The Second World War lasted from 1939 to 1945

 

World War II (1939-1945) was fought across six of the world's seven continents and all its oceans and around 50 million humans lost their lives in the war. All the world's greatest powers formed two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis. The result was Allied Victory, which led to the fall of Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan and Fascist Italy.

 

While the details are out there in numerous historical books, there are some unknown facts about the war that you might not be aware of:

 

1. Did you know the Nazis surprisingly were close to developing plutonium, which is the main ingredient to kickstart nuclear weapons. It happened when Germans invaded Norway and took over a factory in the Telemarkregion. The same unit produced heavy water, which was used to create plutonium. However, before they could do anything about it, 11 Norwegian commandos sabotaged the plant.

 

2. Japan apparently paid 1 million yen to a team of scientists in lieu of a promise that they would create a "death ray", more like a wave electric power which could be used to kill humans standing miles away. They did get as far as a prototype but luckily, the target had to stand still for 10 minutes for it to work and the plan did not work out.

 

3. The Battle of Stalingrad, which was the largest confrontation of World War II, actually lasted from July 1942 to February 1943. In fact, it began when Germany attempted to capture the industrial city. While the Axis powers had between 650,000 and 868,000 casualties, the Soviet Union lost close to 1.1 million people.

 

4. CINCUS - an acronym for Commander in Chief, United States Fleet, was pronounced “sink us”. The name went awkward after Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941. Hence, it was changed to COMINCH in December 1941.

 

5. Did you know The Battle of the Atlantic was as long as WWII itself? It started off when British declared war against Germany, in September 1939, and lasted till the German surrender in May 1945. During this whole time, German U-boats were aiming to disrupt the supplies of goods going to Britain.

 

6. Japanese pilot Shigenori Nishikaichi was among the people who bombed Pearl Harbor, and crash-landed onto Hawaii. The locals were unaware of the enemy fighter and welcomed him graciously. However, soon the news reached Hawaii of the attack and Nishikaichi was put under guard. He managed to escape but a local attacked and killed the pilot.