Interesting Facts from WWII: Part II Quiz

Answer: Their Gestapo names began with "White"

Nancy Wake and Edward Yeo Thomas were both flown into occupied France during WWII and although they operated separately were known by the Gestapo as the "White Mouse" and the "White Rabbit" respectively.
Nancy Wake (1912-2011) was born in New Zealand but moved to Sydney, Australia as a very young child. She became an Australian citizen. She was married to a French industrialist and living in France when the country was invaded by Germany. She worked as a French resistance courier and after being betrayed she made her way to Britain were she joined SOE (Special Operations Executive) and was parachuted back into France and remained in France working with the resistance until the end of the war. She is reputed to have killed a SS sentry with her bare hands and was a very accurate shot with a rifle.
Wing Commander Edward Yeo Thomas (1902-1964) born in London, also joined SOE and was parachuted into France to work with the resistance. He was eventually betrayed and after torture was sent to Buchenwald Concentration camp. From there he escaped, but was recaptured and passed himself off as a French national and was sent to Stalag-XXB. He was an important witness at the Nuremburg Trials.

The books "The White Rabbit" (1952) and "The White Mouse" (1985) tell the stories of these two heroes.

Answer: Jean Borotra

Jean Borotra (1898-1994) was a French Basque winner of 18 Grand Slam titles (4-singles titles including Wimbledon 1924 & 1926, 9-doubles and 5-mixed doubles) was arrested by the Gestapo in 1944 and originally imprisoned in a German concentration camp and then in Castle Itter in northern Austria until May 1945. He played a heroic role at the Battle for Castle Itter when American and German troops fought side by side to defend the castle against a SS Panzer Division. It is the only instance in WWII where the Allies and the Axis fought side by side.
Henri Cochet (1901-1987) from France won Wimbledon in 1927 and 1929 and a total 15 Grand Slam titles. For a brief period during WWII he was imprisoned but was later released but unable to leave the country.
Gottfried von Cramm (1909-1976) was a pre-war German tennis player who won two singles Grand Slams (French) and was runner-up at Wimbledon three times (1935-37).
Don Budge (1915-2000) was an American champion who won six Grand Slam singles titles including two at Wimbledon.

Answer: Painted plaster

Due to the shortage of metal all Oscars given out during WWII were made of painted plaster. After the war recipients did receive the "real" ones as replacements. Oscars used to be made of bronze but nowadays they are made out of britannia metal, a pewter-type alloy, which is then plated in copper, nickel-silver and finally, 24 carat gold. Only once has an Oscar been made of wood and that was in 1938 when the ventriloquist Edgar Bergen received a wooden Oscar for his dummy, Charlie McCarthy.

Answer: USA

Germany only declared war on the USA - on 11th December, 1941. All other countries in which Germany was involved against during WWII were invasions, without any declaration of war.

Answer: Delivered over 3,000 babies in Auschwitz

Stanislawa Leszczynska (1896-1974) was a Polish midwife who was imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp in 1943. Until her liberation in 1945 she delivered over 3,000 babies in the Women's Work Camp in Auschwitz II. She was under orders to kill every baby she delivered, but did not kill one single baby as she would hide the new-born under scraps of material under the mother's blankets. Sadly, a large percentage perished under the terrible conditions and some with blue eyes were sent to German foster homes.

In 1970 she attended a reunion in Warsaw where she met some of the mothers and their grown up child that had survived the concentration camp. She is an official candidate for canonisation by the Catholic Church.

Answer: Labrador, Newfoundland

In October 1943, the submarine U-537 made the only German armed landing on North American soil in WWII. The landing was at Martin Bay on the northern tip of Labrador. On board ship was the scientist Dr. Kurt Sommermeyer and consequently the weather station was known as "Kurt".

The purpose of the station was to send out weather reports to the Nazi submarines operating in the North Sea. The story only became known during the 1970s and it was not until the 1980s that the site was actually discovered.

The site was then dismantled and is now on display at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.

Answer: No Americans were in the mass escape

There were no Americans in the planned escape although they were in the camp and were used as lookouts while the tunnel was being dug. They were also moved to a different part of the camp while the tunnelling was in progress.
There were many mass escapes made by Allied POWs during WWII but this one from Stalag Luft III had by far the greatest number of escapees. The plan was for 200 men to escape but the tunnel was discovered during the escape itself. A total of 76 made the breakout, 23 were returned to custody and only 3 made it successfully to safety. 50 were executed by the Gestapo to set an example for further POW breakouts. Of the 50 that were executed they comprised of 13 different nationalities including airmen from as far as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina.
Only three were successful - two Norwegians and one Dutchman. All three had a very good command of German. All of the nationalities involved in the escape were members to the Royal Air Force (RAF).

Answer: a mechanic

When she turned 18 in 1944 she joined the Women's Auxiliary Territorial Service. She was known as Second Subaltern Elizabeth Windsor. She was issued with a pair of overalls and trained as a mechanic and truck driver. To this day she remains the only female member of the Royal family to have joined the armed forces and the only living head of state who served in WWII.

Answer: Protected over 1,200 Jews

The four brothers Tuvia (1906-1987), Asael (1908-1945), Alexander (1912-1995) and Aron (b. 1927) protected 1,236 Jews in the forests of Belarus making it one of the most remarkable rescue missions during the Holocaust. For over two years they hid in the forests setting up schools, medical stations and various workshops to help the partisan movement.

As the pendulum swung against the Germans many fought with the Soviets against the Nazis and after the war Tuvia and Alexander emigrated to the USA and set up a successful trucking business in New York.

Their escapades were immortalised in the 2008 movie titled "Defiance" starring Daniel Craig and Liev Schreiber.

Answer: Used their products as maps and escape routes for POWs

During WWII both companies used means to print escape routes and maps on their products. Both companies joined forces with American and British intelligence agencies to create special products that were sent as gifts through the Red Cross for POWs.
The playing cards had a map between the two layers of card paper and by soaking the card in water the two pieces of paper came apart and revealed a map which could be used for escape purposes.
The Monopoly game served various purposes as foreign currencies were hidden below the monopoly money, maps were concealed between the board itself and compasses and files were disguised as playing pieces.