World War II Facts!

Here are some facts that I found. I copied out the ones i thought were interesting but there was a whole website devoted only to these facts. The link is at the bottom of the page.

The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded in combat and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress).

Germany's power grid was much more vulnerable than realized. One estimate is that if just 1% of the bombs dropped on German industry had instead been dropped on power plants, German industry would have collapsed.

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.

German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.

A number of air crewmen died of farts. (ascending to 20,000 ft. in an un-pressurized aircraft causes intestinal gas to expand 300%!)

Germany lost 40-45% of their aircraft during World War 2 to accidents

The only nation that Germany declared war on was the USA.

One of the facts I found pretty interseting was that the youngest American soldier was only 12 years old. I looked up more about this kid at the time and found out that he was wounded while he was aboard the USS South Dakota which was fighting in the naval battle of Guadalcanal. He was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. His mother told what his real age was and his medals were taken from him but all were eventually reinstated after many years of fighting for financial benefits. There was even a movie made about his service in WWII called Too Young the Hero, where he was played by Rick Schroder.

2 Different Wars?

During the second world war, the U.S. was practically fighting in two different places against two different enemies. The Pacific war and the European war. And really these two places couldnt be much more different. The Pacific consisted of mostly sea and air battles with some close range fire fights on islands. There was not much heavy duty armory, but there was alot of infantry and bombings. On the other hand the European war was totally different. It consisted of the whole continent so there was much more room which consisted of much more fighting. The germans had tanks, armor, bombs, battleships, and fighter planes. This side of the war i think consisted of much more tactical strategys that played a future role in the war, where in the Pacific there wasnt much else you could do then to just try and sink the enemies battleships and try to take islands. Both had important battles that were crucial to U.S. success, but they were so totallly different that soldiers fought completely different battles. How do you think these two different war scenes were alike and how do you think the soldiers could compare with each other what happened?

My Thoughts regarding Guadalcanal

How was war like a "giant catapault shot that accelerated life beyond any possible prior imagining?" 



I think that before the war began, most Americans including the whole American Army thought that they would go over to the Pacific, shoot some Japs and they would be done and the war would be over. I think that they took it that they were overly superior to the Japanese that they would have no chance at all at putting up a fight. Even when the platoon was sitting at night watching the battle off the coast between the ships they took it that they were winning when they couldnt tell who was who. Then in the morning when they found out that they had lost 2 battleships to the Japanese navy they were stunned that it was even possible that they lost a battle. I think as soon as the fighting starts the soldiers quickly realize that the japanese are stronger then they think and that they are very capable of winning the war. I think that nothing they couldve done before the war could have prepared them for the war like actually being in it because nothing can prepare them for the emotional and physical toll that they go through everyday. The war really showed these soldiers what was going on in the Pacific which really differed from what they recently thought when they were back in the states.

Japanese genocide vs. American genocide?

Many historians and people feel that dropping the atomic bombs on Japan was uneed to end the war and can be considered a mass murder of civilions. Maybe not genocide, but something close to the fact. I feel that how is this any different from the rape of Nanking? The Japanese army purposely tried to kill innocent civilians including woman and small children for the fact that they didnt want them to get in the way. There was no war at the time. Japan was just trying to get more land and these people happened to get in the way, so they killed them all. Basically a genocide. I feel that this is way worse then what we did to Japan by dropping the A-bombs. We were still in a war with Japan even if their defeat did seem evident. If you think that America did commit some kind of crime by bombing innocent Japanese cities, think about what Japan has done and even other countries have done in the past. There have been way worse things to happen other than the dropping of the A-bombs.

JOEY STALIN!!

Papa Stalin, what a great leader.

Time traveler in the Roaring 20's!?

Since everyone says that Adolf Hitler and Cahrlie Chaplin look so much alike I decided to really compare the two, and during my investigation I found a crazy Charlie Chaplin video that show a what appears to be a man or woman talking on a cell phone... IN 1928! Is this one of Charlie Chaplin's Hoaxs? Or is it a time traveler from the future that happened to get caught on tape? No one really knows. I found an article posted a couple days ago that this video is a certain trick because there were no cell towers in 1928 but they pose the possibility that it could be an alien talking to a mothership. Anyway you see it, it is interesting. I dont really know how this also relates to world wars but I thought it would be a cool little story to share with the class.
I personally think that it is a time travler thaty came back in time to purposly walk through Chaplin's circus video and draw attention so in the future he can see himself in the video. 

Heres the link to the youtube videos and also that article.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiIrpEMbQ2M

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/5942802/the_charlie_chaplin_cell_phone_footage.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1324132/Time-travel-Charlie-Chaplin-film-1928-footage-shows-woman-mobile-phone.html