Hammer of the Scandinavian God instead of V2 rockets. German Kamikaze pilots. Nazi terrorist attacks. Check how much (not) much you knew about the war machine of the Third Reich.
As always, all items in our TOP10 are based on articles published by "Curiosities". This time - those devoted to the National Socialist art of war.
In your history lesson, you won't hear that…
 | 10. | It was extremely easy to lose your head in the Wehrmacht. From 1940 to 1945, a total of nearly 12,000 death sentences were carried out in the German army. For comparison, during World War I, only 48 German soldiers were sentenced to death (read more about this). |
 | 9. | Stalingrad was the target of the heaviest carpet raid on the Eastern Front. In the bombing that lasted over 14 hours, Luftwaffe planes dropped nearly 1,000 tons of bombs. According to official data, the raid claimed over 40,000 fatalities (read more about it). |
 | 8. | In March 1943, the greatest convoy battle of World War II took place. 44 German submarines then tracked two Allied convoys in the Atlantic, totaling almost 100 ships. As many as 21 Allied units went down in the three-day slaughter. The Germans only lost one U-boat (read more about that). |
 | 7. | Several hundred German tankers took part in the Spanish Civil War. The soldiers of the Panzergruppe "Drohne" arrived on the Iberian Peninsula as early as October 1936. Their main task was to train forces faithful to General Fanco. However, they also fought on the front lines, inflicting heavy losses on Republican troops (read more on that). |
 | 6. | The Germans in 1942 tried to carry out terrorist attacks on the territory of the USA. Eight saboteurs with New York as their main target were sent overseas. Nothing came of the plans. Agents chased after prostitutes and alcohol rather than planning attacks (read more on this). |
 | 5. | In April 1945, the Germans organized their own kamikaze squadron. Their role, however, was different than in Japan. The Germans did not send suicides against enemy ships and planes. The pilots' goal was ... bridges on the Odra river (read more about it). |
 | 4. | Several hundred Germans and Italians died in a ship sunk by ... a German U-boat. In July 1940, the U47 commanded by Günter Prien torpedoed the Allied ocean liner "Arandora Star". The captain did not know that the ship was a floating POW camp headed for Canada. The attack killed as many as 491 Italians and 243 Germans (read more about this). |
 | 3. | Even if the Luftwaffe had gained air superiority in the summer of 1940, the British landing had no chance of success. Germany did not have the resources needed to carry out such a huge operation. Moreover, Hitler did not have trained landing troops - few paratroopers or mountain shooters at best (read more on this). |
 | 2. | In November 1944, Heinrich Himmler commissioned the development of a state-of-the-art electric weapon. It was supposed to destroy allied radio stations, radars and other devices. The Reichsführer-SS was inspired by Mjollnir - the hammer of the Norse god Thor (read more on this). |
 | 1. | A single Tiger could take on an entire British Panzer Regiment. This is exactly what SS Lieutenant Michael Wittmann wrote down on his account. On June 13, 1944, he demolished the 4th Armored Regiment of the County of London Yeomanry. In just 20 minutes, he destroyed 21 enemy machines (read more about it) . |