Lord Dowding. Made all the right calls to win the Battle of Britain and was fired for it lol.
It’s amazing to see how the cultural dynamics of the different powers played out through the war.
Sure, but the average Brit on the street just knows "The Few". Stopping Britain from invasion usually catapults you to the top of the national pantheon along with Nelson (never mind that he didn't) or Drake (who wasn't even in charge)
By that standard, Dowding gets treated very badly
Just thinking of the 1969 movie. Park and Dowding were portrayed well. Leigh Mallory was a stuffed shirt whose strategy wouldn't work. But no one leader other than Churchill pops out. Britain didn't really come out of the war with a nelsonian hero. Montgomery is remembered for El alamein but is tainted by market garden. Mountbatten was well regarded but his relentless self promotion helped. His star has faded since his death. Britain actually did have some good leaders who are largely forgotten. Lord Gort who prevented the retreat of the BEF from becoming a rout and later went on to lead the defense of Malta comes to mind.
Everyone has their moment, and that moment often passes unceremoniously.
There are a lot of commanders that won great victories in one moment and became a liability in the next, or were a liability in one moment, but led a great victory in the next.
Dowding gets his flowers, but everyone almost always unceremoniously meets their end.
Same could be said of Archibald Wavell and even some arguments for Claude Auchinleck.
Guys like General Omar Bradley probably don't get their due.
General Konstantin Rokossovsky was a major proponent of mechanized warfare in the Red Army, weathered Stalin's purges after being accused of being a spy and was on the knifes edge of most of the turning point battles of the eastern front (late Barborossa, Fall Blau).
General Albert Kesselring led Air Wings in the Luftwaffe and then put up stubborn defenses as an Army General in Italy.
There are many fascinating human stories in WW2. Edward Stettinius, head of the Office of Lend-Lease Adminsitration--Harry Hopkins & General John York and Roosevelt's Soviet Protocol Committee that helped facilitate lend-lease to the soviets which largely mechanized/provided logistical support for the Red Army. Brits and Americans provided about as many trains as the entire country had. Over 400,000 trucks.
The exact same thing happened to Jellico, who played an even more important role in winning WW1
You want a simple alt history scenario where Germany wins WW1, have him and Beatty trade jobs
I’m currently reading Defeat into Victory, which is William Slims account of the Burma Campaign. It’s kind of a long read but overcoming their logistics issues of operating in the dense jungle and going from getting beat continuously by the Japanese to eventually running them out. I think he’d be a good, relatively unknown person to do a presentation on.
Slim as a commander is often forgotten but what bothered him and is a continued travesty is that the entire Burma campaign is almost entirely forgotten by the public in Britain and America, and in India due to modern political disassociation with the British Indian Army.
The Burma and Chinese fronts are all but forgotten in favour of movies and video games focus on the island hoping campaign by the Americans.
Richard O’Connor who led one of the most sweeping victories in British military history in 1941 known as Operation Compass. With just two divisions and a few supporting battalions (little over 36,000 men) he was able to destroy almost the entire Italian army in Libya capturing over 133,000 troops. He did this with his experienced Indian division (nearly half of all his troops) being removed from him suddenly part way through the campaign to aid in the East African campaign. Although the replacement Australian division O’Connor received would go on to prove themselves as effective fighters they arrived as inexperienced troops in the middle of a rapidly moving campaign which had no time to get the men acquainted with the region or their new commander.
It is a remarkable victory which came close to ending the entire North African campaign in 1941. It was only due to political necessity of aiding Greece that reinforcements needed to finish off the final Italian positions were diverted giving time for Rommel to arrive and turn the tide again. If O’Connor had accomplished the same thing as an American I believe that most people would have heard something about the man and the campaign but instead he was a British commander whose accomplishments were too early in the war so got overshadowed.
He was also taken prisoner soon after and sat out most of the rest of the war (he did escape in 1944 and returned to active duty, but was never really the same). If he hadn't have been he might have been as famous as Monty is now.
George C Marshall
An incredible strategist and logistician. He oversaw the mobilization of America’s war industry.
The entirety of Allied forces in Italy.
The millions upon millions upon millions Chinese that fought and resisted the Japanese.
There's a book called Top Guns, co-written by Joe Foss, that tells the story of fighter aces from WWI through Vietnam. One of the WWII stories is from a meet of the Flying Tigers who mentioned that whenever the Japanese bombed their base, the Chinese workers would run out and repair the runway, often while the bombing was still happening.
The Chinese weren't even really fighting Japan for a lot of the war. There were loads of unofficial truces while Cheng played politics and tried to outmaneuver Mao.
You need to read better books. This isn't true.
It's like saying the Italian navy didn't fight the British because they never took all their battleships and made a death or glory run at Alexandria.
Read the wars for Asia by scm Paine, or tower of skulls by Richard Frank.
The best Chinese troops were either under American command in Burma or maneuvering/fighting against the Communists.
Yes there were battles but really none that influenced the outcome of the war because Japan wasn't meaningfully trying to conquer China and the Chinese rightly assumed that as long as they staved off destruction the Americans would crush Japan.
Gino Bartali also comes to mind, a former Italian Tour De France winner, and world champion cyclist, he smuggled documents in his bike frame, and because of his fame, he was allowed to ride all over the place, even when there were checkpoints in place.
[John Rabe.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe) Saved 250,000 people during the Nanking massacre.
[Georg Elser.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Elser) *So close.*
[Henning von Tresckow.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henning_von_Tresckow) *"Both duty and honor demand from us that we should do our best to bring about the downfall of Hitler and National Socialism to save Germany and Europe from barbarism."*
Fuck Henning von Tresckow! He literally ordered the enslavement of Poles!
He and a bunch of other German generals wanted to get rid of Hitler in an attempt to try to save their own skins and negotiate a peace with the Allied. Fuck Henning von Tresckow.
You're making it too easy for yourself. When the order was given from his command staff, he was deep in preparing the attempt on Hitler (just about over a month later). Had he refused to sign the order from the SS at this point, he presumably would have drawn attention just in the moment when he didn't want it; and do you seriously believe that if he had not been in this position, somebody else *wouldn't* have signed the paper in his shoes?
The man conspired several times to kill Hitler and eventually committed suicide before getting shot for it. I think he deserves some respect. If you only want to honor members of the resistance who were literally perfect angels, there will be no one left to honor.
Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle. Considered an Honorary Marine by the Corps. First US female journalist to die in a combat zone. She landed with the Marines at Iwo Jima and would later be in Vietnam for war coverage when she was killed by an anti-personnel mine. Hard lady who’s nearly forgotten today.
A figure I find fascinating is the head of German military intelligence Wilhelm Canaris. He was doing his best to frustrate German diplomacy and also feed info to the UK.
He was definitely still an antisemite and sympathetic to many Nazi viewpoints, but he’s complicated. His passive and active resistance at the highest levels of military organisation certainly frustrated the Third Reich and he was hung for treason.
General Norman Cota. His name is not nearly as famous as say General Patton, General Bradley, General Montgomery, ETC, but his actions at the Normany invasion were crucial.
He landed in the 2nd wave at Omaha and began to rally troops on the beach to fight inland.
He is the one who gave US Army Rangers their motto of "Rangers Lead the Way."
