As an associate of mine aptly put it, wars are little more than giant cluster fucks set to bugle music.

1. The first American serviceman was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940).
   
   
2. The highest ranking American who died, Lieutenant General Lesley McNair, was killed by the U.S. Army Air Corps.
   
   
3. The first German serviceman was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937).
   
   So much for allies.
   
   
4. The youngest U.S. serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, United States Navy. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for lying about his age. His benefits were later restored by an act of Congress.
   
   
5. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top U.S. Navy command was Called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us").
   
   
6. The shoulder patch of the U.S. Army's 45^th Infantry division was the Swastika.
   
   
7. Hitler's private train was named "Amerika."
   
   Note:
   
   

   The above three were soon changed for Public Relations purposes.

   
   
8. More U.S. servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions your chance of being killed was 71%.
   
   
9. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For instance, Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
   
   
10. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5^th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a mistake as tracers had different ballistics. At long range, if your tracers were hitting the target, 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet, tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammunition. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rates go down.
    
    You've got to love this one…
    
    
11. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and General Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
    
    
12. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.
    
    
13. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.
    
    
14. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the U.S. Army.
    
    And I saved the best for last…
    
    
15. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 U.S. and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the fire fight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese on the island.
    
    

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