Secret Stuff You Definitely Didn’t Know Was Happening During WW2
World War Two was a decisive moment in American and world history. The war was marked with horrible atrocities and admirable fighting. Thanks to our high school history books, most of us know how the Allies won the war, but there are some incredible stories from WW2 that have remained a secret to many.
From elaborate secret operations to Hitler's notorious bad breath, you'll soon find out how crazy things were behind the scenes in WW2. Even magicians got in on the action and tried to trick their way into winning the war.
Hitler's Nephew Fought For The U.S.
William Patrick Hitler was the nephew of Adolph Hitler — yes, that Adolph Hitler. William was the son of Hitler's brother. He was born in Britain but actually moved to Germany in 1933 and got a job as a car salesman thanks to his powerful uncle. William left Germany in 1938 after Hitler asked him to relinquish his British citizenship. He even threatened to expose that Hitler's grandfather was a Jewish merchant.
William visited the U.S. in 1939 and ended up stranded there due to the war. He made a special request to President Roosevelt and was cleared to serve in the U.S. Navy in 1944. After leaving the Navy, he changed his last name from Hitler to Stuart-Houston. Good call.
A Magician Fooled The Nazis Over And Over
Jasper Maskelyne was a British magician who had been out of work since the war began. He needed a job and the Allies needed a new tactic. Maskelyne sold himself as a master of illusion and was admitted into Britain's camouflage training school.
One of Maskelyne's biggest tricks was masking an entire seaport. Britain had a lot of their major battleships stationed in a port at Alexandria, off the coast of Egypt. The Nazis were planning to bomb the port, so Maskelyne constructed a decoy port with fake vehicles and a fake lighthouse, then turned off all the lights on the real port. It actually worked! The Nazis bombed the fake port for three days straight, and Britain's battleships were left untouched.
Canada Had A Secret Spy Camp
Unofficially knows as "Camp X" (a very cool, secretive name), Special Training School No. 103 was located in Ontario, Canada, with the goal of training British and U.S. spies. Camp X was a joint effort by the Canadian Military, Britain's MI-6, and the FBI.
Camp X was originally supposed to give the U.S. a way to help win WW2 before they had officially entered the war, but after Pearl Harbor, it turned into an elite spy training camp. Looking back, it's the perfect cover. Who would have guessed that sweet, kind Canada would be training the best spies in the war. We can't believe the Nazis actually fell for this next top-secret operation.
The Soviets Created Suicide Dogs
The Soviets committed a lot of atrocities in their time, but this is just not okay. Anti-tank dogs had been included in the Soviet Army since 1935, but the onslaught of tanks from the Nazis after 1941 forced the Soviets to actually begin to use their anti-tank dogs.
The dogs were trained to receive food under tanks, then starved for several days and let out onto the battlefield with explosives attached to them. They would run under the Nazi tanks and their explosives would detonate, impairing the tank and sadly, killing the dog. The anti-tank dogs worked, but it made the Nazis proactively shoot any dog they saw on the Eastern front. Not cool, Soviets, not cool.
The Nazis Hoarded Art
Thanks to George Clooney and The Monuments Men, more people have become aware of just how much the Nazis stole during WW2. Hitler was obsessed with art, having been an unsuccessful artist himself before becoming an evil dictator. He implemented a systematic plundering of museums and private art collections.
Hitler and many top Nazi party officials kept a lot of the art for themselves, but when the tide turned, they began to hide the art in salt mines and caves. It's believed only a portion of the art has been recovered, and repatriation continues to this day, but Hitler's obsession may be what preserved a lot of the masterpieces.
The Allies Made A Modern Day Trojan Horse
Operation Mincemeat is probably one of the most successful secret operations the Allies carried out in WW2. The Allies planned to invade Sicily in 1943, but they knew the Nazis might be expecting them. In order to trick them, the Allies located a recent corpse, dressed it up to be a Navy Captain, and dropped it where the Nazis would find it.