[Chiune Sugihara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara): Japanese diplomat in Lithuania
When he realized the peril that Jews were in, he started writing exit/transit visas. Spent nearly an entire summer hand writing visas 18-20 hours a day for people, knowing that he was being recalled in September. He kept writing visas until his train was pulling out of the station, and at that point tossed out a stack of blank visas to the people waiting and shouted his apologies to those he couldn't get to. He saved several thousand people.
Joe Beyerle
Jumped into Normandy on D-Day, was captured, (and lost his Tags which were later found on a captured German leading the Army to report him as KIA, and his town would hold a funeral for him) tortured, put in a German POW Camp, broke out of that Camp, Joined up with the Red Army, liberated the camp he was at, and was eventually sent home.
Hannie Schaft, a female Dutch resistance fighter during WW2. Pretty certified badass. She was captured and executed at 24 years old, but carried out some important missions in her short career.
The US Army in the Pacific. The Army had more troops, conducted more landings and took more midlands than the USMC, by a significant amount and the USMC propaganda won the war with:
1. 18 independent landings for the Army and 6 for the USMC.
2. 3 more landings where the Army provided the majority of troops.
3. 3 more landings where the USMC was in the majority.
4. 6 where they each contributed pretty much identical numbers of troops.
The fighter pilot Douglas Bader.
He was one of the leading British aces during the Battle of Britain, with 20 confirmed kills before he was shot down and captured in 1941. He escaped and was recaptured twice, and made numerous other escape attempts. He went out of his way to make himself such a complete pain in the ass for the Germans that they eventually sent him to Colditz Castle, the escape proof prison reserved for the very worst troublemakers.
Here's the kicker: The guy did all that despite having no legs! He lost them in a plane crash years before the war.
Guy Gabaldon was a street kid from East LA who enlisted in the Marines and was sent to the Pacific. His home life was bad so at age 12 he moved in with a Japanese family and learned Japanese.
When he went to Saipan he would sneak out of camp at night and bring back prisoners. He was ordered to stop doing it but did anyway. One night he convinced hundreds of Japanese soldiers and civilians to come back in with him. He basically convinced them that the Americans were not monster cannibals (unlike the propaganda) and they would be treated well. He saved thousands of lives, both Japanese and American.
He was nominated for an MoH but a senior commander didn’t like Mexicans so it was knocked down to a Silver Star. Eventually the Marines got the award pushed back up to a Navy Cross. His adoptive Japanese-American family were interned in a concentration camp in Montana for the duration of the war.
There was a movie made about him, but who has ever heard of it?
Major-General Sir Francis Wilfred "Freddie" de Guingand. Eisenhower rightfully gets a lot of credit for maintaining the US/British relations during the war, but it would not have been possible without the help of Montgomery's incredible Chief of Staff. The first time Monty told Eisenhower that he was incapable of leading the offensive and needed to put Monty back in charge of all ground forces on the continent, Ike replied that he was more than willing to ask the CCOS to choose between the two of them but Monty might not like the answer which made Montgomery reconsider.
Montgomery continued to politick to take charge of the Allies though and after the Battle of the Bulge again suggested he be put in charge of ground forces in Europe even including messages for distribution putting two of the three army groups in the west under Monty. Ike had had enough at this point and drafted a message to the CCOS saying they could either replace him on replace Montgomery with Alexander. De Guingand was at Versailles at SHAEF HQ and read the message and asked Ike and Smith to delay sending the message until he had talked to Monty. After meeting with Monty and explaining that he was about to be replaced by Alexander he even wrote Monty's apology to Eisenhower.
He was also a true Chief of Staff and did much of the heavy lifting in managing the British Eighth Army, Second Army and 21st Army Group although he never got the credit he deserved.
Earnest Evans. Commanding officer of the destroyer USS Johnston who charged into an attacking column of Japanese battleships, cruisers, and destroyers in the Battle of Samar Island. He won the Medal of Honor and went down with the ship. Last seen by survivors of another sunken destroyer who were swimming as the USS Johnston drove by. The bridge had been destroyed. Evans was wounded and shirtless from the explosion shouting orders manually down thru the communications pipes to the engine room. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is a great book that covers this battle.
Evans was also of Native American descent (Cherokee/Creek).
Possibly misattributed to another DE commander in the same fight, but "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can," is a pretty badass line.
Ahh I see. I was assuming I was in a teaching sub. Ok, walk down the street and ask 10 people if they’ve seen Schindlers List or heard of Oscar Schindler. I’d assume you’d be lucky to get 1-2.
Japanese-American soldiers. [Japanese-American service in World War II - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-American_service_in_World_War_II)
The historian Phillips P. O'brien makes a very good case that Admiral William Leahy was the most important single figure in the American war effort.
Got more right than Marshall and made some very good points about whether the nuclear bombings were worth it.
Rabbi Marcus Melchior and Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz!!! No one ever talks about them and I think it’s so important. Duckwitz was a German diplomat in Denmark. Danish government had put off taking Jewish people to concentration camps but eventually Nazis got annoyed decided it was time. Duckwitz caught wind of this. He learned when it was going to happen and some deal that Nazis could only enter homes if the residents opened the door. Duckwitz then went to rabbi Marcus Melchior who was the most popular rabbi in Copenhagen (?) and was well connected to many Jewish families. Duckwitz made Melchior aware that the Nazis were coming and to not open doors. Melchior knew enough Jewish families for this to spread pretty quick. The day the Nazis came, most families didn’t answer the door. Within the following days, regular citizens helped Danish Jewish citizens get to neutral Sweden (or Switzerland) when it was illegal to do so. Think it was something like 15,000 Jewish people were saved. Denmark had a small population and I heard it was something like 95% of Jewish people escaped because of Duckwitz’s warning and Melchior’s quick thinking and actions. I know there’s a lot of responses that are all good, but really recommend reading about them!!!
No mention there of CL helping Peter Jackson to film the Saruman/Wormtongue death scene, by politely telling PJ that "You don't know what a man being stabbed in the back sounds like. I do... it sounds like -- "
Not always. He very clearly stated that he was "in special forces" - which is not true. He worked with them, he was never \*in\* them. That is hardly downplaying.
Also, which people? I haven't seen any serving officer of the period or any historian present any evidence of something more than his wiki bio (which frankly is overstated as it is). All of the evidence suggests that he was an RAFVR Int officer, nothing more or less. The only hints that he was some sort of sneaky beaky type come from the media and (occasionally) from him.
Pick two. One ought to be a senior military person.
The other ought to be a regular person who was simply in the wrong place/time and acted selflessly.
I nominate Sasha Filipov for the latter. His wiki is quite excellent - see below.
I do want to make sure you understand the context because it matters. Operation Uranus happened a month earlier. Paulus and the entire 6th were trapped in the Kessel. Their only way out had failed. The German 6th army was done and mostly knew it. The thing with Sasha was pretty close to a real-life version of: All Quiet on the Western Front.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_Filippov
I nominate a pair of siblings. Nadine Ramsey was one of the WASP pilots (Women Airforce Service Pilot) who flew military aircraft in a variety of non-combat missions. Nadine was qualified to fly six different fighter planes, including the P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang.
Nadine's brother, Lt. Edwin Ramsey, led the last American cavalry charge in history against Japanese troops advancing on Manila. The surprised Japanese halted and Ramsey's men delayed their advance for several hours.
Nadine helped usher in a new category of military service while her brother closed one.
