Discover obscure history, hidden heroes, and rare stories from World War II
Father 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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...
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