On the body, they left an identification card, personal items that even included a photo of a fake fiance to make the story believable, and fake "classified" documents. The Allies left a note that implied the invasion wouldn't be in Sicily, but instead would happen in Greece and Sardinia. The Nazis fell for the rouse and moved all their reinforcements to Greece, which made it much easier for the Allies to invade Sicily. This next spy used their charm and sex appeal to steal secrets.
Hitler Was Losing His Teeth From His Bad Breath
Hitler was depicted as a terrifying, powerful, evil man, but by the end of the war, he was hardly very scary. Historians have discovered that by 1944, Hitler only had 5 teeth left. While dental care wasn't a priority for many in WW2, it's been speculated that part of why so many teeth had rotted was due to his incredibly bad breath.
It has also been well documented that many high ranking officials in the Third Reich, including Hitler, were addicted to drugs including cocaine and opioids. Looking back, we can't imagine that a drug addict with bad breath and no teeth would be very intimidating.
The Nazis Invaded Florida
After the Nazis declared war on the U.S. in 1941, they decided that they needed to weaken America from the inside. They found eight Germans who had lived in the U.S. and could blend in and sent them on two different missions. The two groups landed on June 12, 1942, on Long Island, New York City, and near Jacksonville, Florida.
The mission was a complete failure after one member, George Dasch, revealed he hated the Nazis and turned himself in to the FBI. The FBI didn't believe him at first until he dumped the team's entire budget on a desk, then they quickly rounded up the other seven.
America Used Entertainers As Spies
Finding and training a spy that wouldn't be detected was hard work. Thankfully, when activist and entertainer Josephine Baker heard about the Nazi invasion of Poland, she was eager to work with the French military intelligence. Because of her star-studded status, no one suspected her movement across the cafes and galas of Europe.
Baker would collect and relay back any information she got from Japanese officials, Italian bureaucrats, and German commanders that would see her performance. She would hide notes from what she overheard in her underwear and pass them to her handlers. Everyone thought this was America's biggest secret of the war... but was it really that secretive?
The Nazis Already Knew Who Would Become England's King
While most of Britain was concerned with avoiding the constant air attacks, Germany was already deciding who would be their puppet on the throne. King Edward VIII became King of England in January 1936 but would abdicate in November the same year so he could marry the American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.
After abdicating, it became very clear to many that Edward and Wallis were Nazi sympathizers. In a visit to Germany in 1937, the two gave clear Nazi salutes, and Edward supported fascism. Hitler planned to put Edward back on the throne if Germany defeated Britain, but thankfully Britain saw this threat and sent Edward and Wallis to the Bahamas.
Both Sides Still Kept Their Zoos Open
It may be surprising that during a worldwide war, both sides were taking action to protect their zoos and animals. In Germany, the Nazis were obsessed with animals and breeding, and head Nazi zoologist, Lutz Heck, was busy during the war attempting to bring back extinct species through "back breeding".
In England, there was less focus on creating new animals and more focus on keeping the current ones safe and in check. The London Zoo was hit with bombs multiple times between 1939-1941, but thankfully no animals were harmed. But because of the bombings, some animals could easily escape, so for safety reasons all poisonous animals at the London Zoo were exterminated.
The Manhattan Project Was Not Really That Secretive
The Manhattan Project is well known by most Americans as the super-top-secret scientific project that created the Atomic bomb and helped end the war, but not many are aware of how unsecret it was. While the U.S. tried to keep everything in check, as the project expanded they were forced to expand the team until basically everyone knew about the Manhattan Project.
By the end of the war, there had been over 1500 security breaches of the Manhattan Project and each and every one had to be investigated. The atomic bomb seemed to be talked about by everyone from Naval Commanders to office workers. Keep reading to see how much of America's technological advancements were actually stolen from the Nazis.
The Nazis Got Fooled By "The Magic Gang"
After seeing how well Maskelyne did at tricking the Nazis, the Allies went all in on recruiting magicians. The Magic Gang wasn't just a solo magician though — they included architects, carpenters, chemists, engineers, a stage-set builder, and a painter.
