World War II, the greatest conflict of the 20th century, spawned a fascinating array of personalities and events. World War II Extraordinary Facts and Stories, from the popular Armchair Reader series, relates the battles, bombings, and politics of World War II, and reveals intriguing and often overlooked details and little-known stories of the war. This book includes more than 150 fascinating anecdotes and articles; hundreds of fast facts; and a World War II timeline that traces major events from the early 1930s to 1951. Here are some topics in the book: - Stella Goldschlag, "The Blonde Poison," the fair-haired and attractive Jewish woman whose acts of betrayal condemned as many as 2,300 fellow Jews to Hitler's Nazi concentration camps.
- Japan's Fu-go project, an attempt to attack the United States with balloon bombs released into the Pacific jet stream. About 300 reached the United States.
- Nazi Germany's V-2 rockets that inflicted tremendous destruction in England were assembled underground near Nordhausen, Germany, by concentration-camp prisoners. More than 50,000 prisoners were assigned to this project, and only about half survived.
- The United States's failed attempt to deploy bats armed with firebombs—flying mammals, not Louisville Sluggers—as weapons against Japan.
From President Franklin D. Roosevelt and General George Patton to Nazi leaders Adolf Hitler and Heinrich Himmler, from war strategies and tactics to the weapons of war, World War II Extraordinary Facts and Stories presents an extensive collection of World War II articles and personality profiles. |
