Odd Military Facts....

[dragoon500ly]

You hear in a lot of histories of the effect of Stalin's pre-war purges of the Soviet military, so just how bad were the purges.

Stalin purged some 67% of the generals in the Red Army: 3 of the 5 marshals, all 11 vice commissars of war; 75 of the 80 members of the Supreme War Council, 13 of the 15 army commanders, 51 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division and brigade commanders. The result of this was the dismal performance of the Red Army in the opening months of World War Two. Fortunately for Russia, Stalin did not actually kill all of the purged officers, but many had ben sent to the gulags in Siberia. As a result, after the debacle of the summer of 1941, many of the survivors were relased from the gulags and back to their former commands.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

[dragoon500ly]

In the 1930-40s, Iceland was a dependency of Denmark, its position protected it from Nazi occupation when the Germans seized Denmark in 1940. The Icelanders invited the British and latter the Americans to help them defend themselves. Finally, in 1944, the Icelanders decided to declare their independece from Denmark. In Copenhage, King Christian X, then under house arrest for his support of resistance to the Nazi occupiers, sent a telegram of congratulations to his rebellious Iclandic subjects.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

[dragoon500ly]

The US Strategic Bombing Survey yeilds some really odd bites of data....

It is estimated that during World War Two, the average Berlin apartment yielded 12.7 cubic meters of rubble after being bombed.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

LONG LIVE THE BEAN COUNTERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[dragoon500ly]

There is a story that goes about the first female reporter to be attached to the US Army during WWII....

Ruth Baldwin Gowen (Associated Press), arrived in North Africa in 1943. She faced a considerable amount of oppositions to her presence, with her male counterparts holding that women could not make good war correspondents, this was soon laid to rest.

Shortly after Ms. Gowen arrived, she chanced to run into none other than George S. Patton, the ultimate no-nonsense soldier. After being introduced, Patton gave her the once over. Then he asked,

"What is the first law of war?"

Ms. Gowen quickly replied,

"You kill him before he kills you!"

"She stays," said a similing Patton, much to the disappointment of those who were waiting for him to send her packing with an earful of his famous profanity.


"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

[Matt Wiser]

Originally Posted by dragoon500ly

You hear in a lot of histories of the effect of Stalin's pre-war purges of the Soviet military, so just how bad were the purges.

Stalin purged some 67% of the generals in the Red Army: 3 of the 5 marshals, all 11 vice commissars of war; 75 of the 80 members of the Supreme War Council, 13 of the 15 army commanders, 51 of the 85 corps commanders and 110 of the 195 division and brigade commanders. The result of this was the dismal performance of the Red Army in the opening months of World War Two. Fortunately for Russia, Stalin did not actually kill all of the purged officers, but many had ben sent to the gulags in Siberia. As a result, after the debacle of the summer of 1941, many of the survivors were relased from the gulags and back to their former commands.

"Dirty Little Secrets of WWII"

And one famous officer was among them: Marshal K.K. Rokossovosky. Arrested in 1937, had his teeth knocked out-among other tortures-by Beria's thugs, condemmed to death, but released in 1940, promoted to Major-General and told "Take command of this mechanized corps, prisoner, and we'll see about your death sentence later." The suspended death sentence was not formally lifted until after Stalin's death in 1953.