Did You Know??? Military Factoids

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Chrysler built B-29's that bombed Japan, Mitsubishi built Zeros that tried to shoot them down. Both companies now build cars in a joint plant called Diamond Star.

During the Vietnam War, soldiers used slinkies as radio antennas by stretching the coiled-up toys between two trees.

The siege of Leningrad is considered to be the worst in history. The siege lasted for 900 days, from September 8 1941 until January 27 1944. In January 1943 the Siege was broken and a year later, on January 27 1944 it was fully lifted. At least 641,000 people had died in Leningrad during the siege (some estimates put this figure closer to 800,000).

In World War I women served in two roles: nurses or telephone operators.

The Civil War provided the first recorded incident of American soldiers making an effort to ensure that their identities would be known should they die on the battlefield. Their methods were varied, and all were taken on a soldier's own initiative. Some troops fashioned their own identification tags out of pieces of wood, boring a hole in one end so that they could be worn on a string around the neck. Upon seeing the demand for tags, the commercial sector began to provide and improve identification products.

By 1862 there were four grades of general in the Confederate Army: brigadier, major, lieutenant and full general. All wore the same insignia making it impossible to identify a general´s rank by his uniform.

During World War II the military production of the Ford Motor Company exceeded that of the whole of Italy. During 1942, Ford Motor Company halted its civilian car output and shifted to total military production.

The only place where a flag flies all day, never goes up or comes down, never flies half-mast and does not get saluted, is the moon.

During World War I, Rolls-Royce went to battle. Colonel T. E. Lawrence, the famous "Lawrence of Arabia" fought the Turks with nine "Silver Ghosts," once writing, "A Rolls in the desert was above rubies."

During World War II, “gray” steel cents were issued to conserve usage of copper.


All of these factoids were obtained from www.military.com

I will try to post at least 10 each day, or you can go to the site your self to check it out.
 
Here is some more


Parrots played an important role in aerial warfare during World War I. Because of their acute hearing, they were kept on the Eiffel Tower to warn when an aircraft was approaching long before the planes were heard or seen by human spotters.

The Sanskrit word for "war" means "desire for more cows."


The longest known siege in history was that of Ashdod (a Hebrew word meaning "stronghold"), Israel. According to Greek historian Herodotus, the siege was invested by Psamtik I of Egypt for 29 years during his reign from 664 - 610 BC.

When the Prussians surrounded Paris during the Franco-Prussian War, beef became so scarce that the people in Paris turned to eating horsemeat as an alternative. They still eat horse to this day.

When the Persians invaded Egypt and were besieging Pelusium, they used cats as shields. The Egyptians regarded certain animals, especially cats, as being sacred, and would not injure them on any account. The Persians carried the `sacred' animals in front of them to the attack. The Egyptians did not dare to shoot their arrows for fear of wounding the animals, and so Pelusium was stormed successfully.
 
5 more

During the Civil War, one-third to one-half of the currency in circulation was counterfeit.

In France, in 1914, during World War I, French General Joseph-Simon Gallieni, military governor of Paris, used a fleet of taxis, the drivers still wearing their caps, to transport his troops from Paris to the Battle of the Marne. This is considered the first operational employment of motorized transport.

During the 19th century soldiers who had died in battle had their teeth pulled out to be used as dentures by other people.

Sadly, when the battleship USS Arizona was destroyed by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor 23 sets of brothers were killed.

In 1941, during the German invasion of Russia, for every 100 Russian males aged 18, 99 would have been killed over the next five years.
 
Here is some more interesting facts.

During the first Gulf war in the 1990's the allied forces lost just 4 tanks out of the 3,360 that were deployed. The Iraqi's however lost 4,000 tanks out of 4,230 they used.

To conserve metal during World War II the Academy Awards of Merit — also known as the Oscars -- were made out of wood.

During the days of the Manhattan Project all applicants for menial jobs at the plant where the atomic bomb was being built did not get a job if they could read. This was because US authorities didn't want

"M&M's"® were developed so that soldiers could eat candy without getting their fingers sticky. Legend has it that on a trip to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, Forrest Mars Sr. encountered soldiers who were eating pellets of chocolate that were encased in a hard sugary coating to prevent them from melting. This inspired him to later create the recipe for M&M® Chocolate.

The extras in the battle scenes in the movie Braveheart were reserves in the Irish army.

The Allied land, air and sea operation against the Normandy coasts of France on D-day, 6 June 1944 was the greatest invasion in military history. On the first 3 days, 38 convoys of 745 ships moved in. That was supported by 20,000 vehicles, 347 minesweepers, carrying 185,000 men and 4,055 landing craft.

The bloodiest battle fought on earth was the first Battle of the Somme, France from 1 July to 19 November 1916. The battle recorded the greatest number of military casualties at 1,043,896. 623,907 were Allied and the rest German.

The most costly war or record in terms of human life was the World War II (1939 -1945). The total number of fatalities of all countries is estimated to have been 54,800,000. Poland was the country that suffered most with 6,028,000 of her population of 35,100,000 killed. In World War I the total combatant death toll was 9,700,000. The figure rouse to 15,600,000 in World War II.

During WWII, Americans tried to train bats to drop bombs. They failed.

A broken wooden spear found by S. Hazzledine Warren in April 1911 at Clacton-on-Sea is believed to be the oldest known offensive weapon. It is estimated to have been fashioned before 200,000 BC.


Let me know what you think about these... I would like to get some responses
 
MunitionsAirman said:
Let me know what you think about these... I would like to get some responses
Click to expand...

