1. Most kamikaze died in vain. Only 1 in 9 kamikaze pilots hit their targets during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  2. Japan and Russia still
    haven't signed a peace treaty to end World War II due to the
    Kuril Islands dispute.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  3. 2 million German women
    aged 13-70
    were raped
    by the Red Army on WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  4. A Japanese Soldier didn't surrender until
    29 years after WW2 was over, in 1974.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  5. Queen Elizabeth II served as a mechanic and driver in World War II.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  6. U.S. Soldier John R. McKinney held off over 100 Japanese soldiers single-handedly in WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  7. The number of Chinese killed by the Japanese during WW2 is greater than the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  8. The Mosque of Paris helped Jews escape the Nazis by giving them Muslim IDs during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  9. 80% of all Soviet males born in 1923 died in World War II.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  10. Winston Churchill lost the 1945 election right after winning WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  11. A Japanese man survived both the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  12. WW2 Flight Sergeant Nicholas Alkemade survived a fall from 18,000 feet (5,500 m) without a parachute, suffering only a sprained leg.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  13. During WW2, Japan received Jewish refugees and rejected the resulting Nazi German protests.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  14. During WW2, when Hitler visited Paris, the French cut the lift cables on the Eiffel Tower so that Hitler would have to climb the steps if he wanted to reach the top.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  15. Fanta originated in Germany as a result of difficulties importing Coca-Cola syrup into Nazi Germany during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  16. During WW2, the Oscars' statuettes were made of painted plaster due to a metal shortage.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  17. At least 1.1 million Jewish children were murdered during the Holocaust.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  18. About a third of all Jewish people alive at that time were murdered in the Holocaust.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  19. In October 1941, more than 50,000 Jews were killed by Romanian troops in what is now known as the "Odessa massacre."
    ♦ SOURCE
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  20. Hitler planned to collect thousands of Jewish artifacts to build a "Museum of An Extinct Race" after the war.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  21. When Hitler informed the Czech president of the imminent invasion of his country, he suffered a heart attack and had to be kept awake to sign his surrender.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  22. Hitler's plan for Moscow was to kill all its residents and cover it with an artificial lake.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  23. The American secret service tried to spike Hitler's food with female hormones to feminize him.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  24. Some 5,500 WW2 bombs are discovered in Germany every year and defused, an average of 15 per day.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  25. In one of the last battles of WW2, American and German soldiers fought together as allies against an SS division to defend an Austrian castle.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  26. After the attack on Pearl Harbor during WW2, Canada declared war on Japan before the U.S. did.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  27. The only casualty of the first bomb in WW2 to fall on British soil was a rabbit.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  28. The Gulf War cost each American US$306 while Vietnam was US$2,204 per person. The Korean War cost US$2,266 and WW2, US$20,388 per person.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  29. During WW2, two polish doctors saved 8,000 Jews from the Holocaust by faking a typhus epidemic that stopped the Nazis entering their town.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  30. During the invasion of Poland in WW2, 720 Poles defended their position against 40,000 Germans, stopping their advance for 3 days.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  31. Dachau, the first NAZI concentration camp in Germany, opened six years before WWII.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  32. More Germans were killed by the Russians in the Battle of Stalingrad alone than were killed during the entire WW2 by America.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  33. Brazil was the only independent South American country to send ground troops to fight in WW2, with over 25,000 soldiers.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  34. In WW2, the U.S. and New Zealand secretly tested 3,700 "tsunami bombs" designed to destroy coastal cities.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  35. There's a Twitter account that narrates WW2 in "real-time."
