# WW2 Question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 1, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725 "2005-07-01T17:26:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/1 "2005-07-01T17:26:04Z")
During World War 2, did Nazi Germany ever send any of their forces to fight in the Pacific, and did the Japanese ever send any of their forces to fight in the Atlantic and in Europe itself? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/2 "2005-07-01T17:56:05Z")
As I understand it from my Samoan friends, Germany lost all claims to lands in the Pacific after WWI. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 1, 2005, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/3 "2005-07-01T23:42:30Z")
My understanding is that the only military assistance the two nations gave each other was to exchange information about weapons they were developing. ---
**Author:** ![cabdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@cabdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cabdude)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/4 "2005-07-02T00:14:10Z")
I know that German submarines operated in the Indian ocean, and to a lesser extent the Pacific. They exchanged small quantities of vital strategic materials. Bismuth rings a bell, for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/5 "2005-07-02T04:10:45Z")
I think this question would have a better chance of being answered in **GQ**. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/6 "2005-07-02T04:25:41Z")
On a semi-related note, when the Americans were considering using a native language for secure radio communications, several were rejected because German anthropologists had studied them in the U.S. between the wars and it was possible that some Germans were sufficiently fluent to teach the Japanese how to interpret these signals. The Navajo had not been studied, though, and were recruited for the task. ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/7 "2005-07-02T04:55:02Z")
> [@ouryL](#): > > As I understand it from my Samoan friends, Germany lost all claims to lands in the Pacific after WWI. :smack: To Japan 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [July 2, 2005, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/8 "2005-07-02T05:29:48Z")
Well there is the story about the U-boat that was supposed to go from Germany to Japn with a load of uranium oxide at the end of the war, but instead surrernderd to the the US in New Hamshire? [http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HISTORY/H-07c.htm](http://www.childrenofthemanhattanproject.org/HISTORY/H-07c.htm) ---
**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:** [July 2, 2005, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ww2-question/310725/9 "2005-07-02T06:09:18Z")
There were U boats operating in the Indian ocean. [The Sea Wolves](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081470/) dramatised an Allied operation in Goa against a German radio ship.