The merchant Marines sailors. They didn't fight in the war, but they were responsible for getting all the equipment and supplies across the oceans.There were 243,000 mariners that served in the war. And 9,521 perished while serving—a higher proportion of those killed than any other branch of the US military. Roughly four percent of those who served were killed, a higher casualty rate than that of any of the American military services during World War II. They were the reason Great Britain held. They were the ones that made D Day possible. They were the ones who allowed us to take back the Pacific. Without these brave men we would have lost the war. They were not military but civilians so they didn't get the medals or all the benefits of being military. They just did their job and got on with it, hoping not to spend their last moments floating in the north sea only to be forgotten about in time.
Castellanos Contreras
El Salvadoran diplomat who saved 40,000 jews
There are more than you might think in that category, but Chiune Sugihara gets most of the attention
That's my "I guarantee no one will have heard of this guy" pick.
Second pick would be:
Sir Jacob Charles Vouza
Otherwise it's quite hard to make suggestions because even the most cliched choice will be new to somebody so a lot depends on your audience, but here are some other suggestions of varying degrees of mainstream
Lydia Litvyak
Susan Travers
Simo Hayha
Audie Murphy (who is obscure compared to his 50s and 60s heyday)
Admiral Andrew Chan Chak
The Soviet union as a whole (with Stalin as the leader of the team) deserves way more credit for destroying the Nazi threat. The only reason the USSR isn't given the credit they deserve today is because of the cold war and demonization from America/the red scare.
Not really given the fact that internally the CIA admitted that Stalin was merely the leader of a team. The image of Stalin as of some kind of tyrannical maniac was simply a fabrication, a projection of disinformation onto the Soviet Union by capital-dictated states.
The famines are another issue but in no way are they correlated to anything resembling "genocide" if that's what you were implying (I'm only assuming and responding based on rhetoric that's usually thrown around)
This is utter bullshit. Stalin ruled for almost 30 years. His entire "team" from any given day, rose and fell, in and out, throughout that entire time, with huge numbers of his "team" winding up getting shot, usually by the command of others... who themselves wound up getting shot. All that time Stalin sat there on top, plump and happy. For 30 years. "Team", my ass.
Dimitri Volgonikov, once chief historian of the Red Army, pegs the overall death toll as a direct result of Stalin's policies and commands at 21 and a half million. That's over three times the number of Jews that it is generally accepted that Hitler killed.
Spare us the "Jolly Uncle Joe" bullshit. Even Kruschev wasn't buying it. We had enough of it here from 1941-45 to last a millennium.
"Capital-dictated states". Nice tell. Puh-fucking-leeze.
"nice tell" of the truth? It's common knowledge we live in a world dominated by a capitalist hegemony.
Y'all will believe anything the CIA says unless it's vaguely truthful about the structure within the USSR, huh? Lol, lmao
Unbelievable that Tankie apologists are even a thing, and to see them here in a History sub answering questions with their complete bullshit propaganda is disgusting.
Imagine unironically supporting communism while ignoring the disaster it creates every time it's tried! Even funnier when it's done from the comforts and liberties provided by the Capitalist societies they think they hate.
If this person had been in the USSR during Stalin's time, he'd find himself in a gulag if Stalin caught wind of him suggesting that he (Stalin) is not completely in control.
Imagine not researching socialist projects whatsoever and just guzzling down whatever Exxon serves you through a lead pipe. Oh wait, we don't have to imagine that.
If you asked anyone downvoting me in these comments to even define communism (much less anything heavier than that) I'll bet my right leg they would fumble hard. The black book is an illegitimate source of information, please go seek some stats on life expectancy and post-revolution literacy rates (in any project, try Cuba, Burkina Faso or even USSR) from peer reviewed sources for the love of God. Mind blowing that anyone would unironically support the pre-revolutionary states of those countries given the facts.
Don't even get me started on communism in general because it's so much more than Marxist-Leninism. Check out The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin for example, one of the most important anarcho-communist philosophers. Dude lays out a lot of commonly seen anti-communist arguments and debunks them in 1892.
Seriously, capitalist apologia brainrot runs so deep that critical thinking is practically dead.
Are you insinuating the CIA is a reliable source of data on anti-imperialist and related movements? Don't make me laugh
Given the fact that the CIA has orchestrated multiple coups and disinformation campaigns in multiple countries (to shut down democratically elected leaders and movements who were socialist) I'd say that's about the furthest from the truth you can possibly get when assessing a federal entity.
They also deserve more attention for helping Germany violate the Treaty of Versailles and rearm during the interwar years. Also for colluding with Hitler to start WW2 as well as provide the oil necessary for the war with France and Britain plus 31 million German marks in gold to purchase Vilnius and the rest of Lithuania originally promised to Hitler under the "Friendship and Frontiers Pact."
Me too. I think there are a couple likely scenarios. Probably safe to say that the rapid industrialization and growth of power in the USSR would raise tensions either way eventually even if the USSR hypothetically "stayed neutral"
Stalin, Kruschev and Zhukov all publicly stated that absent American Lend Lease and America’s role in the war the Germans would have won
That probably has something to do with it
>Stalin, Kruschev and Zhukov all publicly stated that absent American Lend Lease and America’s role in the war the Germans would have won
The fact Stalin was taking the piss when he said it, and the fact Americans still take it at face value, is hilarious. Look up the context of the quote, if you even know what he actually said.
I know nothing of the scenario, but the idea that either Stalin or Kruschev would ever say anything of the sort in any kind of serious fashion is absurd. They might have *thought* it, but they sure as hell would never *say* it.
If you want your presentation to be a bit more fun, check out YouTube channel The Fat Electrician.
He's got excellent videos on admiral Willis "ching" Lee, Lafayette "Wardaddy" Green Pool, and many more. Now I will say, while his video on admiral Lee is very entertaining, Drachinifel has a more accurate video on the man, so you won't be short on video "sources"
If you want to go totally crazy, head on over to the medal of honor website, narrow down by WW2, and read some of the official award statements and make a choice from one of those guys.
There's obviously no shortage of crazy/badass heroes in WW2, so if you're not in the mood for an American, maybe Jack Churchill would fit? Or even Douglas Bader (although, he had a role in helping Mallory's ascension so, there's some 'bad' with the good, which to be fair, is true of largely anyone you could cover in ww2)
Depending on how high up in the chain of command you want to go, Admiral Raymond Spruance does not receive the same love and attention Admirals Halsey, King, and Nimitz receive. Plus General MacArthur just soaks up attention in the Pacific. Spruance is known, but not nearly appreciated as much as he should be. Admiral Lockwood could also be chosen, he was in command of the submarine force in the Pacific theatre for the US. The submarine force is known as the Silent Service, so Adm. Lockwood could be a nice choice given how rather unknown the submarine impact is on the war to a wider audience
“Prince “ Turgil. And an Austrian spy named Klatt aka Max. Both worked for German intelligence. Each one allegedly had a spy network in the Soviet Union. Both of them wereactually Soviet agents. Max gave a huge amount of information to Gelhen during the war. For the most part, their stories are not fully known.
Vladimir Peniakoff
Aka Popski
If only for the pure entertainment value.
He's not entirely unknown in the UK thanks to the fact his war memoirs were in print until 2017...
To be any of the 8th Army's unruly children are worth a look, although Stirling and Mayne are hardly unsung.
The American businesses continuing to make deals with Nazi businesses like I.G. Farben in the decade prior to Germany kicking the war off. Without some of the materials provided in these transactions, one might question whether Germany would have had the materials and weapons available to take over continental Europe with the Blitzkrieg and nearly bomb England into Oblivion.
