that it would make air and naval power the focus of its fighting capability, and it was only after the fall of France that British powers realised that the Army would have to grow substantially too.
However, right up until the spring of 1944, the priority for manpower in the UK was not the navy, RAF, army, or even the merchant navy, but the Ministry of Aircraft Production. In the war, Britain alone built 132,500 aircraft, a staggering achievement – especially when considering that Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain never had more than 750 fighters.
WW2 FACTS
Allied merchant shipping losses were just 1 per cent
Allied shipping losses in the Second World War in the North Atlantic, Arctic and Home Waters were just 1.48 per cent. Overall, there were 323,090 individual sailings, of which 4,786 were sunk. Of these, 2,562 were British, but on average, there were around 2,000 British ships sailing somewhere around the world on any given day.
Convoys, for the most part, were pretty safe, even though a few suffered terribly. Independent sailings and stragglers from convoys suffered the worst, but faster independent sailings were needed to cut down on unloading time and congestion, which was the drawback of the convoy system.
WW2 FACTS
The Japanese had Kamikaze rockets
It was not only the Germans who put rocket-power aircraft into the air in the Second World War. After their initial victories, the Japanese struggled to pace with US and British technology, but they did develop the Ohka – or ‘Cherry Blossom’, a rocket-power human-guided anti-shipping missile, which was used at the end of the war as a kamikaze weapon.
It had to be carried by a ‘mother’ plane to get within range, then once released would glide towards the target – usually a ship – before the pilot would fire the rockets and hurtle in at up to 600 mph. Ohka pilots were called Jinrai Butai – ‘thunder gods’ – but only managed to sink three Allied ships. It was a lot of effort and sacrifice for not very much.
WW2 FACTS
Britain had the least rationing in Europe
France and Britain began the war without rationing and, while it was modestly introduced in Britain in January 1940, France had still resisted by the time they were defeated in June 1940. Germany, on the other hand, introduced rationing before the war and struggled to feed its armed forces and the wider population from start to finish.
The country’s demand for food from occupied territories led to a lot of hunger for a lot of people, including the urban French. British people never had to go hungry and, although a number of foods were rationed, there were lots that were not. Certainly, by 1945, Britain had it very easy compared with the rest of Europe.
Stone Forest, Yunnan Province, China
WW2 FACTS
Field Marshal Alexander was the most experienced battlefield commander of the war
Field Marshal Alexander was known to every Britain in the country by the war's end, but he is less well known today. He had an extraordinary career, and was the only officer of the war to lead front-line troops at every rank.
After rising to acting Brigadier in the First World War, he led the Nowshera Brigade on the Northwest Frontier in the 1930s, the First Division in France in 1940, and British forces in Burma in 1942. He commanded Middle East Forces and two army groups before finally becoming Supreme Allied Commander in the Mediterranean.
He was also unique in the British Army for having commanded German troops in Latvia in 1919-20 during the war against Russia.
Westminster Palace, England, United Kingdom
Arches National Park, Eastern Utah
Sydney, Australia
iant’s Causeway, Antrim, Northern Ireland