They are great! :D
Are all of them from Military.com?
 
pretty much that is where i got them from... I am incorporating them into a power point slide show. i can try and get you the exact hyperlink if you would like...
 
Sorry about the delay, but here are a few more factoids...


A South African monkey was once awarded a medal and promoted to the rank of corporal during World War I.

In the Battle of Leyte Gulf in the Philippines, 231 ships and 1,996 aircraft were involved making it the greatest number of ships and aircraft in a sea-air action. 6 US and 26 Japanese ships were sunk. The battle raged from 22 to 27 October 1944.



"Hundred Years War" between England and France was the longest war. It lasted for 115 years from 1338 to 1453. It may be said the nine Crusades, comprised a single holy war, extending over 195 years, from First (1096 - 1104) to the Ninth (1270 - 1291).

In 1969 the Navy spent $375,000 on an "aerodynamic analysis of the self-suspended flare." The study's conclusion was that the Frisbee was not feasible as military hardware.

When she was a young woman, sex therapist Dr. Ruth Westheimer once lived in Israel. There, she joined the Haganah and was trained as a sniper. She was so adept at handling a Sten gun, a British submachine gun, that she could quickly assemble one while blindfolded.

Confederate soldiers were often illiterate farm boys who didn't know left from right, but they did know hay from straw. To teach them to march, officers put a stalk of hay in one shoe and a stalk of straw in the other and gave the marching orders as "HAY FOOT! STRAW FOOT!" instead of "LEFT, RIGHT!"

The shortest war on record was fought between Zanzibar and England in 1896. Zanzibar surrendered after 38 minutes.

A long time ago women were allowed to live on Navy ships to keep company for sailor husbands and friends who had to stay for several months at sea without being in battle. On occasion, a woman delivered a baby whose paternity could not be established with certainty. In the birth certificate, authorities just noted "Son of a gun," referring to the artillery found on the ships. This has evolved into the common expression we use today.

The USA spends an average of $28,000 on research and development for each member of its armed forces compared to the European average of $7,000.

The US operates a fleet of more than 15,000 aircraft, including 20 stealth bombers in service. The navy operates more than 1,000 ocean going vessels.
 
Here is a few more since it has been a while since i have posted any


The US has 247,000 troops and civilians posted overseas, with a presence in more than 130 countries, covering every time zone. The US has 13 military bases in countries around Afghanistan. It has military presence in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and Georgia, all former Soviet countries.



The most costly war on record in terms of human life was World War II (1939 -1945). The total number of fatalities of all countries is estimated to have been 54,800,000. Poland was the country that suffered most with 6,028,000 of her population of 35,100,000 killed.

Robert E. Lee, of the Confederate Army, remains the only person, to date, to have graduated from the West Point military academy without a single demerit.

Armored knights in medieval times raised their visors to identify themselves when they rode past their king. This custom has become the modern military salute.

The Japanese confiscated chess books during World War II thinking they were military codes. Japan did not have an organized chess federation until 1968.
 
Those are great.

My favorite - A South African monkey was once awarded a medal and promoted to the rank of corporal during World War I.
 
Todays list:

Since World War II, American soldiers have been issued gum with their K rations and survival kits. During World War II, gum, considered an emergency ration, was also given to soldiers to relieve tension and dry throats on long marches. G.I.s used chewed gum to patch jeep tires, gas tanks, life rafts, and parts of airplanes. Wrigley advertisements recommended five sticks of gum per day for every war worker, insisting that "Factory tests show how chewing gum helps men feel better, work better."

During World War II, a German U-boat was sunk by a truck. The U-boat in question attacked a convoy in the Atlantic and then rose to see the effect. The merchant ship it sank had material strapped to its deck including a fleet of trucks, one of which was thrown in the air by the explosion, landing on the U-boat and breaking its back.


In 1839, the Canadian province of New Brunswick fought a bloodless border war with Maine.

The most decorated unit in US military history was formed primarily by enlistees from the U.S. internment camps for Japanese Americans.

During the Vietnam War, soldiers used Slinkies as radio antennas by stretching the coiled-up toys between two trees.


A colonel in the Ivory Coast army was fatally wounded by gunfire as he tested a "magic" belt supposedly with powers to protect him from bullets. Colonel Pascal Gbah, 49, died after being hit by a bullet fired from his own service pistol by a 20-year-old son of the magic belt's maker. Gbah's cousin Andre Gondo made the belt as insisting that its protective powers were real, provided one abstained from sex while wearing it.


British Royal Navy recruits at the gunnery school in Plymouth are being ordered not to fire live shells. Instead they have been instructed to check co-ordinates, line up a target, and then shout "Bang". This is allegedly part of a drive by the Ministry of Defense drive to save money.


The Americans keep their weapons of mass destruction much more secure. So secure that one Bryan Hopkins, a former marine, was able to board the aircraft carrier USS Constellation using an old ID card, and a uniform he found in a rubbish bin. And spent several weeks on board without being discovered. He didn't bother hiding (in the way that, say, an illicit stowaway on a passenger liner might need to), he just ate, used the gym and bunked down with the regular crew. The deception was only discovered after someone phoned the Navy office to tip them off.

Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. Twenty-one troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese soldiers on the island.
 
the best:
Following a massive naval bombardment, 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska, in the Aleutian Islands. Twenty-one troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese soldiers on the island.
 
This sort of stuff is just heart breaking.

MunitionsAirman said:
In 1941, during the German invasion of Russia, for every 100 Russian males aged 18, 99 would have been killed over the next five years.
Click to expand...
 
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