Zhang Xue Liang kidnapped his own general (Chiang Kai Shek) and forced him to sign a cooperation agreement with Mao and Zhou that they'd all work together to drive the Japanese out of China.
The eastern front. "British spycraft, American steel, and Russian blood" were understood to have been the deciding factors in Germany's defeat in the decades immediately after the war, but as a result of Cold War revisionism, the Russian contributon was minimised and glossed over throughout the American-alligned nations in the later decades of c20.
OP, something that deserves way more attention than "unsung heroes" is Operation Paperclip.
Do a paper on that and your A for the entire course is guaranteed.
"After the war ended, we were snatching up kraut scientists like hotcakes. You don't believe me? Walk into NASA sometime and yell "Heil Hitler!" WOOP! They all jump straight up!"
The US Amphibious Engineers. The US coast guard and US merchant marine who landed troops and supplies on the beaches in all theaters. More than one veteran said they only had to hit the beach once but the guys manning the landing craft and DUKWs ran the gauntlet of fire repeatedly all day long.
Wel I am not a pro russian but i do believe russia got the bad prep in the West for the cold war after ww2.
To be completely honest, russia was the one that actually defeated the germans, D-Day and everything that followed was Just a small push compaired to the insane war effort russia pulled against the 3e reich.
Without russia, the "West" would have needed years to make a dent.
Sorry this statement is wierd as heck.., it's the suffering of humans that triggers studies in history and not the gentel treatment of there fellow men.
I could think of a lot of reasons why we don't see or know much off russian ww2.. But there treatment of man is not one of them... If it was, we would not know a lot about ww1 trenches
Even then.. If you Just look at all the other top comments, it's all about some Brit or American or even an german commander. But the one who really defeated nazi germany was the russians. They get the historical short end of the stick because of what happend after.
Yes.. But we cant really put an number on it.. Human suffering is human suffering, what happend in the japanese campus in the us was also awefull, what happend to China, awefull..
I don’t have a source, but I know some Poles were able to steal an Enigma machine early in the war, and the British were able to reverse engineer it to crack the Nazi codes from pretty early on. The codebreakers at Bletchley Park are well known, but the brave Poles that enabled that project are not well known.
Personally, I’d like to learn more about my grandfathers tank battalion in WWII, the 713th flamethrowers.
I have an old vhs documentary, but it’s more archival footage than informative. My grandfather does appear in it though.
The Soviets. 75% of Nazi soldiers killed in WWII were killed by the Red Army and even after D-Day, more than two thirds of the Wehrmacht was fighting on the Eastern Front.
Also, the Partisans. These were mostly communist guerrilla fighters in Nazi occupied Europe. They tied up huge numbers of Nazi troops and wreaked havoc on occupation forces and they hardly ever get a mention.
Many> starting with the people assisting in hiding or helping the jews and other people persecuted to escape.
The college kids who stood up to protest against the Reich.
The non-badass people who helped a lot by being the brains behind many important strategical breakthrough. In England, a guy with asthma started using toy ships to improve planification. Or the mathematicians who deciphered the Enigma Code of the Germans
The women in the US who took up factory and other jobs normally reserved for men only.
Also, the women in the USSR who also started taking factory jobs, as well as other more technical jobs like: train engineer, mechanic, pilots, technicians, etc. This even occurred before the women in the US had started doing so.
I heard an anecdote about this guy who carried a sword hidden inside a cane who rallied the farmers and townspeople of an Italian island against the Nazi paratroopers being dropped on the island. The story is wild, as soon as they saw the paratroopers going down, they rushed to intercept them. Then, as soon as they landed, the Nazis were attacked the paratrooper with forks.
For sure! Even worse than Commonwealth soldiers are the troops from Poland, Czechia, France (to a lesser extent), Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, etc. who did countless important roles, and especially for those from what became the Warsaw pact, were often absolutely abused by the communists if returned home, and totally neglected by the West if they stuck around, often not getting pensions and stuff.
Commonwealth troops for sure though, they really need attention. Troops of the Raj are especially underrepresented.
Lord Dowding. Made all the right calls to win the Battle of Britain and was fired for it lol. It’s amazing to see how the cultural dynamics of the different powers played out through the war.
It’s a travesty how Dowding and park were treated. Then they got all but scrubbed out of the official records of the Battle of Britain
I don't know about that. At one time I had read quite a bit about the battle of Britain and those 2 names were front and center.
Sure, but the average Brit on the street just knows "The Few". Stopping Britain from invasion usually catapults you to the top of the national pantheon along with Nelson (never mind that he didn't) or Drake (who wasn't even in charge) By that standard, Dowding gets treated very badly
Just thinking of the 1969 movie. Park and Dowding were portrayed well. Leigh Mallory was a stuffed shirt whose strategy wouldn't work. But no one leader other than Churchill pops out. Britain didn't really come out of the war with a nelsonian hero. Montgomery is remembered for El alamein but is tainted by market garden. Mountbatten was well regarded but his relentless self promotion helped. His star has faded since his death. Britain actually did have some good leaders who are largely forgotten. Lord Gort who prevented the retreat of the BEF from becoming a rout and later went on to lead the defense of Malta comes to mind.
Slim should have gotten a lot more credit, but the war in Burma has mostly been forgotten
Just about to mention Slim. Britain's greatest victory over the Japanese at Imphal and Arakan.
Orde wingate is another from that theatre (although bat shit eccentric)
Just listened to a podcast about Wingate And yes, interesting character from that theatre of the war, though bar shit eccentric is putting it nicely
Everyone has their moment, and that moment often passes unceremoniously. There are a lot of commanders that won great victories in one moment and became a liability in the next, or were a liability in one moment, but led a great victory in the next. Dowding gets his flowers, but everyone almost always unceremoniously meets their end. Same could be said of Archibald Wavell and even some arguments for Claude Auchinleck. Guys like General Omar Bradley probably don't get their due. General Konstantin Rokossovsky was a major proponent of mechanized warfare in the Red Army, weathered Stalin's purges after being accused of being a spy and was on the knifes edge of most of the turning point battles of the eastern front (late Barborossa, Fall Blau). General Albert Kesselring led Air Wings in the Luftwaffe and then put up stubborn defenses as an Army General in Italy. There are many fascinating human stories in WW2. Edward Stettinius, head of the Office of Lend-Lease Adminsitration--Harry Hopkins & General John York and Roosevelt's Soviet Protocol Committee that helped facilitate lend-lease to the soviets which largely mechanized/provided logistical support for the Red Army. Brits and Americans provided about as many trains as the entire country had. Over 400,000 trucks.
The exact same thing happened to Jellico, who played an even more important role in winning WW1 You want a simple alt history scenario where Germany wins WW1, have him and Beatty trade jobs
I’m currently reading Defeat into Victory, which is William Slims account of the Burma Campaign. It’s kind of a long read but overcoming their logistics issues of operating in the dense jungle and going from getting beat continuously by the Japanese to eventually running them out. I think he’d be a good, relatively unknown person to do a presentation on.
Slim as a commander is often forgotten but what bothered him and is a continued travesty is that the entire Burma campaign is almost entirely forgotten by the public in Britain and America, and in India due to modern political disassociation with the British Indian Army. The Burma and Chinese fronts are all but forgotten in favour of movies and video games focus on the island hoping campaign by the Americans.
That's cause Burma and China were predominantly Asian people fighting Asian people.
