# Any famous urban legends of WWII? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640 "2012-09-13T23:09:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/41 "2012-09-14T16:36:36Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > My mom (b. 1941) knows all the verses. She’s always surprised when other people don’t. Born where though? Could it be, dum dum dom, Germany? It’s the part about being surprised that surprises me. I doubt most Americans could get the first verse right. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/42 "2012-09-14T16:41:23Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > There’s one about the Luftwaffe repairing shot-down B-17’s and crewing them with English-speaking Germans who would pretend to be stragglers, fit into an American formation, then start firing. > > And another about Luftwaffe fighter pilots particularly targeting planes of the “Bloody 100th” for an alleged act of treachery. There are documented of German crews flying captured B-17s, some as long-range transports, and some to infiltrate Allied airspace to do things like airdrops of spies and supplies. [According to Wiki](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_B-17_Flying_Fortress#Luftwaffe_captured_B-17s), there were Genman B-17s used to infiltrate American B-17 formations, though not to attack them. Their purpose was to trail them and provide real-time intelligence. I’m not terribly clear on why this was necessary given that the Germans had radar – perhaps the crew could give more accurate reports about numbers of attackers and such. There is also at least one documented case of an Italian pilot named Guido Rossi using a captured P-38 Lightning to shoot down straggling American bombers. This led to one of the strangest aerial confrontations of the war. In response an American pilot named Harold Fisher began flying a specially modified B-17 (an unsuccessful “escort bomber” concept, the YB-40, a B-17 loaded with double the guns and ammunition of regular B-17s) to lure Rossi into attacking it. The plan ultimately worked and Rossi was shot down by the YB-40. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/43 "2012-09-14T16:50:53Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Born where though? Could it be, dum dum dom, Germany? > > It’s the part about being surprised that surprises me. I doubt most Americans could get the first verse right. Yes, the fact that someone claiming to be an American is surprised about the ignorance of Americans is really quite suspicious. We know how dumb we are! ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/44 "2012-09-14T17:00:31Z")
The book, [Dirty Little Secrets of World War 2](http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Little-Secrets-World-War/dp/0688122884), is filled with these, and the authors’ attempts to prove or disprove same. One story in it concerns an American soldier during the fighting in France. > [@](#): > > A bunker in Lorraine was taken by American troops twice, once in each war. On one wall is scrawled a doughboy’s name and a date in late 1918. Just below it appears the same name, this time dated 1944, and the inscription “This is the last time I want to be in this damned bunker!” I’ve also heard the story with a British Army soldier in the place of the American, with an additional date in 1940 added to the list. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/45 "2012-09-14T17:01:29Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > [Nazis/Lampshades](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2511/did-the-nazis-make-lampshades-out-of-human-skin) etc Before the wall came down my dad took us to Berlin and I pretty clearly remember seeing pictures of lamp shades made from human skin in some of the museums on the western side of the wall. The museum exhibits mostly were only photographs of Nazi atrocities. I would not call that an urban legend. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/46 "2012-09-14T17:04:36Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > My mom (b. 1941) knows all the verses. She’s always surprised when other people don’t. Occasionally when he was asked to be a speaker for [whatever], Isaac Asimov would sing all verses of The Star-Spangled Banner and then give an overview on what each verse meant. And, sweet merciful heaven. . . a recording of it [is on youtube](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXulnF3twtQ). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/47 "2012-09-14T17:17:31Z")
> [@ralph124c](#): > > German troops on Operation Barbarossa saw the spires of the Kremlin..as they fought their way towards Moscow. Absolute rubbish-the German troops got (maybe) within 70 miles of the outskirts of Moscow… and most of them were starving and freezing, so I doubt they had any time to take in the sights. German recon units got as far as the Moscow suburb of Khimki. There’s a monument on the road to St Petersburg marking their farthest point of advance. It’s about 14 miles (23 km) from the Kremlin, but you still can’t see its spires from there (I doubt you could in 1941 either, despite the terrain being relatively flat). ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/48 "2012-09-14T17:32:48Z")
> [@Gray\_Ghost](#): > > The book, [Dirty Little Secrets of World War 2](http://www.amazon.com/Dirty-Little-Secrets-World-War/dp/0688122884), is filled with these, and the authors’ attempts to prove or disprove same. I have [this book](http://www.amazon.com/Unexplained-Mysteries-World-War-II/dp/0471291072) which is loaded with strange stories, mysteries and urban legendesque stuff. Among my favorites is an ad that appeared in The New Yorker magazine just before the war for a board game, which was supposed to have provided guidance to Fifth Columnists in the United States. Then there’s the mystery radio message broadcast to an American outfit just before the Battle of the Bulge, in fluent American, warning that the “Krauts” were creeping through the woods about to attack. The unit went on alert, nothing happened, they went back to sleep and then a few hours later they supposedly _were_ overrun by attacking Germans. No one ever figured out who the mystery broadcaster was. :eek: > [@An\_Gadai](#): > > I know plenty of the WWI ones…the Russian soldiers in Scotland Were they the ones _with unmelted snow on their helmets_? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/49 "2012-09-14T17:36:07Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > Born where though? Could it be, dum dum dom, Germany? > > It’s the part about being surprised that surprises me. I doubt most Americans could get the first verse right. Well, Pittsburgh. Is that close enough to be a fifth columnist? ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/50 "2012-09-14T17:39:02Z")
