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Found 12 results for "1944"
Trivia Facts (8)
What WW2 American project attempted to train bats to carry tiny incendiary bombs to set Japanese cities on fire?
Project X-Ray (the Bat Bomb)
What was the Japanese "Fu-Go" weapon and how far did it travel?
Hydrogen balloon bombs designed to travel the jet stream from Japan to North America — roughly 5,000 to 6,000 miles
What lifesaving drug was first produced in large quantities specifically for the D-Day landings?
Penicillin
Why was the 442nd Regimental Combat Team unique among US Army units?
It was composed of Japanese American soldiers — many whose families were interned in camps — and became the most decorated US Army unit for its size and length of service
What was Operation Catechism and how did it finally sink the Tirpitz?
An RAF bombing raid on November 12, 1944, using Lancaster bombers carrying 12,000-pound Tallboy bombs, which capsized the Tirpitz in Tromso fjord, Norway
Who was Noor Inayat Khan and what made her wartime service remarkable?
A British SOE agent of Indian-American descent and Buddhist pacifist who became the first female wireless operator parachuted into occupied France, was a descendant of Tipu Sultan, and was eventually executed at Dachau
What was the peculiar military relationship between Finland and Germany in WW2?
Finland fought alongside Germany against the Soviet Union in the Continuation War (1941-1944) with full operational cooperation, while officially claiming to be fighting a separate parallel war and maintaining diplomatic relations with Britain and the US
What was Operation Bagration and why is it barely known in the West despite being possibly the largest German defeat of WW2?
The massive Soviet summer offensive of June-August 1944 that destroyed Army Group Centre — the Germans lost over 350,000 men and 25 divisions were annihilated, more than at Stalingrad
Stories (4)
The Ghost Army: America's Secret Force of Artists and Performers
The extraordinary story of how America deployed painters, fashion designers, and actors to impersonate phantom divisions and deceive the Wehrmacht.
Operation Gunnerside: The Most Important Sabotage of the War
Nine Norwegian resistance fighters on skis, a freezing mountain plateau, and the decision that may have saved the world from a Nazi atomic bomb.
The Bat Bombs of New Mexico: America's Strangest Weapon
The classified wartime project that trained bats to carry tiny incendiary bombs across the Pacific — and accidentally burned down an American military base.
Wojtek the Soldier Bear: Private, Polish Army
A Syrian brown bear was found as an orphaned cub in Iran, enlisted as a private in the Polish Army, learned to carry artillery shells, and fought at Monte Cassino.