    ♦ SOURCE
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  36. Carrots don't make your eyesight better. That was a lie from the British to cover up their technology from the NAZI during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  37. The only country to protest against the German annexation of Austria of 1938, right before WW2, was Mexico.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  38. Spain was neutral in WW1 and WW2, but experienced a civil war (1936-1939) which killed over 500,000 people.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  39. 20%
    of Poland's population died in WW2, the highest percentage of any nation.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  40. During WW2, the Japanese invaded Alaska, and more Americans were killed or wounded defending Alaska than at Pearl Harbor.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  41. Spaniard double agent Joan Pujol Garcia had the rare distinction of receiving an Iron Cross from the Germans and an MBE from the British during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  42. During WW2, Nazi soldiers were fed massive quantities of methamphetamine for increased alertness and endurance.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  43. After the Treaty of Versailles, French Marshal Ferdinand Foch said "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years." Exactly 20 years and 65 days later, WW2 broke out.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  44. The Taj Mahal was covered with a scaffold during WWII to make it look like a stockpile of Bamboo and misguide any enemy bombers.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  45. Every single spy Hitler thought he had in Britain during WW2 was a double agent under British control.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  46. During WW2, an American pilot fell over 20,000 feet (6,700 m) and survived by crashing through the glass roof of a train station.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  47. A Japanese pilot who attacked a town in Oregon during WW2 returned years later to present his family's 400-year-old sword as a symbol of regret.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  48. Edward VIII, King of the UK in 1936, was a Nazi sympathiser and later argued that bombing England could bring peace by ending WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  49. After John F. Kennedy's WW2 PT boat was sunk, he wrote a message on a coconut asking for help. It worked. Kennedy kept the coconut and it became a Presidential paperweight.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  50. During the outbreak of WW2, London Zoo killed all their venomous animals in case the zoo was bombed and the animals escaped.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  51. During WW2, a Japanese Consul saved 6,000 Jews from the Holocaust by writing them all Visas to Japan even after the government told him not to.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  52. The SS officer who captured Anne Frank and her family became a member of West Germany's intelligence service after WW2. He bought Anne Frank's book to see if he was mentioned.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  53. During WW2, Japanese war criminal Tojo Hideki attempted suicide after the surrender. He was saved and resuscitated by Allied forces, who then hanged him.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  54. A bear fought in the Polish Army in WW2. He carried shells to the frontline and was taught to salute.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  55. During WW2, Canada gave out buttons to people who tried to enlist but were refused due to medical reasons to show their willingness to fight.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  56. More people died in Auschwitz than the British and American losses of WW2 combined.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  57. Nutella was invented during WW2, when an Italian pastry maker mixed hazelnuts into chocolate to extend his cocoa supply.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  58. During WW2, the lights of Big Ben were dimmed so that German bombers could not use it for reference.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  59. The "keep calm and carry on" slogan was originally dreamt up as a way of preserving morale in the event of a Nazi invasion of Britain.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  60. A secret radio belonging to a British POW in WW2 was kept so well hidden that, when he visited the camp 62 years later, it was still there.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  61. In 1944, by a huge coincidence, a crossword puzzle was printed with answers all containing D-Day operation "code names", which sent MI-5 into a panic thinking their invasion plans had been discovered.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  62. During WW2, a Dutch warship was disguised as a tropical island to escape detection by the Japanese. It was the only ship of its class to survive.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  63. London only reached its pre-WW2 population level in January, 2015.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  64. During WW2, Allied forces sunk 3 ships carrying concentration camp survivors by accident, killing almost 10,000 survivors.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  65. During WW2, India produced the largest volunteer Army in world history: over 2.5 million men. At least 38 Indians received the Victoria Cross or the George Cross.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  66. In WW2, the Allies estimated German average monthly tank production using statistical analysis of their serial numbers. They were off by just one.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  67. The last German WW2 POWs weren't released from the Soviet Union until 1956.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  68. A cat nicknamed "Unsinkable Sam" survived the sinking of three separate ships during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  69. D-Day was originally set for June 5 but had to be postponed for 24 hours due to bad weather.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  70. American soldiers started a riot in New Zealand during WWII because they didn't segregate their bars and they didn't want to drink with non-white people.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  71. During WW2, the U.S. Air Force dropped more than 5 million leaflets warning Japanese civilians to evacuate cities that were going to be bombed.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  72. During WW2, Japan bombed China with fleas infected with bubonic plague.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  73. During WW2, the Japanese killed more Chinese than the Nazis killed Jews.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  74. During WW2, the Japanese slaughtered as many as 30 million Filipinos, Malays, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Indonesians and Burmese.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  75. Over 800,000 women served in the Soviet armed forces in WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  76. If you were a Nazi prisoner of war from the Allies (except Russia) you faced a 4% chance of not surviving the war. If you were an Allied held by the Japanese, you faced a 30% chance of dying.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  77. During WW2, most people believed Germany would quickly crush the Soviet Union in 3 to 6 months. It took three and a half years and they lost.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  78. After WW2, 1,500 German scientists were given amnesty on the condition that they work for the U.S. government .
