Discover obscure history, hidden heroes, and rare stories from World War II
While most histories focus on the glider troops who captured Pegasus Bridge, few know that A Company of the 2nd Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry (later the Worcestershire Regi Read more...
View Full StoryThe artificial Mulberry harbors used at Normandy were designed by a team led by Welsh engineer Hugh Iorys Hughes. His revolutionary design used concrete caissons ("Phoenix breakwaters") and floating r Read more...
View Full StoryIn the months before D-Day, French civilian women risked their lives to map German minefields on Normandy beaches. Working at low tide, they would feel for mines with bare feet, mark safe paths with s Read more...
View Full StoryFather Francis L. Sampson, a Catholic chaplain with the 501st Parachute Infantry Regiment, landed behind Utah Beach on D-Day and spent the next 36 hours behind enemy lines tending to wounded of both s Read more...
View Full StoryPierre Seel, a French homosexual, was arrested by the Gestapo in 1941 and deported to Schirmeck-Vorbruck concentration camp. After his release, he joined the French Resistance, using his knowledge of Read more...
View Full StoryWhile the Tuskegee Airmen are famous, few know about the African American meteorologists who served with them. These men, trained at Tuskegee Institute, provided critical weather forecasts for mission Read more...
View Full StoryIva Toguri d"Aquino, an American citizen visiting Japan when war broke out, was forced to host a radio propaganda show called "Zero Hour." Despite the "Tokyo Rose" moniker, she secretly sabotaged broa Read more...
View Full StoryIn February 1945, 350 American POWs identified as Jewish or "undesirable" were separated from other prisoners at Stalag IX-B and sent to Berga an der Elster, a subcamp of Buchenwald. There they were f Read more...
View Full StoryBritish MI9 developed an elaborate escape kit hidden inside Monopoly sets sent to POW camps. Real German, Italian, and French currency was hidden beneath the Monopoly money. Maps were printed on silk, Read more...
View Full StoryDuring the Dieppe Raid of 1942, a lifeboat from the RMS Lancastria, crewed by six Scottish fishermen in full kilts, rowed through intense fire to rescue wounded commandos from the beaches. Despite bei Read more...
View Full StoryBefore D-Day, a team of Allied geologists and engineers conducted covert reconnaissance of Normandy beaches using midget submarines and frogmen. They collected sand samples to determine beach composit Read more...
View Full StorySix hours before the main D-Day landings, 181 men of the British 6th Airborne Division landed in gliders to capture Pegasus Bridge over the Caen Canal and Horsa Bridge over the Orne River. Led by Majo Read more...
View Full StorySpecialized British units carried phantom radio equipment designed to simulate entire army groups transmitting false communications. These radio deceptions, part of Operation Titanic, included simulat Read more...
View Full StoryOver 39 female agents of the British Special Operations Executive were parachuted into Normandy before D-Day to coordinate with the French Resistance. They sabotaged rail lines, destroyed bridges, and Read more...
View Full StoryA obscure British oceanographic team spent years studying Normandy tides, currents, and moon phases to determine the exact date and time for D-Day landings. Their calculations showed only three days i Read more...
View Full StoryAllied Beachmasters coordinating D-Day landings used a system of colored flags and semaphore signals that changed daily according to a codebook. German intelligence never broke this system, allowing A Read more...
View Full StoryIn retaliation for Resistance activities, the German SS Das Reich division hanged 99 men from balconies and lampposts in the French town of Tulle on June 9, 1944. The bodies were left hanging for days Read more...
View Full StoryOver 3,000 homing pigeons were carried by Allied troops on D-Day to transmit messages when radio silence was required. One pigeon named "Beachcomber" delivered the first news of the successful landing Read more...
View Full StoryJapanese prison guards at Sugamo Prison who secretly provided extra food, medicine, and comfort to Allied POWs classified as war criminals. Despite risking execution if caught, these guards smuggled i Read more...
View Full StoryA massive German flying boat prototype built by Claude Dornier in 1916 that actually saw limited use in WWII as a transport aircraft. Despite being designed in WWI, the Rs.I was so advanced that the L Read more...
View Full StoryElizebeth Friedman (no relation to William), a cryptanalyst who broke Nazi spy rings in South America during WWII. Her team deciphered over 4,000 encrypted messages that revealed Nazi espionage networ Read more...
View Full StoryA bizarre but serious WWII weapons project where Mexican free-tailed bats were strapped with tiny incendiary bombs and dropped over Japanese cities. The bats would roost in buildings, then the timers Read more...
View Full StoryA mysterious WWII incident where French collaborationist Admiral François Darlan was assassinated in Algiers by 20-year-old monarchist Bonnier de La Chapelle. While officially a lone act, evidence su Read more...
View Full StoryA humanitarian effort where American B-17 bombers dropped food instead of bombs over the Netherlands in May 1945. Flying at just 150 feet to ensure accurate drops, the bombers delivered over 4 million Read more...
View Full StoryBritish intelligence secretly hid escape maps, compasses, and files inside Monopoly game sets sent to POW camps via fake charities. The maps were printed on silk to withstand water and folding, and ge Read more...
View Full StoryBefore WWII, Nazi spies infiltrated the civilian workforce at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey, where the Hindenburg crashed. They gathered technical data on American airship operations a Read more...
View Full StoryThe 23rd Headquarters Special Troops, known as the Ghost Army, was a tactical deception unit composed of artists, designers, and sound engineers. They used inflatable tanks, sound effects, and radio t Read more...
View Full StoryA French fighter squadron that fought on the Eastern Front alongside the Soviet Air Force. Despite being from Vichy France initially, they chose to continue fighting the Nazis after the Allied landing Read more...
View Full StoryA British deception operation where a corpse carrying false documents was floated ashore in Spain to convince the Germans that the Allies would invade Greece and Sardinia instead of Sicily. The body w Read more...
View Full StoryThe 588th Night Bomber Regiment, an all-female Soviet Air Forces unit. They flew outdated Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes at night, cutting their engines near targets to glide silently bomb German positions. Read more...
View Full StoryDuring the Battle of the Bulge, American troops used captured German uniforms to infiltrate enemy lines. However, many were executed when caught due to Hitler's Commando Order. Some cleverly used thei Read more...
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