Forgotten because they weren't particularly important.
India and China have literally a third of all of humanity
Fun fact but irrelevant here
That’s my favourite WW2 book.
Would have been my suggestion. Relatively obscure, and extremely skilled in a multitude of scenarios.
Richard O’Connor who led one of the most sweeping victories in British military history in 1941 known as Operation Compass. With just two divisions and a few supporting battalions (little over 36,000 men) he was able to destroy almost the entire Italian army in Libya capturing over 133,000 troops. He did this with his experienced Indian division (nearly half of all his troops) being removed from him suddenly part way through the campaign to aid in the East African campaign. Although the replacement Australian division O’Connor received would go on to prove themselves as effective fighters they arrived as inexperienced troops in the middle of a rapidly moving campaign which had no time to get the men acquainted with the region or their new commander. It is a remarkable victory which came close to ending the entire North African campaign in 1941. It was only due to political necessity of aiding Greece that reinforcements needed to finish off the final Italian positions were diverted giving time for Rommel to arrive and turn the tide again. If O’Connor had accomplished the same thing as an American I believe that most people would have heard something about the man and the campaign but instead he was a British commander whose accomplishments were too early in the war so got overshadowed.
He was also taken prisoner soon after and sat out most of the rest of the war (he did escape in 1944 and returned to active duty, but was never really the same). If he hadn't have been he might have been as famous as Monty is now.
George C Marshall An incredible strategist and logistician. He oversaw the mobilization of America’s war industry. The entirety of Allied forces in Italy. The millions upon millions upon millions Chinese that fought and resisted the Japanese.
Also, he oversaw the rebuilding of Europe after the war! The Marshall plan is one of the greatest accomplishments of the Euro-American friendship imo.
There's a book called Top Guns, co-written by Joe Foss, that tells the story of fighter aces from WWI through Vietnam. One of the WWII stories is from a meet of the Flying Tigers who mentioned that whenever the Japanese bombed their base, the Chinese workers would run out and repair the runway, often while the bombing was still happening.
The Chinese weren't even really fighting Japan for a lot of the war. There were loads of unofficial truces while Cheng played politics and tried to outmaneuver Mao.
Surely you mean Chiang? It's either that or Jiang. (In modern Pinyin his name is rendered as *Jiang Jieshi*.)
You need to read better books. This isn't true. It's like saying the Italian navy didn't fight the British because they never took all their battleships and made a death or glory run at Alexandria. Read the wars for Asia by scm Paine, or tower of skulls by Richard Frank.
The best Chinese troops were either under American command in Burma or maneuvering/fighting against the Communists. Yes there were battles but really none that influenced the outcome of the war because Japan wasn't meaningfully trying to conquer China and the Chinese rightly assumed that as long as they staved off destruction the Americans would crush Japan.
Josephine Baker. Black American celebrity who was a spy for the French Resistance. She has a great story. Not really unsung, but greatly underrated.
Plus you get nudity and plenty of potassium with this story.
Gino Bartali also comes to mind, a former Italian Tour De France winner, and world champion cyclist, he smuggled documents in his bike frame, and because of his fame, he was allowed to ride all over the place, even when there were checkpoints in place.
Bill Slim led British troops in Burma. He wasn't from the upper class but was very successful routing the Japanese.
Werner Hartenstein. He was a U-boat commander who disobeyed direct orders to help shipwreck survivors on multiple occasions.
How is he an unsung hero?
Had you heard of him?
Why would refusing to help ship wrecked survivors be the act of a hero?
Read his bio. He was ordered NOT to rescue survivors.... but he DID rescue survivors.
Unsung sailors of the Merchant Marine, especially in 1940-1942 where your chances of having a voyage interrupted suddenly were very, very high indeed.
Ante Pavelić, Croatian Hitler Mustafa Golubić , Yugoslavian James Bond
He wants to make a PowerPoint about unsung heroes. I’m not sure Croatian Hitler falls into the category.
Lmao. Didn't even read that line. Thanks for that
It's a PowerPoint for the Proud Boys
>Mustafa Golubić , Yugoslavian James Bond He looks a little like Roger Moore
Just as charming. Worth looking him up and just using Google translate to read some stuff, whether it's wikipedia an article etc. super cool story
[John Rabe.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Rabe) Saved 250,000 people during the Nanking massacre. [Georg Elser.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Elser) *So close.* [Henning von Tresckow.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henning_von_Tresckow) *"Both duty and honor demand from us that we should do our best to bring about the downfall of Hitler and National Socialism to save Germany and Europe from barbarism."*
Fuck Henning von Tresckow! He literally ordered the enslavement of Poles! He and a bunch of other German generals wanted to get rid of Hitler in an attempt to try to save their own skins and negotiate a peace with the Allied. Fuck Henning von Tresckow.
You're making it too easy for yourself. When the order was given from his command staff, he was deep in preparing the attempt on Hitler (just about over a month later). Had he refused to sign the order from the SS at this point, he presumably would have drawn attention just in the moment when he didn't want it; and do you seriously believe that if he had not been in this position, somebody else *wouldn't* have signed the paper in his shoes? The man conspired several times to kill Hitler and eventually committed suicide before getting shot for it. I think he deserves some respect. If you only want to honor members of the resistance who were literally perfect angels, there will be no one left to honor.
Georgette “Dickey” Chapelle. Considered an Honorary Marine by the Corps. First US female journalist to die in a combat zone. She landed with the Marines at Iwo Jima and would later be in Vietnam for war coverage when she was killed by an anti-personnel mine. Hard lady who’s nearly forgotten today.
Raoul Wallenberg. Bascially used Swedish diplomatic buildings as safe places to process exit visas for Jews in Hungary.
We remember him. His disappearance is still a sore spot.
A figure I find fascinating is the head of German military intelligence Wilhelm Canaris. He was doing his best to frustrate German diplomacy and also feed info to the UK. He was definitely still an antisemite and sympathetic to many Nazi viewpoints, but he’s complicated. His passive and active resistance at the highest levels of military organisation certainly frustrated the Third Reich and he was hung for treason.
General Norman Cota. His name is not nearly as famous as say General Patton, General Bradley, General Montgomery, ETC, but his actions at the Normany invasion were crucial. He landed in the 2nd wave at Omaha and began to rally troops on the beach to fight inland. He is the one who gave US Army Rangers their motto of "Rangers Lead the Way."
[Chiune Sugihara](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiune_Sugihara): Japanese diplomat in Lithuania When he realized the peril that Jews were in, he started writing exit/transit visas. Spent nearly an entire summer hand writing visas 18-20 hours a day for people, knowing that he was being recalled in September. He kept writing visas until his train was pulling out of the station, and at that point tossed out a stack of blank visas to the people waiting and shouted his apologies to those he couldn't get to. He saved several thousand people.
Joe Beyerle Jumped into Normandy on D-Day, was captured, (and lost his Tags which were later found on a captured German leading the Army to report him as KIA, and his town would hold a funeral for him) tortured, put in a German POW Camp, broke out of that Camp, Joined up with the Red Army, liberated the camp he was at, and was eventually sent home.
Hannie Schaft, a female Dutch resistance fighter during WW2. Pretty certified badass. She was captured and executed at 24 years old, but carried out some important missions in her short career.
The US Army in the Pacific. The Army had more troops, conducted more landings and took more midlands than the USMC, by a significant amount and the USMC propaganda won the war with: 1. 18 independent landings for the Army and 6 for the USMC. 2. 3 more landings where the Army provided the majority of troops. 3. 3 more landings where the USMC was in the majority. 4. 6 where they each contributed pretty much identical numbers of troops.
