MYTH: Werner Heisenberg was the scientific head of the German nuclear program called “Uranverein.” He discovered fission and was developing the weapon ahead of other nations.

REALITY: Heisenberg was in charge of “Uranverein” but no way were they close to creating the weapon. Germany fell in 1944, and Allies found out that the Germans were not going to win the nuclear race. Some engineers were Jewish and were concerned about the future.

MYTH: Japanese troops were excellent in the jungle, especially during the invasion of the Malay Peninsula when they captured Singapore with ease with little resistance from western troops.

REALITY: Japanese troops captured the fortress city of Singapore only because the British defenders weren’t ready for them. Japanese soldiers only began training for jungle warfare in December of 1940. They were vastly outnumbered by 88,600 British soldiers but since they were underestimated, the Japanese troops were successful.

MYTH: Fields of bones as far as the eye can see litter the Soviet countryside.

REALITY: It took more than ten years to clean up after the war. Soviet towns disposed of German corpses in swamps, forests, and open fields. Peschanka, a small village outside of what’s now Volgograd, was said to be the largest of these mass graves. They say 300,000 Germans were “laid to rest” there, and that bones stretch out all over the place. However, no serious research has been done to prove the claims.

MYTH: The phrase “give ‘em the whole nine yards” is a reference to the entire length of machine gun ammunition belts used in WWII fighter planes.

REALITY: The phrase originates from way before WWII. A newspaper blurb from 1907 used the phrase to describe the length of a baseball game. Not to mention the fact that ammunition wasn’t measured in length, but by the number of bullets. The 50 caliber machine gun on US planes used 100 round or 500 round belts. A round was an inch long, and when measured, doesn’t come out to nine yards.

MYTH: It was said that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered the creation of ape/human hybrid soldiers to fight the German troops.

REALITY: Russian biologist Il’ya Ivanovich Ivanov would inseminate horses and create different animal hybrids. Ivanov then thought of a human-ape cross so in 1926, the Soviet government helped Ivanov set up a lab in Africa for his experiments. He tried impregnating chimps with human sperm, and when this failed, he planned to inseminate human women with chimp sperm. His work was stopped and Ivanov was exiled, dying a few years later. Stalin probably didn’t know of Ivanov’s work either.

MYTH: Hitler’s SS were a fearsome German organization, uniquely dedicated to what Aryan manhood and Germanic pride were all about.

REALITY: The SS began in 1923 as Hitler’s personal protection, until Heinrich Himmler took over and transformed the SS into an elite military force. They were all about being pure German with binding loyalty to the Fuhrer. SS units would do anything to advance the aims of the Aryan “master race”, committing all sorts of atrocities, even genocide. In 1940, the SS recruited foreign soldiers like the special “Wiking Division”. From 1942 onwards, many other races joined the SS. 60% of the SS weren’t actual Germans.

MYTH: Children’s TV Icon Captain Kangaroo and actor Lee Marvin fought together, side by side at Iwo Jima.

REALITY: Both were members of the United States Marine Corps yet neither fought on Iwo Jima. Marvin fought at the Battle of Saipan. He was wounded and received a medical discharge a year later. Keeshan enlisted around that time. It’s highly doubtful that the two were even together for a few months.

MYTH: At the end of the war, German commandos fled to the mountains and started an insurgency called Werwolf.

REALITY: They were mostly small cells of fanatics trying to keep the original movement alive. Most incidents that happened were claims by certain individuals and the destruction of buildings were caused by old explosives. Still, British, French and American troops rounded up and detained tens of thousands of German soldiers and civilians suspected of being insurgents.

MYTH: German U-Boat U-1206 sank when its experimental toilet overflowed.

REALITY: U-1206 did carry a new form of high-pressure toilet. It could be used at lower depths compared to older systems. The captain accidentally opened a valve which had water coming in contact with the ship’s batteries where a deadly chlorine gas formed. The captain ordered the boat to surface by the Scottish coastline where they took enemy fire. So it is partially true.

MYTH: Glenn Miller was either taken out by German agents, or by the British and their projectiles.

REALITY: Miller was on his way to Paris in late 1944 when his plane went down. Bad weather and poor visibility caused the small plane to vanish at sea. Theories abound that Miller’s plane was taken out by German agents or that they took fire from British aircraft.

MYTH: President Roosevelt had information prior that Japan was going after Pearl Harbor, and that he allowed it to happen as an excuse for him to join the war.

REALITY: The US believed that the Japanese did not have the means to attack the harbor, thereby leaving battleships and planes out in the open. Radar detected the approach of Japanese planes but no word was passed on. Three US aircraft carriers were not at the harbor but one was supposed to be there.

MYTH: Polish horse cavalry charged German tanks with their lances in an act of unbelievable bravery.

REALITY: The Charge at Krojanty was against infantry caught out in the open. Polish lancers broke up a German strike, and the charge was a success. It was a German counterattack with armored vehicles that took out the Polish cavalry. The “charge against tanks” was German propaganda.

