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Strange Stories from World War II
Topic Started: Jan 7 2011, 09:45 AM (4,866 Views)
Basil Fawlty
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Post Tenebras Lux
The Second World War is replete with humorous, fantastic, and sometimes just plain weird stories. Here is one that I found interesting, as recounted by William B. Breuer, best known as author of The Great Raid.




After the Japanese bombed the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States became consumed with paranoia. For a time it seemed as though every bush concealed a Japanese or Nazi spy, saboteur, or subversive, each boring into the nation's vital core like a worm into a rotten apple.

In this atmosphere of spy mania, the FBI and local law enforcement officers received thousands of calls from frantic citizens claiming to have witnessed suspicious individuals and activities. One investigation focused on a peculiar advertisement placed in the New Yorker magazine sixteen days before Pearl Harbor.

The ad was for a new dice game called The Deadly Double. It actually consisted of two ads, a small "teaser" in the front of the magazine and a full-size ad on page 86. The smaller version showed the words "Achtung! Warning! Alerte!" above a pair of dice with the numbers 12, 24, and XX (the double-cross sign), and 0, 5, and 7. The larger ad contained an unusual cartoon depicting a group of partygoers, clad in formal attire, playing dice in an air-raid shelter. A paragraph of text beneath that urged readers to include the dice game along with other essentials, such as coffee, cigarettes, and blankets, in their home air-raid kits. Finally, at the very bottom of the advertisement there was printed a large double-headed eagle, presumably the logo of the game.

After Pearl Harbor, many speculated that the ad had been a code notifying spies in the United States that war was about to commence. For example, the 12 and 7 could have indicated the date of the attack, December 7th; the air raid graphic might mean that it was slated to begin with an aerial bombardment; and the XX could signify either the latitude of the target (20, running through Hawaii) or, more generally, a double-cross. Some interpreted the name "Deadly Double" as an allusion to the Axis partners, Germany and Japan. Indeed, the double-headed eagle was very reminiscent of the German heraldic symbol.

FBI agents discovered that the Monarch Trading Company, credited on the ad as the game's manufacturer, was actually a dummy corporation. A white male, who had not given his name or address, had brought the plates for the ad directly to the New Yorker office and paid in cash to have it published. Curiously, after tracking him down the FBI uncovered that the man had met a sudden, violent death a few weeks later.

Swamped by so many other calls in the wake of Pearl Harbor, FBI agents were never able to determine whether The Deadly Double was really a part of an espionage ring inside the United States.

You can view the original two ads here:
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4kkT22kuvoA/TLMcUtmXxZI/AAAAAAAAC48/CB1tZp2KXyo/s1600/peral-harbour-ads-2.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4kkT22kuvoA/TLMhfE4VHpI/AAAAAAAAC5E/FeaZ2U1Y5bU/s1600/peral-harbour-ads-1.jpg
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JBK
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now that is just plain strange.....
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Basil Fawlty
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If you think that's strange, you should hear the one about the fellow who called the FBI to report an enemy agent on the coast. It was a dog barking incessantly and the guy was sure it had been trained to bark messages in Morse code. :P

I am somewhat skeptical about the dice ad concealing a real message. The clues (like the German eagle) would generate so much scrutiny once the attacks were carried out, that I can't imagine a spy would prefer it over some other inconspicuous means.
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Matthew
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Maybe it just got published late, or something.
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Simon Darkshade
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Nefarious Swashbuckler
Then there was the case of a Japanese ship being sunk by a cow dropping on it.
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Basil Fawlty
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There was a situation in Sicily where Allied and German paratroopers were dropped on the same landing zone... at the same time. Made for a fair bit of confusion and not a little fighting.
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Basil Fawlty
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And another funny little gem:

Early one morning in June 1940, British security agents rushed to a farm in East Anglia, where a number of large Royal Air Force bases were located, and intensely interrogated the bewildered tenant. Suspicions had been aroused that the forty-eight-year-old farmer was a Nazi spy, although he vehemently denied any wrongdoing.

