Some Crazy Stuff That Happened In World War II

3:59 pm EST January 24th, 2012 | Books, History | 4 Comments

All Hell Let LooseSo I’m reading this book about World War II that’s really great. It’s called All Hell Let Loose by Sir Max Hastings and is a re-telling of the story of World War II with the addition of tons of first-person observations from people experiencing the war.

Some interesting stories I’ve found so far.

* A Russian soldier holed up in a farmhouse during the Russian invasion of Poland went outside to go to the bathroom to do number 2. In the process, he was shot in the leg. He ran back to the farmhouse and didn’t go the bathroom for another 7 days.

* A woman waiting for rationed food in the blockaded city of Leningrad had her food stolen by a man in line behind her. The starvation had reached such a crisis point that she reached down his mouth and pulled out what was left of the food in order to take it home for her family.

* In order to combat the problem of desertion in the Russian army, Stalin devised a strategy where Russians would approach the German line with their hands raised in a “surrender” position. Then, when they got close to the Germans, they would throw grenades. The Germans began responding to surrendering Russians by shooting them. Russian soldiers learned this, and what their fate would be if they surrendered to the enemy.

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4 Responses to “Some Crazy Stuff That Happened In World War II”

  1. Rusty SpikeFist says:
    January 25, 2012 at 8:29 am

    He ran back to the farmhouse and didn’t go the bathroom for another 7 days.

    Why not just go to the bathroom inside and cover it up with hay or something?

  2. The Dark Avenger says:
    January 25, 2012 at 5:29 pm

    If you don’t drink a lot of water, you stop producing urine and needing to pee.

  3. Christopher Foxx says:
    January 25, 2012 at 5:56 pm

    Stalin devised a strategy where Russians would approach the German line with their hands raised in a “surrender” position…

    Stalin was really thinking some moves ahead? That is, having a strategy that let soldiers get close enough to throw grenades wasn’t the goal, but was rather the method to get to the further-removed strategy of reducing desertion?

  4. isms says:
    January 26, 2012 at 4:36 pm

    “If you don’t drink a lot of water, you stop producing urine and needing to pee.”

    Sage advice for the GOP front runners.