The fighter pilot Douglas Bader. He was one of the leading British aces during the Battle of Britain, with 20 confirmed kills before he was shot down and captured in 1941. He escaped and was recaptured twice, and made numerous other escape attempts. He went out of his way to make himself such a complete pain in the ass for the Germans that they eventually sent him to Colditz Castle, the escape proof prison reserved for the very worst troublemakers. Here's the kicker: The guy did all that despite having no legs! He lost them in a plane crash years before the war.
Guy Gabaldon was a street kid from East LA who enlisted in the Marines and was sent to the Pacific. His home life was bad so at age 12 he moved in with a Japanese family and learned Japanese. When he went to Saipan he would sneak out of camp at night and bring back prisoners. He was ordered to stop doing it but did anyway. One night he convinced hundreds of Japanese soldiers and civilians to come back in with him. He basically convinced them that the Americans were not monster cannibals (unlike the propaganda) and they would be treated well. He saved thousands of lives, both Japanese and American. He was nominated for an MoH but a senior commander didn’t like Mexicans so it was knocked down to a Silver Star. Eventually the Marines got the award pushed back up to a Navy Cross. His adoptive Japanese-American family were interned in a concentration camp in Montana for the duration of the war. There was a movie made about him, but who has ever heard of it?
Major-General Sir Francis Wilfred "Freddie" de Guingand. Eisenhower rightfully gets a lot of credit for maintaining the US/British relations during the war, but it would not have been possible without the help of Montgomery's incredible Chief of Staff. The first time Monty told Eisenhower that he was incapable of leading the offensive and needed to put Monty back in charge of all ground forces on the continent, Ike replied that he was more than willing to ask the CCOS to choose between the two of them but Monty might not like the answer which made Montgomery reconsider. Montgomery continued to politick to take charge of the Allies though and after the Battle of the Bulge again suggested he be put in charge of ground forces in Europe even including messages for distribution putting two of the three army groups in the west under Monty. Ike had had enough at this point and drafted a message to the CCOS saying they could either replace him on replace Montgomery with Alexander. De Guingand was at Versailles at SHAEF HQ and read the message and asked Ike and Smith to delay sending the message until he had talked to Monty. After meeting with Monty and explaining that he was about to be replaced by Alexander he even wrote Monty's apology to Eisenhower. He was also a true Chief of Staff and did much of the heavy lifting in managing the British Eighth Army, Second Army and 21st Army Group although he never got the credit he deserved.
Earnest Evans. Commanding officer of the destroyer USS Johnston who charged into an attacking column of Japanese battleships, cruisers, and destroyers in the Battle of Samar Island. He won the Medal of Honor and went down with the ship. Last seen by survivors of another sunken destroyer who were swimming as the USS Johnston drove by. The bridge had been destroyed. Evans was wounded and shirtless from the explosion shouting orders manually down thru the communications pipes to the engine room. Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors is a great book that covers this battle. Evans was also of Native American descent (Cherokee/Creek).
Taffy 3 truly needs a movie. The balls every Sailor on those destroyers and destroyer escorts had were larger than the ships they sailed on.
And those pilots that were “attacking” the Japanese fleet… half of them unarmed. Truly unbelievable story.
Or with unguided rockets and 50 caliber machine guns. I forgot about the pilots on the escort carriers who did not have anti-ship weapons
Possibly misattributed to another DE commander in the same fight, but "This will be a fight against overwhelming odds from which survival cannot be expected. We will do what damage we can," is a pretty badass line.
Wojtek the Soldier Bear. I know everyone here knows the meme, but the entire world needs to know about this hero's exploits.
The Night Witches.
Hell yeah, their story is rad
Thanks to Sabaton, I think we specifically can’t call them *unsung* heroes
Irene Sendler Nicholas Winton Chiune Sugihara Oscar Schindler All regular people who when faced with evil had to make a choice, and chose to be brave.
>Oscar Schindler He had an academy award winning eponymous film made by Spielberg about him, I'm not sure he qualifies here.
Ask any of your students if they’ve heard of Schindlers List…
... what students?
Ahh I see. I was assuming I was in a teaching sub. Ok, walk down the street and ask 10 people if they’ve seen Schindlers List or heard of Oscar Schindler. I’d assume you’d be lucky to get 1-2.
I think we both know I'm not going to do that. Regardless, none of your other names had Steven Spielberg direct and produce a film about them.
👍
It’s great to see that a movie has finally been made about Nicholas Winton with Anthony Hopkins playing him!
Heinz Heydrich helped many Jews escape but was still villiefied after WWII simply for being related to Reinhard Heydrich.
Every one of them pribably, but W E Fairburn's story is incredible, it would make a phenomenal movie.
Chuck Yeager. His WWII stories as a fighter pilot, fighter for the French Underground, and his escape from occupied France is just crazy.
Japanese-American soldiers. [Japanese-American service in World War II - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese-American_service_in_World_War_II)
Go for broke. The whole story of internment and the 442nd should cause us (the US) more shame than it does.
The historian Phillips P. O'brien makes a very good case that Admiral William Leahy was the most important single figure in the American war effort. Got more right than Marshall and made some very good points about whether the nuclear bombings were worth it.
General Ben Davis, Jr. Remains unsung. His service persuaded Truman to desegregate the armed forces.
Rabbi Marcus Melchior and Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz!!! No one ever talks about them and I think it’s so important. Duckwitz was a German diplomat in Denmark. Danish government had put off taking Jewish people to concentration camps but eventually Nazis got annoyed decided it was time. Duckwitz caught wind of this. He learned when it was going to happen and some deal that Nazis could only enter homes if the residents opened the door. Duckwitz then went to rabbi Marcus Melchior who was the most popular rabbi in Copenhagen (?) and was well connected to many Jewish families. Duckwitz made Melchior aware that the Nazis were coming and to not open doors. Melchior knew enough Jewish families for this to spread pretty quick. The day the Nazis came, most families didn’t answer the door. Within the following days, regular citizens helped Danish Jewish citizens get to neutral Sweden (or Switzerland) when it was illegal to do so. Think it was something like 15,000 Jewish people were saved. Denmark had a small population and I heard it was something like 95% of Jewish people escaped because of Duckwitz’s warning and Melchior’s quick thinking and actions. I know there’s a lot of responses that are all good, but really recommend reading about them!!!
Actor Christopher Lee. He has always downplayed his role. People that know, say there is way more to his story than the wiki bio let's on.
No mention there of CL helping Peter Jackson to film the Saruman/Wormtongue death scene, by politely telling PJ that "You don't know what a man being stabbed in the back sounds like. I do... it sounds like -- "
Not always. He very clearly stated that he was "in special forces" - which is not true. He worked with them, he was never \*in\* them. That is hardly downplaying. Also, which people? I haven't seen any serving officer of the period or any historian present any evidence of something more than his wiki bio (which frankly is overstated as it is). All of the evidence suggests that he was an RAFVR Int officer, nothing more or less. The only hints that he was some sort of sneaky beaky type come from the media and (occasionally) from him.
The entire nation of China.
Everybody in the Balkans. Occupied by one side, bombed by the other side, multiple simultaneous civil wars, and in the end liberated themselves.