There’s the story of the guy who was goofing off on an American ship who always claimed he was a “kluge maker”. Nobody wanted to look stupid by not knowing what a kluge was, so the officers let him alone. One day, an admiral got suspicious and gave him three days to construct a kluge, or he was in big trouble. The guy frantically assembled a heap of scrap metal and spare parts, just to postpone the inevitable. Finally, the admiral came to inspect his work. The guy accidentally knocked it overboard, and as it hit the water, the splash made the sound _kluuuuuge_… Actually, this story’s a variation of a joke dating back to the 1800’s. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/51 "2012-09-14T17:40:38Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Were they the ones _with unmelted snow on their helmets_? The snow was on their boots in any telling I’ve ever heard of it. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/52 "2012-09-14T17:48:41Z")
> [@An\_Gadai](#): > > The snow was on their boots in any telling I’ve ever heard of it. Could you provide a telling here? ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/53 "2012-09-14T17:56:07Z")
Wait… What is the one about the Russian soldiers in Scotland in WWI? I had heard of the other two but not that one. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/54 "2012-09-14T18:11:28Z")
It was that in the darkest days of WWI that reinforcements from Russia, some said as many as 200,000 men, had landed in Scotland on their way towards the Western Front. Various tales of soldiers in odd uniforms, speaking an odd language were reported but the smoking gun was that these soldiers still had snow on their boots. Of course there were no such reinforcements but apparently at the time the story spread like wildfire and is of course still recalled today. I’ve heard an explanation that newly recruited Scottish soldiers, especially Gaelic speakers, were mistaken for Russians by metropolitan English folk but I find that a tad hard to believe. Added to the apparently confusion was that when asked where they were from the soldiers said “Ross-shire”, an area of the highlands. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/55 "2012-09-14T18:30:21Z")
It began with the attack on Pearl Harbor. ---
**Author:** ![Gray\_Ghost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c0e974/32.png) [@Gray\_Ghost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gray_Ghost)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/56 "2012-09-14T18:56:53Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > I have [this book](http://www.amazon.com/Unexplained-Mysteries-World-War-II/dp/0471291072) which is loaded with strange stories, mysteries and urban legendesque stuff… I’ll have to take a look at it, next time at the library. Thanks for the link. Another favorite WW2 urban legend that I don’t think’s been mentioned yet is the [D-Day Crossword](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1460892/D-Day-crosswords-are-still-a-few-clues-short-of-a-solution.html). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/57 "2012-09-14T19:34:28Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > There’s also the legend about Russian troops jumping out of planes without parachutes. Supposedly the troop planes just flew as low and slow as they could and the troops hoped for the best. I’ve heard a more sensible variation on this: during the French war in Vietnam, troops were dropped with parachutes but without parachute training. Apparently they did not suffer significantly more casualties from the drop than parachute-trained soldiers. ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/58 "2012-09-14T21:12:51Z")
I’d be interested if anyone has knowledge as to the truth or falsehood of these: [ul] [li]During the Battle of the Bulge, an American officer responds to a German demand for surrender by saying “nuts”. Alternately, by saying a word that’s more common in soldier vocabulary that family-friendly history books just can’t print.[/li][li]During a counter-attack on an American beachead in Italy, the Germans capture some American medical supplies including supplies of donated blood. They refuse to use the blood to save their own troops because “it might have come from Jews or negroes”.[/li][li]An American soldier bursts in on some German officers about to eat a fancy meal and yells “Stop, I’ll take that!”[/li][li]A soldier’s parachute gets got on a church spire in France and he dangles helplessly while watching the battle for the town.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/59 "2012-09-14T21:18:46Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > [li]During a counter-attack on an American beachead in Italy, the Germans capture some American medical supplies including supplies of donated blood. They refuse to use the blood to save their own troops because “it might have come from Jews or negroes”.[/li] Not like us. We allowed the Jewish blood. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2012, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640/60 "2012-09-14T21:33:03Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > I’d be interested if anyone has knowledge as to the truth or falsehood of these: > > [ul] > [li]During the Battle of the Bulge, an American officer responds to a German demand for surrender by saying “nuts”. Alternately, by saying a word that’s more common in soldier vocabulary that family-friendly history books just can’t print.[/li][li]During a counter-attack on an American beachead in Italy, the Germans capture some American medical supplies including supplies of donated blood. They refuse to use the blood to save their own troops because “it might have come from Jews or negroes”.[/li][li]An American soldier bursts in on some German officers about to eat a fancy meal and yells “Stop, I’ll take that!”[/li][li]A soldier’s parachute gets got on a church spire in France and he dangles helplessly while watching the battle for the town.[/li][/ul] #1 - [Anthony McAuliffe at Bastogne](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_McAuliffe). #4 - D-Day. St. Mère-Église. [Trooper John Steele](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mere_Eglise) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/any-famous-urban-legends-of-wwii/634640.md?page=4)