World War II Anecdotes

The True Story About U-571

The new Hollywood 'Blockbuster', 'U-571' portrays some astonishing events 'based on a true story'. Here is the true story; the submarine was actually U-559 and the sailors who captured the vital Enigma machine and codebooks were British (not American) sailors from H.M.S. Petard.

Although the British had been in possession of an Enigma machine since 1939 (courtesy of a Polish secret agent) they had been unable to decode German naval codes. Then in 1941 a U-Boat was forced to the surface and captured by a British destroyer. Incredibly, the Captain had failed to follow the standard procedure of throwing overboard the Enigma machine but also the accompanying codebook, which was printed with water-soluble ink on water-soluble paper. 

Enigma Machine

Later, the Germans, suspecting that something was amiss modified the machine and added a new code in February 1942. This left the British blind to German naval movements, again. On October 30th, 1942, four British destroyers had been chasing U-559 for 16 hours. They were about 70 miles north of the Nile Delta when the commander of U-559 decided to scuttle his damaged submarine. U-559 surfaced near H.M.S. Petard and the German crew took to their lifeboats after scuttling their submarine.

U-559

As U-559 was sinking, two British seaman, Lieutenant Tony Fasson and Able-Seaman Colin Grazier, swam from H.M.S. Petard to try and capture the Enigma machine which all U-Boats carried. They were followed by 16 year old Tommy Brown, a NAAFI boy, in a whaleboat. With Brown standing by at the top of the conning tower, Fasson and Grazier handed up the precious Enigma machine to him. There were now only seconds in which to leave the sinking submarine, but instead of coming out, Fasson and Grazier continued to pass documents, keypads and codes up to Brown. As Tommy Brown stowed everything in his whaleboat, the submarine went down taking Fasson and Grazier with it. They were awarded the George Cross posthumously.

Able-Seaman Colin Grazier

Tommy Brown received the George Medal as he was a civilian. He had lied about his age to fight for his country. He died two years later trying to rescue his two sisters from their burning slum tenement. This was one of the most important events of the war, for it transpired that through the bravery of these three men, the new variation of the Enigma machine and vital codebooks were delivered safely back to England and once again the British were able to decipher German Naval codes.

Churchill & Macmillan

from Richard Steed

Harold MacMillan : Winston. Lend me a penny. I want to telephone a friend.

Churchill : Here's tuppence. Ring them both.

Winston Churchill

from Trevor at Waterloo Battlefield Tours

A young back bencher notices that Churchill's flies are undone in the House one day. He doesn't want the P.M. to be embarrassed so he sidles up and whispers, "Mr. Churchill. The Guardroom door is open."

The great man replies "Ah, but is the sentry standing to attention or
merely lolling over a couple of sandbags?"

Apparently Clement Attlee was very lacking in personality and charisma.
Churchill once said of him...

"An empty taxi pulled up and Clem Attlee got out"

Winston Churchill

When a woman told Winston he was drunk...

"Madam, you are ugly. Tomorrow morning, however, I shall be sober....................."

Winston on the subject of Field Marshal Montgomery...

"In defeat unbeatable; in victory unbearable."

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened."

"Don't talk to me about naval tradition. It's nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash."

Churchill was sitting on the toilet when he heard a voice from outside the door ;- "Mr. Churchill. The Privy Seal wishes to see you immediately."
Back came the reply :- "Tell the Privy Seal I am sealed in the privy and can only deal with one sh*t at a time."

Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke

Referring to Winston Churchill...

'He knows no details, has only got half the picture in his mind, talks absurdities and makes my blood boil to listen to his nonsense...And the wonderful thing is that ¾ of the population of the world imagine Winston Churchill is one of the great Strategists of History, a second Marlborough, and the other ¼ have no conception what a public menace he is.' 

Maybe It's True?

An enemy decoy, built in occupied Holland, led to a tale that has been told and retold ever since by veteran Allied pilots. The German "airfield," constructed with meticulous care, was made almost entirely of wood. There were wooden hangars, oil tanks, gun emplacements, trucks, and aircraft. The Germans took so long in building their wooden decoy that Allied photo experts had more than enough time to observe and report it. The day finally came when the decoy was finished, down to the last wooden plank. Early the following morning, a lone RAF plane crossed the Channel, came in low, circled the field once, and dropped a large wooden bomb.

An Understatement on Dunkirk

from Captain (N ) G J Oman

Following the evacuation from Dunkirk a dowager was hosting a garden party for the returnees. She cornered a young subaltern and said. 'It must have been terrible for you. What was it like ?'

He replied. 'The noise and the people!'

Lance Sergeant Peter King, Royal Dental Corps

from Trevor at Waterloo Battlefield Tours

Lord Lovat relates a WW2 story about a man wanting to make a war effort beyond that which he was assigned to make.

"Lance Sergeant Peter King of the Royal Dental Corps was drafted on mobilisation into the wrong branch of the service. He quickly became bored with the inactivity of his professional duties. Stationed near Dover, he raised a private army of his own, consisting of two other men. They 'borrowed' a boat in the harbour and set out on a raid across the Channel. Wind and weather were against them, the engine broke down and they drifted for two days before being ignominiously towed home by a Naval patrol. King was court martialled and reduced to the ranks."