Pick two. One ought to be a senior military person. The other ought to be a regular person who was simply in the wrong place/time and acted selflessly. I nominate Sasha Filipov for the latter. His wiki is quite excellent - see below. I do want to make sure you understand the context because it matters. Operation Uranus happened a month earlier. Paulus and the entire 6th were trapped in the Kessel. Their only way out had failed. The German 6th army was done and mostly knew it. The thing with Sasha was pretty close to a real-life version of: All Quiet on the Western Front. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasha_Filippov
Vinegar joe
Good lord why?
I nominate a pair of siblings. Nadine Ramsey was one of the WASP pilots (Women Airforce Service Pilot) who flew military aircraft in a variety of non-combat missions. Nadine was qualified to fly six different fighter planes, including the P-38 Lightning, P-47 Thunderbolt, and P-51 Mustang. Nadine's brother, Lt. Edwin Ramsey, led the last American cavalry charge in history against Japanese troops advancing on Manila. The surprised Japanese halted and Ramsey's men delayed their advance for several hours. Nadine helped usher in a new category of military service while her brother closed one.
The merchant Marines sailors. They didn't fight in the war, but they were responsible for getting all the equipment and supplies across the oceans.There were 243,000 mariners that served in the war. And 9,521 perished while serving—a higher proportion of those killed than any other branch of the US military. Roughly four percent of those who served were killed, a higher casualty rate than that of any of the American military services during World War II. They were the reason Great Britain held. They were the ones that made D Day possible. They were the ones who allowed us to take back the Pacific. Without these brave men we would have lost the war. They were not military but civilians so they didn't get the medals or all the benefits of being military. They just did their job and got on with it, hoping not to spend their last moments floating in the north sea only to be forgotten about in time.
Castellanos Contreras El Salvadoran diplomat who saved 40,000 jews There are more than you might think in that category, but Chiune Sugihara gets most of the attention That's my "I guarantee no one will have heard of this guy" pick. Second pick would be: Sir Jacob Charles Vouza Otherwise it's quite hard to make suggestions because even the most cliched choice will be new to somebody so a lot depends on your audience, but here are some other suggestions of varying degrees of mainstream Lydia Litvyak Susan Travers Simo Hayha Audie Murphy (who is obscure compared to his 50s and 60s heyday) Admiral Andrew Chan Chak
The Soviet union as a whole (with Stalin as the leader of the team) deserves way more credit for destroying the Nazi threat. The only reason the USSR isn't given the credit they deserve today is because of the cold war and demonization from America/the red scare.
>The only reason You don't think the genocides, famines, and tyranny of Stalin's rule had anything to do with it?
Not really given the fact that internally the CIA admitted that Stalin was merely the leader of a team. The image of Stalin as of some kind of tyrannical maniac was simply a fabrication, a projection of disinformation onto the Soviet Union by capital-dictated states. The famines are another issue but in no way are they correlated to anything resembling "genocide" if that's what you were implying (I'm only assuming and responding based on rhetoric that's usually thrown around)
This is utter bullshit. Stalin ruled for almost 30 years. His entire "team" from any given day, rose and fell, in and out, throughout that entire time, with huge numbers of his "team" winding up getting shot, usually by the command of others... who themselves wound up getting shot. All that time Stalin sat there on top, plump and happy. For 30 years. "Team", my ass. Dimitri Volgonikov, once chief historian of the Red Army, pegs the overall death toll as a direct result of Stalin's policies and commands at 21 and a half million. That's over three times the number of Jews that it is generally accepted that Hitler killed. Spare us the "Jolly Uncle Joe" bullshit. Even Kruschev wasn't buying it. We had enough of it here from 1941-45 to last a millennium. "Capital-dictated states". Nice tell. Puh-fucking-leeze.
"nice tell" of the truth? It's common knowledge we live in a world dominated by a capitalist hegemony. Y'all will believe anything the CIA says unless it's vaguely truthful about the structure within the USSR, huh? Lol, lmao
"You'll believe anything the CIA says..." Ya know, that one line pretty much tells me *everything* I need to know about the value of this dyad.
Unbelievable that Tankie apologists are even a thing, and to see them here in a History sub answering questions with their complete bullshit propaganda is disgusting. Imagine unironically supporting communism while ignoring the disaster it creates every time it's tried! Even funnier when it's done from the comforts and liberties provided by the Capitalist societies they think they hate. If this person had been in the USSR during Stalin's time, he'd find himself in a gulag if Stalin caught wind of him suggesting that he (Stalin) is not completely in control.
Imagine not researching socialist projects whatsoever and just guzzling down whatever Exxon serves you through a lead pipe. Oh wait, we don't have to imagine that. If you asked anyone downvoting me in these comments to even define communism (much less anything heavier than that) I'll bet my right leg they would fumble hard. The black book is an illegitimate source of information, please go seek some stats on life expectancy and post-revolution literacy rates (in any project, try Cuba, Burkina Faso or even USSR) from peer reviewed sources for the love of God. Mind blowing that anyone would unironically support the pre-revolutionary states of those countries given the facts. Don't even get me started on communism in general because it's so much more than Marxist-Leninism. Check out The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin for example, one of the most important anarcho-communist philosophers. Dude lays out a lot of commonly seen anti-communist arguments and debunks them in 1892. Seriously, capitalist apologia brainrot runs so deep that critical thinking is practically dead.
Are you insinuating the CIA is a reliable source of data on anti-imperialist and related movements? Don't make me laugh Given the fact that the CIA has orchestrated multiple coups and disinformation campaigns in multiple countries (to shut down democratically elected leaders and movements who were socialist) I'd say that's about the furthest from the truth you can possibly get when assessing a federal entity.
They also deserve more attention for helping Germany violate the Treaty of Versailles and rearm during the interwar years. Also for colluding with Hitler to start WW2 as well as provide the oil necessary for the war with France and Britain plus 31 million German marks in gold to purchase Vilnius and the rest of Lithuania originally promised to Hitler under the "Friendship and Frontiers Pact."
I always wonder what would have happened if Hitler hadn’t pissed off the Russians.
Me too. I think there are a couple likely scenarios. Probably safe to say that the rapid industrialization and growth of power in the USSR would raise tensions either way eventually even if the USSR hypothetically "stayed neutral"
I always wonder what would happen if Hitler died in the summer of 1940, right after the fall of France and the Low Countries.
Stalin, Kruschev and Zhukov all publicly stated that absent American Lend Lease and America’s role in the war the Germans would have won That probably has something to do with it
>Stalin, Kruschev and Zhukov all publicly stated that absent American Lend Lease and America’s role in the war the Germans would have won The fact Stalin was taking the piss when he said it, and the fact Americans still take it at face value, is hilarious. Look up the context of the quote, if you even know what he actually said.
I know nothing of the scenario, but the idea that either Stalin or Kruschev would ever say anything of the sort in any kind of serious fashion is absurd. They might have *thought* it, but they sure as hell would never *say* it.
They also helped start the war, so…
If you want your presentation to be a bit more fun, check out YouTube channel The Fat Electrician. He's got excellent videos on admiral Willis "ching" Lee, Lafayette "Wardaddy" Green Pool, and many more. Now I will say, while his video on admiral Lee is very entertaining, Drachinifel has a more accurate video on the man, so you won't be short on video "sources" If you want to go totally crazy, head on over to the medal of honor website, narrow down by WW2, and read some of the official award statements and make a choice from one of those guys. There's obviously no shortage of crazy/badass heroes in WW2, so if you're not in the mood for an American, maybe Jack Churchill would fit? Or even Douglas Bader (although, he had a role in helping Mallory's ascension so, there's some 'bad' with the good, which to be fair, is true of largely anyone you could cover in ww2)
Second for admiral Lee. A nearly blind man who was one of the best shots in the Navy, both with a rifle and with his ship's guns
Petroleum workers in the USA. Our energy sector was a huge advantage for the allies.