What had gotten the Briton in trouble was that he had cut his field in a pattern that left standing an arrow-shaped wedge of wheat, about one hundred yards long. From the air, the arrow pointed directly toward an RAF base only about three miles away. Was this designed to aid Luftwaffe bombers?

A week later, after intense investigation of the suspect's background, the security officers were convinced that the farmer was a loyal Briton and the episode had been a fluke. He had persuaded them that he'd left the arrow of wheat standing because he "got bored cutting the field the same way year after year" and had never dreamed it pointed to the RAF airfield.
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Petar
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A funny story:

One German submarine attacked a convoy, and surfaced afterwards to see the results. Unfortunately for them, one of the ships blew up at that moment, sending it´s cargo, consisting mostly of trucks, into the air. One of the trucks landed on the submarine and had damaged it heavily. The submarine sank shortly afterwards.
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Basil Fawlty
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There was a story I read about a u-boat that accidentally surfaced right under a US destroyer.
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Petar
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Not a strange story, but still an interesting one - the history of my family during WWII.

One of my distant relatives was named the People's Hero of Yugoslavia for his bravery in WWII. He was one of the first partisans to join the battle (in 1941), and was killed in 1943. The Order of the People's Hero of Yugoslavia was extremely rare and was awarded only for extraordinary acts of heroism - out of around 1,000,000 people who participated in the Second World War as Yugoslav Partisans, only 1,307 were awarded the Order of People's Hero.

One of my grandfathers was taken to Germany to a death camp, but managed to escape. He returned from Germany to Bosnia (I come from a family of Bosnian Croats originating from Central Bosnia) on foot. Unfortunately, I do not know any details of this because he did in 1986, 8 years before I was born. But, according to all stories I heard, he was quite an extraordinary man.

My grandmother (wife of the above mentioned grandfather) got typhus in 1942 during a trip to Brod, in Croatia, and barely survived. Later, she was awarded a medal for bravery by leader of Croatian Fascists, Ante Pavelić. It is an interesting story regarding how it happened, because my grandmother was a supporter of partisans, so I'm going to share it with you guys.

The village of my grandmother was known as one of centers of Partisan activity in that area, as such since there was always a Croatian Fascist unit present in the village (they will be referenced to as Ustashe further on). One day, the village was attacked by Chetniks and a firefight between the Chetniks and the Ustashe began. The villagers decided to help the fascists - they supported Tito and his partisans, but they knew that if Chetniks won the battle, they would all be killed. So while the male villagers armed themselves and started fighting with Chetniks, women started doing auxilliary duties. My grandmother was transporting ammunition to machine gunners.

So, she began carrying two crates of ammo, each weighing 10-15 kg, before being spotted by Chetnik mortar teams which directed their fire on her as well as machine gunners. However, she managed to evade all the mortar rounds, delivered the ammo succesfully, and then repeated the run - three times.

Later on, she was accidentally shot by a member of the Gendarmerie, and due to that lost her left arm. She still managed to raise 8 children and do much work around the house with only one hand. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet her either, because she died in 1985.

I got a pretty interesting family, don't I? :P
Edited by Petar, Apr 2 2012, 11:12 PM.
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Matthew
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That is pretty interesting stuff. I'll take my peace and stability, however, I don't envy what you guys have gone through the last three quarters of a century since the end of the first war...
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Petar
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Matthew
Apr 3 2012, 03:43 AM
That is pretty interesting stuff. I'll take my peace and stability, however, I don't envy what you guys have gone through the last three quarters of a century since the end of the first war...
Heh, I'd rather take that peace and stability anytime too. :P

Still, what happened to my family in WWII is nothing compared to what happened in the 90's, but that's a completely different story with which I don't want to bother you guys - it's not a nice story...

