According to this site
http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/
Here are a few of them.....
* A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)
The dangers of unpressurised aircraft
* 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2
* Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War 2 to accidents
Had to be the BF109's landing gear
* The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (they also sometimes cleared minefields by marching over them). "It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army". - Joseph Stalin
* 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.
* It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th found with a tracer round to aid in aiming. That was a mistake. The tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target, 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet, the 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. That 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.
* More US servicemen died in the Air Corps that the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%. Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5 tons of machine gun ammo. The US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.
* 6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded
* Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe
* 2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed
* 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2
* The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps.
* The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).
* The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937)
* The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for US artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing. Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. It is unknown where they put them since the MISS ME only had two seats.
* Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire-fight. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.
* The Graf Spee never sank, The scuttling attempt failed and the ship was bought by the British. On board was Germany's newest radar system.
* The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions, and 11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations. The German Army had paratroops who WERE capable of airborne operations.
* The average German officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times
* Air attacks caused 1/3 of German Generals' deaths
* Most members of the Waffen SS were not German
There are many more on the site
http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/
http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/
Here are a few of them.....
* A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)
The dangers of unpressurised aircraft
* 80% of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War 2
* Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War 2 to accidents
Had to be the BF109's landing gear
* The Russians destroyed over 500 German aircraft by ramming them in midair (they also sometimes cleared minefields by marching over them). "It takes a brave man not to be a hero in the Red Army". - Joseph Stalin
* 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.
* It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th found with a tracer round to aid in aiming. That was a mistake. The tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target, 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet, the 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. That 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.
* More US servicemen died in the Air Corps that the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions, your chance of being killed was 71%. Not that bombers were helpless. A B-17 carried 4 tons of bombs and 1.5 tons of machine gun ammo. The US 8th Air Force shot down 6,098 fighter planes, 1 for every 12,700 shots fired.
* 6 bomber crewmen were killed for each one wounded
* Over 100,000 Allied bomber crewmen were killed over Europe
* 2/3 of Allied bomber crews were lost for each plane destroyed
* 12,000 heavy bombers were shot down in World War 2
* The highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps.
* The first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).
* The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937)
* The MISS ME was an unarmed Piper Cub. While spotting for US artillery her pilot saw a similar German plane doing the same thing. He dove on the German plane and he and his co-pilot fired their pistols damaging the German plane enough that it had to make a forced landing. Whereupon they landed and took the Germans prisoner. It is unknown where they put them since the MISS ME only had two seats.
* Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire-fight. It would have been worse if there had been Japanese on the island.
* The Graf Spee never sank, The scuttling attempt failed and the ship was bought by the British. On board was Germany's newest radar system.
* The German Air Force had 22 infantry divisions, 2 armor divisions, and 11 paratroop divisions. None of them were capable of airborne operations. The German Army had paratroops who WERE capable of airborne operations.
* The average German officer slot had to be refilled 9.2 times
* Air attacks caused 1/3 of German Generals' deaths
* Most members of the Waffen SS were not German
There are many more on the site
http://www.world-war-2.info/facts/
