World War 2 - 4139 Strange and Fascinating Facts

Bastogne - you all know about this town . I like the General's reply to the German offer to surrender- "Nuts" !!

Battle Bowler - name given to helmets used during the Battle of Britain to protecte against falling shrapnel

Battleship Row - nickname given to area in Pearl Harbour when deep draught ships- mainly battleships- were moored and the primary attack area of the Japanese

Beaver Bugs - name given to armoured cars used to defend the 350 aircraft factories in the early days- derived from Lord Beaverbrook - Minister of Aircraft Production

Beetle - miniature remote coltrolled tank used by Germans - loaded with explosives and used against Allies, but not effective as shot and destroyed at a safe distance

 

Big B - nickname for Berlin given by bomber crews- one of the most respected targets

Big Ditch - English Channel nickname given by US airmen in England

Big Friends - US bomber nickname by fighter pilots escorting them- fighters known as Little Friends

Big Inch - world largest pipeline at the time in the US , 2 feet in diameter, 1381 miles long and could move 300 000 barrels of oil a day

BIGOT - code word for highest priority top secret classification for D D invasion - originated from reversal of stamp "To Gib" for orders going to Gibraltar for North Africa invasion. also used for people involved in D-Day plans (bigots)

 

Havn't done this for a while, so dustd the book off and here are a few more-

Bismark - After sinking the Hood was officially located by a Catalina, but in reality, it was located by Ultra intercepts that were decoded

Black Caviar - name given to new smokeless powder invented in 1944. Manufacturedd under water (less danger of explosion) and made 5 times faster that conventional powder

Black Code - U.S. State Department cipher code thought to be foolproof, but the Itialians broke into the U.S. embassy in Rome in 1941 and photographed it. Passed onto Rommel who used it against the British in Africa and accounted for his early successes. Finallly broked by the British in 1942 and they persuaded the US to change it

Black Saturday - on 13 June 1942 Ritchie ordered 300 tanks to attack Rommel, who knew about it from above and they knocked out 230 and attacked the British, capturing Tobruk and moving to the Eghptian border