World War II - Most Astonishing Unknown Facts

There are many unknown events in the history of the World War II including death match, first Shot, Horst Wessel Song, ‘The third Reich’ and so on. Here is the list we compiled about the most astonishing unknown facts in WW2.

The death match

“Death Match” is one of the interesting unknown facts about World War II. The Death Match was the Soviet propaganda name for a non-official association football match in 1942 between the local workers of a bakery factory, former professional footballers from Dynamo Kyiv and Lokomotyv Kyiv called FC Start and soldiers of the Nazi German Wehrmacht named Flakelf. This is the nickname for a football match which took place on August 9, 1942 between FC Start and Flakelf. Eager to prove the superiority of the Aryan race, the Nazis forced the team to play against their Flakelf and threaten them to lose their lives if they disagree. The match was very unfair and the players of FC began to know the consequences of winning a game against the Nazis. However, they do not accept the loss of voluntarily and so the game ended 5-3 for FC Start. Then many of the Ukraine players were later arrested and sent to a labor camp.

The death match is unfair match ended with a score line that was almost guaranteed to lead to tragedy and death during the World War II

Horst Wessel Song

Horst Wessel was a 19-year-old member of the Nazi party, one of the first to join this organization. He is famous for having composed the song ‘Fly the Flag high’, which was later changed into ‘the Horst Wessel song’. It became the national hymn of the Nazi Germany and its importance was so great that a citizen was executed for keeping its hands in the pockets while the band was playing this song. The young Nazi died at the age of 23 by the hands of a jealous man, an ex-lover and pimp of his wife, a former prostitute.

Stalag Luft III

Stalag Lust was a Luftwaffe run prisoner-of-war camp during World War II that housed captured air force servicemen. An escape Committee counting 600 persons planned to dig tunnels which were completed on March 24th 1944 after having made huge efforts and endured great dangers. However, the escape was discovered and nearly 77 prisoners managed to run away, only to be caught hours or days later. Three men only got away with it while 50 were executed.

This incident is actually not one of the unknown facts and the simple reason is that it was made into a movie, ‘The great escape’, in 1963

The Nurses

The important role of women in World War II was working mostly as nurses who were learned not to feel disgusted by the horrible wounds they had to deal with. For their courage and devotion, they were awarded around 1,619 medals as well as other types of recognitions

The Ni’ihau Incident

One of unknown facts in World War II is the Ni’ihau Incident happened on December 7, 1941, when a Japanese Zero pilot crash-landed on the Hawaiian island of Ni’ihau after participating in the attack on Pearl Harbor

The first Shot

The first shot of World War II is the name of a German training warship. With the aim of honoring the German sailors who died on a cruiser named Magdeburg in 1914, the ship was on the runway to Poland. In the early morning of September 1, 1939, the ship made a battle against the Westerplatte, composed of the Polish army barracks and ammunition storage. After that, the order “Fire” was launched and World War II begun.

Although the first shot is not a very important moment in history, this is one of the unknown facts of World War II

Japanese Fire Balloons

Fire Balloons which was made out off paper and filled up with explosives was released by Japanese in the fall of 1944. A total of 9,000 balloons were launched until April 1945, but only 1000 reached their destination and caused 6 casualties.

Japanese Fire Balloons was an unknown event of the World War II which is worth remembering as one of its few funny stories

‘The third Reich’

The first Reich (or Empire) originated in 962 A.D when Otto the Great became the Emperor of the Holly Roman Empire. Otto Von Bismarck’s Second Reich was named in 1871 after overthrowing France in the Franco-Prussian war. After that, in 1918, William II abdicated and Hitler’s third Reich lasted 12 years and four months from 1933 to 1945 when Hitler was appointed Chancellor of Germany.

Nazi Germany, officially the Greater German Reich or the Third Reich, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945 when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi Party

The Vision of a Franco-British Union

The Vision of a Franco-British Union was named by two great men, Churchill and De Gaulle. It was said to be a reasonable decision in those desperate moments, when France was about to give up. The official ‘Declaration of Union’ was “France and Great Britain shall no longer be two nations, but one Franco-British Union. The constitution of the Union will provide for joint organs of defence, foreign, financial and economic policies. Every citizen of France will enjoy immediately citizenship of Great Britain, every British subject will become a citizen of France." Unfortunately, despite a full support of the Prime Minister Paul Reynaud, the proposal was rejected by the French Cabinet, becoming one of the unknown events.

The Vision of a Franco-British Union, one of the most fascinating secrets about World War II is a concept for a union between the two independent sovereign states of the United Kingdom and the French Republic

Source:http://society.ezine9.com/