MYTH: Carrots and vegetables rich in vitamin A helps improve eyesight at night.

REALITY: The British Ministry of Information spread this info for war-weary citizens. The idea was to make them feel like they could help by growing carrots. Carrots that could be sent to pilots fighting the Germans. For some reason, the myth endured even among later generations.

MYTH: The Royal Navy would set the English Channel on fire to prevent the Germans from invading.

REALITY: The British Petroleum Warfare Department were working on a way to cover the English Channel with oil. For some reason, word got out that they could already do it. British Intelligence used the rumor to their advantage. No invasion ever took place as there were far too many challenges for Germany to overcome.

MYTH: Adolf Hitler danced a jig that was captured on camera when France surrendered after six weeks.

REALITY: When Hitler accepted France’s surrender, he was obviously happy and gave an emphatic stomp. This rather high step was captured on film. Allied propagandists edited the footage making the Fuhrer look silly as he danced a jig. The film accomplished what it set out to do, making a mockery of Hitler.

MYTH: Japanese General Yamashita hid plundered war loot and lots of gold in a complex of caves and tunnels in the Philippines.

REALITY: It certainly is an intriguing story. Filipino treasure hunter Rogelio Roxas discovered underground tunnels after digging for seven months. Then he struck gold. A golden Buddha, gold bars, swords, and war memorabilia greeted the ecstatic Roxas. Deposed President Ferdinand Marcos wanted the loot for himself, sending thugs to harass and intimidate Rogelio and his family. However, there is no evidence pointing that it was indeed Yamashita’s treasure.

MYTH: Adolf Hitler became the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party by a margin of only one vote.

REALITY: Hitler won by a huge margin (553-1) when he was elected in 1923. The 1933 German election didn’t see the National Socialist German Workers’ Party win a majority of seats. This was the last one held before Germany became a one-party state. It seemed like the Third Reich was well on its way to power regardless.

MYTH: Germany invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, seeing as the Soviets were about to invade Germany.

REALITY: This one is closer to a conspiracy theory. A Soviet intelligence officer, Viktor Suvarov, defected to the UK in the late ’80s. He said in his thesis that Joseph Stalin lowered the minimum age of the army in order to enlist more men. Stalin then issued maps of Germany to troops. Historians agree that Stalin would have eventually ordered an invasion of Germany but it would have taken years before it would happen.

MYTH: The French never put up much of a fight, surrendering to Germany during the war.

REALITY: The French army destroyed over 800 German tanks and inflicted over 150,000 casualties. Six weeks of heavy fighting took its toll on France. Poor tactics, indecisive leadership, and inadequate logistics saw the French surrender on June 22, 1940. The French delegation signed the Armistice agreement at the same location of the 1918 Armistice signing.

MYTH: They say Hitler’s command to “Halt” was done on purpose. It was the most controversial military action to be employed during a war, allowing British troops to evacuate.

REALITY: Hitler may have hesitated but he knew he could have decimated the British. It was actually a series of events that transpired between General Erwin Rommel and Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, calling for a pause in the advance that allowed the British to regroup. What happened next after the battle was the evacuation by the Royal Navy joined by merchant vessels and other leisure boats that saw thousands of troops rescued.

MYTH: Germany’s defeat was swift and humiliating.

REALITY: Germany was severely weakened during their battle with the Soviet Union. The Allies took full advantage of the situation and on June 6, 1944, the US, Canada, and Britain stormed Normandy’s beaches but not without suffering casualties of their own. On June 11, the beaches were fully secured with over 326,000 troops, more than 50,000 vehicles and some 100,000 tons of equipment landing on Normandy. On May 8, 1945, the Allies accepted Nazi Germany’s surrender.

MYTH: The two bombs that wiped out two cities caused the Japanese to surrender.

REALITY: Japan surrendered when the Soviet Union entered the war. Another great power in the war created insoluble military problems for Japan’s leaders. They knew they couldn’t defend themselves from two attacks coming from two different directions. It was just less embarrassing to say that they were defeated by a miracle weapon.

MYTH: The Ukrainian soccer team was wiped out after defeating a Nazi team.

REALITY: The “death match” between the Ukrainian team Start FC and German occupier team Flakelf did happen. But the Ukrainian players weren’t executed. No research found proof that a German official told the Ukrainians to either lose or die either, contradicting the many claims of that time. What could have happened is that the players were shot on the accusation that they were NKVD agents.

MYTH: US soldiers abandoned thousands of vintage cars that were left to rot in a Belgian forest.

REALITY: The car graveyard does look chilling but locals say it’s just an ordinary car graveyard, no different from local yards where you could get parts as needed. Most of the cars were from the sixties and seventies which meant that US soldiers could not have possibly done this. What it was, was just a dumping sight for old cars.

MYTH: Europe had the highest casualty count of WW2.

REALITY: Asia had a much higher death toll. More people died in the USSR and China alone. These were civilians and soldiers numbering approximately 32,624,000. Europe’s total deaths were around 20,000,000. But regardless of the number, let’s hope this never happens again.