    ♦ SOURCE
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  79. Lyudmila Pavlichenko, the most successful female sniper in history, was credited with 309 kills during WW2, including 36 snipers.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  80. During WW2, Hajimi Fuji volunteered for the kamikaze but was refused because he had a wife and two children. His wife then drowned her two young girls and herself.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  81. In 1942, four Auschwitz inmates successfully escaped by stealing SS officer uniforms and driving a stolen Nazi car through the camp's front gate.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  82. During WW2, a Japanese officer killed himself rather than order his 2000 Taiwanese subordinates to conduct a kamikaze attack.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  83. At the end of the WW2, U.S. censors kept the news of Germany's unconditional surrender secret from the public for 11 hours.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  84. Queen Elizabeth taught herself to shoot in the grounds of Buckingham Palace during the WW2, in case a German parachutist attacked.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  85. At the beginning of WW2, the U.S. army was smaller than the army of Portugal.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  86. Hitler married Eva Braun less than 40 hours before they died.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  87. The first time the Japanese people heard their Emperor's voice was when he announced Japan's surrender on the radio during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  88. During WW2, the U.S. Navy partnered with the Mafia to protect the country's ports.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  89. Nazi German troops were routinely given a narcotic called Pervitin, which allowed them to march for longer than normal.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  90. The last war chief of the Crow Tribe captured 50 horses from the Germans in World War II.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  91. The allies considered dropping glue to stick Nazi troops to the ground.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  92. Tommy Tucker was a squirrel who became a celebrity in the U.S., touring the country wearing women's fashions while performing tricks and selling war bonds during WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  93. The first Cannes Film Festival was called off after the screening of just one film due to the outbreak of WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  94. Despite being incarcerated in internment camps, thousands of Japanese-Americans fought for America in WWII— they had their own fighting unit.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  95. 21%
    of U.S. casualties in WW2 occured through friendly fire.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  96. The attack on Pearl Harbor was detected by radar in advance, but the readings were misinterpreted.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  97. During WWII, a British sailor escaped his submarine from depths of 270 feet (82 m) and managed to get to the surface and survive.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  98. Billy Mitchell, founding father of the U.S. Air Force, predicted in 1924 that air attacks would be made by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  99. Japanese Kamikaze pilots were allowed to return if they didn't find a suitable target. One pilot was shot after his ninth return.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  100. German Submariners had the highest casualty rate of all forces in WW2: 70% died in service.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  101. More than twice as many people were guillotined by the Nazis as during the French Revolution.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  102. A German officer in WWII ordered his soldiers to hold fire to allow the rescue of an American soldier who stepped on a landmine. When no one came, the officer went to rescue the soldier but stepped on a landmine himself.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  103. Across all the European countries fighting in WWII, only three national capitals were never occupied: Moscow, London and Helsinki.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  104. The Quandt family, one of the richest in Germany and the largest shareholder of BMW, took over scores of Jewish businesses and used tens of thousands of slave labourers at its factories during Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  105. Chewing gum became a truly global phenomenon during WWII when it was included in American GI rations.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  106. The Netherlands surrendered to Nazi Germany after just 5 days.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  107. Operation Vegetarian was a British military plan during WW2 to disseminate linseed cakes infected with anthrax spores to be eaten by German cattle.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  108. The UK invaded and occupied Iceland in WW2 after the country claimed neutrality.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  109. "Million Dollar Point" is an area in the Pacific where the U.S. army dumped all its equipment after WW2 because it was cheaper than bringing it home.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  110. Deliveries by pigeon post during the Second World War were 95% successful.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  111. Rolex replaced, for free, all watches seized by the Germans from shot-down allied pilots in WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  112. 47 Soviets died for every American in WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  113. More countries are now democratic than at any point since WW2.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  114. The Dutch army had only one tank during WWII.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  115. Hundreds of Jews from Amsterdam were fined for being late with their rent during their incarceration in World War II concentration camps.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  116. For many Icelanders, WW2 is actually known a “the blessed war" because the country has the war to thank for its independence.
    ♦ SOURCE
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  117. During WW2, an Italian doctor prevented Nazis from taking Jewish patients by claiming they suffered the fictitious 'K Syndrome'. He saved 45 lives.
    ♦ SOURCE
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Updated on 2019-12-06
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