1. Fewer Supplies, Lower Morale In the last 2 weeks of fighting, food rations dwindled down to 50%, and the 26th cavalry was forced to slaughter their horses for food. Meanwhile, the Japanese forces were getting their rest and were reinforced with more troops. 2. MacArthur Was Forced To Leave The US Government valued MacArthur […] More
Doomed From The Beginning? The tail number of this Flying Fortress featured a controversial number, 666. Nobody wanted to use it even though it returned from its missions in an airworthy state. Later on, this B-17 sustained damage from its mission and was left alone in a hangar. Operated By A Crew of Misfits Fresh […] More
1. Assembled The Japanese Gestapo The Kempeitai rivaled Hitler’s Gestapo in terms of their heightened surveillance and paranoid behavior. They would beat suspects severely before asking questions and were known to get information by beatings and torture, making it one of the most sadistic police forces in human history. 2. Complicit In Nanjing Though he […] More
You can’t help but smile at how energetic and proud Francis “Jeep” Sanza is. His enthusiasm to answer these questions is infectious! 1. He’s A Good Driver And Mechanic What can you expect from a guy nicknamed Jeep? He even boasts that he could take out the engine in 40 minutes by using a special […] More
Abraham Wald, a Jewish mathematician who fled Romania, wanted to do everything in his power to stop Hitler from winning the war. Positioned At Columbia University After being pushed out of his home in Europe, Wald accepted a position at Columbia University in the United States. There, he was a part of a Statistical Research […] More
1. He Was A Visionary While spending some of his younger years in junior officer training, he trained units and various regiments while under a supply and logistics role. During this short amount of time, he saw the value in developing tanks and firepower than infantry offensives. 2. Studied Tanks and Trucks He trained tank […] More
1. Fresh Crew, Fresh Plane 9 new crew members were assigned to the 376th Bombardment Group on March 18, 1943. A week later, a new B-24D Liberator was assigned to the same squadron as the 9 crew members. The crew soon took hold of the Liberator and had their first mission about a week after. […] More
Mission: Bomb Berlin On May 19, 1944, the 331st Bomb Squadron of the 94th Bomb Group journeyed towards Germany from a base in England. That day, B-17 bombers were tasked to go over Berlin for a bombing mission. One of the participating B-17s, named Miss Donna Mae, was piloted by First Lieutenant Marion Reid. They […] More
1. The Champion of Champions The B-58 Hustler was ahead of its time when it was first introduced in the 1960s. As proof of that, it won 5 major trophies that we’ll include in this list, along with the world speed records it set. 2. Broke Six World Records In A Single Flight In 1961, […] More
Just like the B-52 Stratofortress, the U-2 Dragon Lady is still actively used today. This high-altitude reconnaissance plane just keeps getting better and better. 1. More Than 60 Years In Service Its first flight was 67 years ago and was in service about a year later. It could fly up to 70,000 feet and still […] More
1. Shigenori Nishikaichi Was Shot Down During The Assault He was part of the 2nd wave of attacks, flying his A6M2 Zero while strafing and bombing targets across southeastern Oahu. The 22-year-old’s Zero was later damaged and he set out to land on an “inhabited” island called Niihau. He hoped that a Japanese submarine would […] More
Why does the nose come off? The SR-71 had three types of nose cones. Training noses that only had weights for simulation, radar noses to fit radar instruments, and a nose cone to fit a camera. The camera is commonly referred to as “The Country’s Camera” since it can take a picture 72 miles wide. […] More
