Three curious incidents during World War II

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

World War II is the last topic in the world associated with funny incidents. Nevertheless, even in the darkest periods of human history, things happen that are frankly strange and, in a sense, funny. Thus, at least three strange battles are associated with the actions of the Allied armies during the years of the conflict, which make you slap yourself in the face with your palm and say: "This is a fiasco!"

1. "Operation" on Lampedusa

Not far from Sicily there is a small island called Lampedusa. During World War II, a small Italian garrison was located there. On June 12, 1943, the British plane lost a lot of fuel due to a malfunction and was forced to land on Lampedusa. The crew of the car consisted of only three people: Sid Cohen, Peter Tate and Les Wright. British officers knew full well that they were threatened with captivity, but they had no choice.

However, it was not the British who were captured, but the entire local garrison of Italians. There was no limit to the surprise of the pilots when a group of Italian officers with white flags came out to them and offered to surrender the entire garrison of the island.

As it turned out, the Italians, who actually did not have air defense in that area, feared (and not unreasonably) the Allied bombing. As a result, more than 4 thousand Italian soldiers and officers were taken prisoner, and the island was taken without firing a single shot.

In the "justification" of the Italians, it is worth noting that the Allies used strategic aviation extremely effectively in World War II, turning entire cities into ruins. Coupled with the extremely low motivation of the Italian troops by 1943, the appalling reputation of the Allied bombers was doing its job.

2. Landing operation on Ramry

The war in the Pacific, of course, was as frighteningly large as the land war on the Eastern Front. However, the Americans had to sip a lot of grief and blood in numerous landing operations on various islands.

For the most part, the Japanese garrisons defended themselves with exceptional resilience and desperation. However, there were also the opposite cases, and not tragic, but funny.

In the winter of 1945, the American-British assault force landed on Ramri Island, which was supposed to be an easy prey, since the Japanese did not have time to properly entrench themselves on it.

However, the Japanese command decided to use the already built network of tunnels and the jungle for guerrilla operations.

At first, everything worked out for them, but in the end, crocodiles began to gather from all over the island to the accumulation of Japanese troops in the swamps. As a result, almost half of all Japanese fled, and another 500 people chose to surrender to the Allied forces.

3. Landing on Kyska

On the one hand, the landing on Kyska is an extremely amusing incident. On the other hand, there is very little funny in what happened, since the actions of the American army in this operation indicate that many of the landing units were not in the best morale (not without the help of the Japanese).

So in the period from August 15 to 24, 1943, the most ridiculous and sad in every sense amphibious operation of the Second World War continued. The Americans were fighting a desperate battle with … nobody. This is because the Nazis left the island 14 days before the allies disembarked.

Only American intelligence missed this moment, as a result of which the marines, which had more than once encountered the fierce partisan activities of the Japanese on the islands, exuded a rare nervousness while checking the abandoned positions.

The soldiers could not believe that the island was abandoned by the Japanese and were constantly waiting for an ambush. As a result, 32 people died from friendly fire. About 50 more soldiers and officers ended up in the hospital for the same reason.