Hauptman Helmut Wick, I./JG 2

Hauptman Helmut Wick (a Luftwaffe ace, 56 kills) was the commander of I./JG 2 (flying Me 109s) at Beaumont-le-Roger during a visit to that area by Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring.

"Is there anything you need?" asked Goring.

"Ja, Herr Reichsmarshall, a squadron of Spitfires!" replied Wick.

Not long afterwards he was shot down and killed by a Spitfire.

Winter War

During the 'Winter War' of 1940 temperatures were very low. One Finnish soldier, after being shot in the chest six times, was able to walk out of the battle and reach the casualty clearing station, because he bled so slowly.

'Dad's Army's' First Victim

On the 18th August, 1940 a detachment of the Home Guard, from their sandbagged emplacement on the South London outskirts, claimed the first bomber, a Dornier, to fall to the volunteer defenders. They shot it down after 180 rounds of rifle fire. 

Jimmy Perry

from Trevor at Waterloo Battlefield Tours

As a youth too young to enlist, Jimmy Perry, one of the creators of "Dad's Army", served in the Home Guard during the Second World War. In fact, he based the character of "stupid boy" Private Pike on himself. In his platoon was an old soldier who had fought at Omdurman with the Rifle Brigade and it was on him that Perry based his character Lance Corporal Jones.

One evening, Perry and the old soldier were out on patrol and Perry, rather concerned about what would happen if there was an invasion, asked "What will we do if the Germans come?" "You'll do what you're bloody well told!" came the reply from the old soldier.

Major-General Ridgeway

On one such jaunt during the Battle of the Bulge, Ridgeway got out of the jeep and took off through the snowy woods with no support. Clay Blair relates that Ridgeway 'heard a tremendous clatter' between him and his jeep. He turned to see a German AFV crossing the area that he had just moved through. Ridgeway began shooting and sent five shots through the side of the AFV. He aimed roughly at the markings on the side of the vehicle, which quickly swerved and ground to a halt. Tensely, Ridgeway waited for the eneny crew to fire or attempt to capture him. Nothing happened. He waited for a moment and then approached. The crew inside were all dead.

Roza Shanina and Yelizaveta Mironova

Senior Sergeant Roza Shanina, with 54 confirmed kills (actual kills were usually very much higher), wearing the medal of the Order of Glory 2nd and 3rd Class.

Marine sniper Yelizaveta Mironova with an unknown number of kills, seen here demonstrating the use of camouflage.

Russian Mine-Dogs

This was a curious Soviet attempt to develop a 'guided' anti-tank mine. The dogs were kept hungry and trained to crawl under tanks to get their food. In the combat area they were fitted with a special fabric harness which contained 10-12 kg of high explosive in four pouches. On top of the harness was a spring-loaded trigger pin. When the dog crawled under a tank the trigger pin was depressed setting off a detonator and exploding the charge. The Germans soon learned about this scheme from prisoners and dogs appearing in the combat area were shot on sight. German sources claim that mine-dogs were not very effective. However, the Soviets continued to use them at least until the Battle of Kursk, where Soviet sources claimed that 16 dogs destroyed 12 German tanks.

Kilroy Was Here

Pictured above is 'Kilroy', the ubiquitous character drawn on any suitable surface by GIs the world over. The original James J. Kilroy was a shipyard inspector who chalked 'Kilroy was here' when he approved a riveting job. Supposedly, military personnel boarding the new ships were intrigued when they found his mark everywhere - 'Kilroy always got there first'; and the craze for chalking it wherever troops arrived first spread all over the world.

Hans von Luck

 Stephen Ambrose (in his book 'Pegasus Bridge) recounts an interesting tale from the desert war.

In North Africa, Hans von Luck was fighting in the only war he ever enjoyed. He commanded the armed reconaissance battalion on Rommel’s extreme right (southern) flank. He thus enjoyed a certain independence, as did his British opposite number. The two commanding officers agreed to fight a civilised war. Every day at five p.m. the war shut down, the British to brew up their tea, the Germans their coffee. At about quarter past five, von Luck and the British commander would communicate over the radio. “Well,” von Luck might say, “we captured so-and-so today and he’s fine and he sends his love to his mother, tell her not to worry.” Once von Luck learned that the British had received a month’s supply of cigarettes. He offered to trade a captured officer – who happened to be the heir to the Players cigarette fortune – for one million cigarettes. The British countered with an offer of 600,000. Done, said von Luck. But the Players heir was outraged. He said the ransom was insufficient. He insisted he was worth the million and refused to be exchanged.

One evening, an excited corporal reported that he had just stolen a British truck jammed with tinned meat and other delicacies. Von Luck looked at his watch – it was past six p.m. – and told the corporal he would have to take it back, as he had captured it after five p.m. The corporal protested that this was war and anyway the troops were already gathering in the goods from the truck. Von Luck called Rommel, his mentor in military academy. He said he was suspicious of British moves further south and thought he ought to go out on a two-day reconaissance. Could another battalion take his place for that time? Rommel agreed. The new battalion arrived in the morning. That night at five thirty p.m., just as von Luck had anticipated, the British stole two supply trucks.

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