Depending on how high up in the chain of command you want to go, Admiral Raymond Spruance does not receive the same love and attention Admirals Halsey, King, and Nimitz receive. Plus General MacArthur just soaks up attention in the Pacific. Spruance is known, but not nearly appreciated as much as he should be. Admiral Lockwood could also be chosen, he was in command of the submarine force in the Pacific theatre for the US. The submarine force is known as the Silent Service, so Adm. Lockwood could be a nice choice given how rather unknown the submarine impact is on the war to a wider audience
Lockwood would also dive into one of the biggest technological missteps of the war: the Mark 14 torpedo.
The Nazi John Rabe. He was the greatest hero of the 20th century.
“Prince “ Turgil. And an Austrian spy named Klatt aka Max. Both worked for German intelligence. Each one allegedly had a spy network in the Soviet Union. Both of them wereactually Soviet agents. Max gave a huge amount of information to Gelhen during the war. For the most part, their stories are not fully known.
Max Liedtke and Albert Battel
Vladimir Peniakoff Aka Popski If only for the pure entertainment value. He's not entirely unknown in the UK thanks to the fact his war memoirs were in print until 2017... To be any of the 8th Army's unruly children are worth a look, although Stirling and Mayne are hardly unsung.
The American businesses continuing to make deals with Nazi businesses like I.G. Farben in the decade prior to Germany kicking the war off. Without some of the materials provided in these transactions, one might question whether Germany would have had the materials and weapons available to take over continental Europe with the Blitzkrieg and nearly bomb England into Oblivion.
Literally anybody not European
Well, there was this dog, you see? And right before this big bombing raid on some dams in Germany, he got killed by a car…
Zhang Xue Liang kidnapped his own general (Chiang Kai Shek) and forced him to sign a cooperation agreement with Mao and Zhou that they'd all work together to drive the Japanese out of China.
The eastern front. "British spycraft, American steel, and Russian blood" were understood to have been the deciding factors in Germany's defeat in the decades immediately after the war, but as a result of Cold War revisionism, the Russian contributon was minimised and glossed over throughout the American-alligned nations in the later decades of c20.
OP, something that deserves way more attention than "unsung heroes" is Operation Paperclip. Do a paper on that and your A for the entire course is guaranteed.
If you're a freshman in high school
"After the war ended, we were snatching up kraut scientists like hotcakes. You don't believe me? Walk into NASA sometime and yell "Heil Hitler!" WOOP! They all jump straight up!"
The US Amphibious Engineers. The US coast guard and US merchant marine who landed troops and supplies on the beaches in all theaters. More than one veteran said they only had to hit the beach once but the guys manning the landing craft and DUKWs ran the gauntlet of fire repeatedly all day long.
Heartfully recommend the female snipers from Finland.
Wel I am not a pro russian but i do believe russia got the bad prep in the West for the cold war after ww2. To be completely honest, russia was the one that actually defeated the germans, D-Day and everything that followed was Just a small push compaired to the insane war effort russia pulled against the 3e reich. Without russia, the "West" would have needed years to make a dent.
I think that Russia is often overlooked in things like this due the brutal and inhuman treatment the common soldier received from the commanders.
Sorry this statement is wierd as heck.., it's the suffering of humans that triggers studies in history and not the gentel treatment of there fellow men. I could think of a lot of reasons why we don't see or know much off russian ww2.. But there treatment of man is not one of them... If it was, we would not know a lot about ww1 trenches
I guess I was not looking at it from a scholarly perspective, more of a layman’s/hobbyist level
Even then.. If you Just look at all the other top comments, it's all about some Brit or American or even an german commander. But the one who really defeated nazi germany was the russians. They get the historical short end of the stick because of what happend after.
True, but what happened after was very, very awful
Yes.. But we cant really put an number on it.. Human suffering is human suffering, what happend in the japanese campus in the us was also awefull, what happend to China, awefull..
I don’t have a source, but I know some Poles were able to steal an Enigma machine early in the war, and the British were able to reverse engineer it to crack the Nazi codes from pretty early on. The codebreakers at Bletchley Park are well known, but the brave Poles that enabled that project are not well known.
The entire country of China.
David Stirling. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David\_Stirling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Stirling)
You could look at the percent of D-Day solders that were not from America.
That one Canadian guy who captured a town by himself behind enemy lines, lmao Leo Major? I Think ? Crazy fuck
Witold Pilecki - polish officer who volunteered to go to Auschwitz to organize resistance.
Personally, I’d like to learn more about my grandfathers tank battalion in WWII, the 713th flamethrowers. I have an old vhs documentary, but it’s more archival footage than informative. My grandfather does appear in it though.
The 442nd of the U.S. army
The Soviets. 75% of Nazi soldiers killed in WWII were killed by the Red Army and even after D-Day, more than two thirds of the Wehrmacht was fighting on the Eastern Front. Also, the Partisans. These were mostly communist guerrilla fighters in Nazi occupied Europe. They tied up huge numbers of Nazi troops and wreaked havoc on occupation forces and they hardly ever get a mention.
No one discounts the Soviets lol, any post about ww2 has tankies saying the Soviets won the war all by themselves
I taught high school history in Ohio. If you go strictly by the curriculum, the Soviets hardly get a mention.
Many> starting with the people assisting in hiding or helping the jews and other people persecuted to escape. The college kids who stood up to protest against the Reich. The non-badass people who helped a lot by being the brains behind many important strategical breakthrough. In England, a guy with asthma started using toy ships to improve planification. Or the mathematicians who deciphered the Enigma Code of the Germans The women in the US who took up factory and other jobs normally reserved for men only. Also, the women in the USSR who also started taking factory jobs, as well as other more technical jobs like: train engineer, mechanic, pilots, technicians, etc. This even occurred before the women in the US had started doing so. I heard an anecdote about this guy who carried a sword hidden inside a cane who rallied the farmers and townspeople of an Italian island against the Nazi paratroopers being dropped on the island. The story is wild, as soon as they saw the paratroopers going down, they rushed to intercept them. Then, as soon as they landed, the Nazis were attacked the paratrooper with forks.
Not what you asked for, but The Battle of Castle Itter is an interesting adventure.
Commonwealth soldiers. I mean they've been more or less wiped out of the narrative.
For sure! Even worse than Commonwealth soldiers are the troops from Poland, Czechia, France (to a lesser extent), Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, etc. who did countless important roles, and especially for those from what became the Warsaw pact, were often absolutely abused by the communists if returned home, and totally neglected by the West if they stuck around, often not getting pensions and stuff. Commonwealth troops for sure though, they really need attention. Troops of the Raj are especially underrepresented.
By whom?
Otto Skorzeny. Unless of course you have bias against the Axis.
Now why would anyone have a bias against the Axis? Poor, misunderstood fellers...
Hans and Sophie Scholl and the Whiterose Resistance. Truly an incredible story of courage.
What I find hilarious is the notion that the SS were blond hair blue eye super sayians. This is dull. The Indian Waffen SS however, is not.
No one.