US Army had Dick & Jane (American elementary school books with pictures and simple words) readers to teach illiterate but smart men how to read. TM 21-500 Army Reader, 1943 : United States. War Department : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
This is fascinating info. Well it is to me because I really like trivia and trivial items, especially when it's related to WW2 stuff or just stuff that I find interesting in general. The Nivea company was founded in Germany in 1882. The current color scheme, a white logo on a blue tin, dates back to 1925. In World War II, Nivea cream inadvertently helped British authorities identify German operatives in England. Seems that the spies had some Nivea hand cream in their luggage, and Nivea products hadn't been available in Allied countries since the start of the war. So bingo, the bad guys slipped up and were apprehended. Dang! More on the story: Botched Nazi spy mission was act of sabotage, says historian
Seems that there was a massacre of German POWs in Utah on July 8,1945. A deranged (declared mentally unstable after being evaluated after the incident) enlisted man from New Orleans was the sole participant in the massacre. It was not an act of the Army infringing on the civil rights of the Germans, nor was it a result of trying to stop a mass breakout since the war was already over in the ETO. Read all about it! Utah prisoner of war massacre - Wikipedia
I have recently learned that the US Army developed an HVAP round for the M3 75mm gun, designated T45. I am trying to learn more about the round, but it was not adopted for general service. I have also learned that the Germans developed a 75mm hollow charge round for the Pak 97/38 anti-tank gun (French M1897 field gun on Pak 38 carriage). That round was made and used in large numbers.
I've read an excerpt on Quora claiming that Britain requested the US to construct Mosquito bombers instead of B-17s. The idea would be that it would have resulted in thousands of less aircrew lost, hundreds of less aircraft lost, the same amount of bombs dropped and a far more accurate bombing record achieved. Never read of such a request before. Now, has anyone heard of this? It makes for an interesting argument/debate when considering the charges made that fleets of Mosquito bombers would have been more effective than fleets of B-17s. It should be mentioned that I really really do like the Mosquito bomber a lot ever since seeing them when I was a kid in the great movie they starred in, "633 Squadron". So I hope that y'all don't take this as a "Murrican planes are better than Limey planes" thing. I just find it as an interesting tidbit of information that's a bit fascinating, and y'all know how I like fascinating bits of WW2 trivia.
Something I recently read, which I’m sure most people in here are familiar with: 7.000.000 Soviet lives were lost at the Eastern front. I’m from Denmark. The entire population of my country is around 6 million people.
Learned this on Jeopardy last night. The category was 'Money' "In 1942 the US began printing special bills for this then-territory that could be declared valueless if it was overun" Hawaii overprint note - Wikipedia.
I knew that US torpedoes were really lame in the early days of our participation in WW2, but not this lame. According to an article on Quora (y'all need to go over and peruse around on that site sometimes, it's choc full of neat info) it is supposed that the Mark 13 torpedo employed by the USN might as well been designed by a saboteur. An analysis of the performance was ran a year or so after the battle of Midway: 31% of torpedoes gave satisfactory performance, 69% either stopped dead in the water, sank to the depths, ran on the surface, turned erratically or suffered some other crippling failure, or just struck it's intended target and failed to detonate. If fewer than one of three torpedoes even works when dropped well you aren’t going to have great performance. You will have lame performance. It appears that some of most lamest of the Mark 13 torpedoes used at the Battle of Midway was used as a floatation device by Japanese sailors who went into the drink after their ships were sunk in the battle. Those torpedoes failed to detonate after striking their target and inadvertently saved some of the sailors whose ships were struck by some of the torpedoes that functioned properly.
Two 14" guns from USS Pennsylvania The Pennsy Guns at the Pennsylvania Military Museum - Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine Google Maps
I read this morning in the Advocate, the Baton Rouge newspaper in the "Today in History" section in particular that FDR announced the end of coffee rationing effective July 28, 1943. Not sure if it went into effect at the close of business, the first thing in the morning or midnight, the little article about it in the paper wasn't very explicit about. While coffee was still on the ration list each person (assume each person holding a ration coupon book) was limited to one (1) pound of coffee every five (5) weeks since November of 1942. Anyhoo, after a short time on the R list (rationing), coffee lovers could brew up and chug their cup of Joe, cuppajoe, java, lifer juice, cup of ambition, or whatever else they called the drink to their hearts content. Maybe the US was awash with coffee, I dunno. At least there was one (1) less item on the black market.
I previously read Stephen Ambrose's book about Pegasus Bridge, but now that I am reading Neil Barber's it has really brought home to me how the glider pilots landed the teams on target: practice, practice, practice, and more practice. Also amazingly accurate sand table models.
I've recently learned that after the Battle of Midway, American newspapers reported the victory. One report by the Chicago Sunday Tribune caused some trouble. The 14-paragraph story suggested that the Americans had deciphered Japanese naval codes. They had, in essence, revealed America's trump card. President Franklin D. Roosevelt was less than thrilled at the report. He launched an espionage investigation to discover who had learned about their Battle of Midway techniques. It was the only case in American History where the government prosecuted a media member under the Espionage Act. Those bastards!
More recent finds today. 23 Sets Of Brothers Died On The USS Arizona As Did A Father & Son. During the attack on Pearl Harbor there were 37 pairs or trios of brothers (a total of 77 men) assigned to the USS Arizona. Sixty-two of them were killed, including 23 sets of brothers. The only father and son pair on the ship, Thomas and William Free, died in action. Following the attack, U.S. officials tried to discourage family members from serving on the same ship in order to avoid a similar fate. Additionally there were at least 10 sets of brothers serving aboard the Oklahoma at the time of the attack. None survived.