This group performed big tricks but also did smaller ones as simple as covering Jeeps to look like tanks then creating fake tank tracks everywhere. In one instance they helped double agent Eddie Chapman pull off a fake bombing to help bolster his credentials with the Nazis.
James Bond Was Already In The Works
The iconic British spy, James Bond, was created by an actual British intelligence officer, Ian Fleming. During the war, Fleming oversaw two intelligence units and was even involved in planning an operation that would monitor Spain's alliance with the Axis powers. The plan's code name? Operation Goldeneye.
Fleming had begun forming James Bond in his mind already during the war. He had mentioned to friends he wanted to write a spy novel. Apparently, Fleming was even inspired after taking part in an MI-6 trip to Camp X, the same top-secret Camp X in Canada that trained spies.
The Nazis Were Helping The U.S. Win The Space Race
The Nazis had been working for years making long-range missiles and space rockets, but after the Allied bombings of German towns, they doubled their efforts to make a "vengeance weapon". The V-2 missile was in operational tests and ready to be mass produced in 1945, and took a great number of lives.
Following the Nazi defeat, the U.S. knew the technology behind the V-2 was too good to pass up. Under Operation Paperclip, the U.S. brought over more than 1600 German scientists to continue the work that created the V-2 and help them get to space before the Soviets. Next, what do hamburgers and weiner dogs have in common?
The Red Cross Was Getting Creative With Smuggling
It may sound unbelievable, but thanks to the Geneva Conventions, prisoners of war get to receive care packages. A standard care package included food and sanitary items like peanut butter, chocolate, soap, and even cigarettes that would either be confiscated and given to the camp cook, or would be bartered between prisoners and guards.
But those weren't the only items in the packages. Sometimes the Allies would smuggle items to help prisoners escape. One of these items was the board game Monopoly, which could be sent to the camps with a map hidden under the board and a compass, tools, and real banknotes hidden under the fake money.
The Nazis Were Using Swiss Banks For Gold
It is well known that alongside plundering art, the Nazis stole many personal items from Jewish prisoners. What is shocking is the amount of money confiscated over the course of the war in larger scale operations. It is believed that between 1937-1939, the Nazi's plundered over $70 million in gold, and over the course of the war stole over $550 million from other countries.
While some gold reserves were found after the war, including the 100 tons of gold one pictured here, much of it has been lost to time and is believed to have been hidden in Swiss banks. The Nazis even created a fake identity, Max Heiliger, that they would use to open bank accounts to hide their gold.
The U.S. Was Only Serving "Liberty Steaks"
Most people on the homefront were concerned with when their loved ones would be coming home, or whether or not American factories were doing enough for the war effort. It was unlikely that many people realized the propaganda campaign happening on U.S. soil.
Many in America wanted to promote anti-German sentiment in any way possible, including renaming the beloved hamburger to "liberty steak." They were worried that it would make people like the town of Hamburg, Germany. Some people even began recycling the anti-German names from WW1, like renaming dachshunds as "liberty pups." A lot of stuff was stolen in WW2, but this 8th Wonder of the World is still missing.
Someone, Somewhere, Invented A Round Tank
Most of us don't know about this one-of-a-kind round tank because no one knows much about it at all. Officially known as the Kugelpanzer round tank, it never actually saw battle, but one remained intact after the war to leave us all wondering, what were those Germans really up to?
What is known about the one-man-tank is that the slit in the front was likely a viewpoint for the driver, and that it was a two gear engine. The tank was built by Nazi engineers and shipped to Japan, so who knows what the Japanese were planning on using it for.
Russia's "Amber Room" Disappeared
At some point during WW2, Russia's Amber Room disappeared. The Amber Room was a world famous chamber built in the 18th century considered to be the 8th Wonder of the World...before no one could find it. The obvious reason would be that the Nazis looted it like they looted everything, but some people aren't so sure.
The room was said to be removed to the edge of the Baltic Sea, but from there, no one knows its whereabouts. There have been many attempts to recreate the room, but it seems like it will now become one of the Lost Wonders of the World.