Anyway, I've read a story which says that, during the siege of Tobruk German and Australian troops entered the same bunker or trench (not quite sure which one it was) and that they began fighting. The interesting part began when both German and Australian/British arty began shelling that bunker/trench, thinking that it was occupied by enemy troops only.

So the Germans and Australians made a truce which said - whichever side gets reinforced first will be declared the "winner". In the end, when the shelling stopped, the first unit to arrive there was a German battalion, so the Australians were duly captured.
Edited by Petar, Apr 3 2012, 12:14 PM.
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Basil Fawlty
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Then there was the espionage plot to turn Hitler into a woman. Or at least, to put female hormones in his meals (through one of his cooks) so he would develop a higher pitched voice and be unable to give rousing public speeches, and also possibly causing him to lose his trademark mustache.

Needless to say, it didn't work.
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Basil Fawlty
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_William_D._Porter_%28DD-579%29

Quote:
 
On 12 November, she departed Norfolk to rendezvous with Iowa (BB-61) the following day. That battleship was on her way to North Africa carrying President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Cairo and Teheran Conferences. Porter was involved in a major mishap while departing Norfolk when her anchor tore the railing and lifeboat mounts off a docked sister destroyer while maneuvering astern. The next day, a depth charge from the deck of Porter fell into the rough sea and exploded, causing Iowa and the other escort ships to take evasive maneuvers under the assumption that the task force had come under torpedo attack by a German U-boat.[2]

On 14 November, at Roosevelt's request, Iowa conducted an anti-aircraft drill to demonstrate her ability to defend herself. The drill began with the release of a number of balloons for use as targets. While most of these were shot by gunners aboard Iowa, a few of them drifted toward William D. Porter which shot down balloons as well. Porter, along with the other escort ships, also demonstrated a torpedo drill by simulating a launch at Iowa. This drill suddenly went awry when the #3 torpedo aboard Porter discharged from its tube and headed toward Iowa.[2]

William D. Porter attempted to signal Iowa about the incoming torpedo but, owing to orders to maintain radio silence, was forced to use a signal lamp. However, the destroyer first misidentified the direction of the torpedo and then relayed the wrong message, informing Iowa that Porter was backing up, rather than that a torpedo was in the water.[2] In desperation the destroyer finally broke radio silence, using codewords that relayed a warning message to Iowa regarding the incoming torpedo. After confirming the identity of the destroyer, Iowa turned hard to avoid being hit by the torpedo. Roosevelt, meanwhile, had learned of the incoming torpedo threat and asked his Secret Service attendee to move his wheelchair to the side of the battleship, so he could see.[2] Not long afterward, the torpedo detonated in the ship's wake, some 3,000 yards astern of the Iowa. Iowa was unhurt, but trained her main guns on William D. Porter out of concern that the smaller ship might have been involved in some sort of assassination plot.[3]

Following these events, the William D. Porter's captain, and her entire crew, were placed under arrest — the first time in U.S. Navy history that this had occurred.
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Matthew
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And I thought I had been having a bad year...
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Simon Darkshade
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The story of the Porter is a funny one indeed.
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Basil Fawlty
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Somehow this topic has become the fourth most viewed on the site. Must be lots of people checking in.
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Basil Fawlty
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat_bomb
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Delta Force

Operation Tracer is interesting. The original commander for the proposed mission had no problem staying locked in a cave for up to seven years, but he had to be replaced when he balked at having to sit at the same table as the enlisted men.
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JBK
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Wow that Porter thing is bizzare.
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Petar
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I gotta admit I love the ship's description on Wiki:

Possibly the unluckiest and most God forsaken ship in the entirety of the United States Navy.
Edited by Petar, Oct 4 2013, 11:36 PM.
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Basil Fawlty
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That must have been added later by a contributor (vandal) because I don't remember it.
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Basil Fawlty
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-26193808

Nazi war mosquitoes!

One imagines them flying into Russia while buzzing a variation on "Flight of the Valkyries."
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Petar
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Well, well, well... look whom I've found! If it isn't the good ol' Willie Dee! :P
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