Posted by DarylOnABarrel February 08, 2024

18 Things You MAY NOT KNOW About the Allied and Axis Power Leaders of WW2

Playing card pictures made by me

Most of us are at least somewhat familiar with the famed leaders of WW2 (some more than others), but how well do you really know these leaders and dictators? See how many of these facts and tidbits you knew and which ones you didn't.

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Allied Powers

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The 32nd President of the United States of America

1. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was distantly related to his wife, Eleanor Roosevelt.

Anna Eleanor Roosevelt is actually Franklin D. Roosevelt's fifth cousin once removed and the niece & goddaughter of his fifth cousin, President Teddy Roosevelt. Since Eleanor's father had passed, Teddy Roosevelt was the one that gave her away to Franklin, and he did so saying, "well Franklin, there's nothing like keeping the name in the family."

2. He was the first - and only - U.S. president to serve four terms.

George Washington had originally established an unwritten rule that two terms should be the limit for serving as president. Many presidents had tried to break that unwritten rule and serve three terms, but none succeeded until FDR. He won a third term on November 5th, 1940 and a fourth term on November 7th, 1944.

3. He was an avid stamp collector.

For most of his life, FDR was a passionate stamp collector. He valued them for their links to geography and history rather than for their value, which is something I can relate to since I also tend to appreciate things more for what they actually are as opposed to how much money they represent. His hobby started when he was 8 and his mother gave him her collection. He would go on to spend the rest of his life with this hobby, joining stamp clubs, buying stamps at auctions, and even designing a few stamps himself. His personal collection, by the end of his life, numbered over 1,200,000 stamps.

Winston Churchill

The Prime Minister of the U.K. from 1940-1945 & 1951-1955

1. Winston Churchill's mother was an American woman.

His father was Lord Randolph Churchill and his mother was Jennie Jerome, the daughter of a wealthy American financier. They had two kids together, Winston and Jack, but eventually their relationship weakened and Jennie was rarely around. When Lord Randolph passed, Jennie remarried twice, remaining in the UK.

2. He became famous after escaping a Boer prison camp.

While serving as a war correspondent and military officer shortly after graduating from Sandhurst, Churchill found himself captured by Dutch Boers in South Africa, 1899. He was sent to a prison camp, but decided to try to escape. He scaled a wall at night and stumbled upon a British coal mine manager, who hid him in a mine shaft for a few days before eventually hiding him on a train to Mozambique. He then returned to the front and was declared a hero.

3. The first known use of the term "O.M.G." is attributed to a letter written to him.

Admiral John Arbuthnot "Jacky" Fisher had sent a letter to Churchill in 1917 about some upsetting headlines. This was the letter:

Joseph Stalin

General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1922 - 1952

1. Joseph Stalin has a previously unknown grandson, Yuri Davydov.

When Joseph Stalin was exiled to Siberia in 1914, he had an affair with Lidia Pereprygia, who was a year under the age of consent at 13 years old. She eventually gave birth to his child in 1914, but the child died as an infant. She also gave birth to a son in 1917 named Alexander, and it's from that bloodline that Siberian man, Yuri Davydov, long accused of being an imposter, has been proved via DNA test that he is in fact Stalin and Pereprygia's grandson.

2. He changed his name to what we know it as today.

Stalin was originally born Ioseb Besarionis dze Jughashvili, but he changed the spelling of his first name to the more recognizable "Joseph" and eventually changed his last name to "Stalin," which means "man of steel."

3. He wrote a handful of poems under the pen name "Soselo."

In his teenage years, Stalin published a few poems in a journal called, Iveria. Since I write poetry myself, I had to share this fact. I never knew this before writing this article. Here's one of his poems:

Untitled

The rose’s bud had blossomed out

Reaching out to touch the violet

The lily was waking up

And bending its head in the breeze

High in the clouds the lark

Was singing a chirrupping hymn

While the joyful nightingale

With a gentle voice was saying-

‘Be full of blossom, oh lovely land

Rejoice Iverians’ country

And you oh Georgian, by studying

Bring joy to your motherland.’

I'm sure it reads better in its original language, but the translation is still quite interesting.

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Axis Powers

Emporer Hirohito

1. The exact nature of his culpability for Japan's involvement in the war is heavily debated.

Michinomiya Hirohito (now referred to posthumously as Shōwa, which is the name of the era coinciding with his reign) was a seemingly timid and obedient man. After the war, America and Japan sought to paint an image of him as a figurehead with little power to resist a fanatical, militaristic government. This has largely been held true for many years, but recent historians and biographers are challenging this official story, saying that this downplays the amount of culpability that he truly has. Either way, it is difficult to know the truth since the official records are off limits to most historians.

2. Emporer Hirohito was a dedicated marine biologist.

Hirohito had a strong interest in marine biology, even from a young age. He even discovered an unknown species of prawn in 1919 when he was about 18. His research focused heavily on marine hydrozoans and continued on until his death in 1989. He even became a Fellow of the British Royal Society. His son, Emperor Akihito, is also a marine biologist and is well known as an ichthyologist.

3. He visited Disneyland in 1975.

After WWII, Hirohito was forced to denounce his status as a demi-god. It was also decided that Japan would become "democratized" and eventually, that the emperor and his wife would become good-will ambassadors, travelling the world and voicing regret for Japan's role in the war. One of the trips they went on was to the United States, which included a trip to the west coast and Disneyland. While at Disneyland, the emperor acquired a Mickey Mouse watch which he purportedly wore for many years. It is also rumored that when he died, he was buried with this watch and a microscope, which symbolize his interest in science and his modernization of his country.

Benito Mussolini

1. Benito Mussolini was a violent kid.

As a child, Benito Mussolini had a reputation for fighting and bullying. In school, he had a couple of incidents of stabbing other kids, one of which resulted in him being expelled. He also admitted to knifing a girlfriend in the arm, led gangs of boys on raids of local farmsteads, and even became adept at sword-fighting.

2. He was influenced by Les Miserables.

Historians disagree about how Mussolini first encountered the historical novel. Some say that his father used to read it to him at home and others say that he heard it being read aloud in public in his hometown. Either way, he was apparently a big fan of the book. He even considered himself a writer. He published a novel called The Cardinal's Mistress in 1908, which was, in his own words, "a novel for seamstresses and scandal” and “a nasty book.” It was a racy historical novel set in 17th century Italy that made fun of the Catholic Church. It was actually quite popular and was even translated into ten languages.

3. Part of his brain can be visited in his tomb in Predappio.

After Mussolini was executed by Communist Party execution squads and before his body was hung in 1945, the bodies of Mussolini, 16 other men, and Mussolini's mistress since 1933, Claretta, were dumped onto the cobblestone of a roundabout in Milan. News soon spread that the hated dictator was dead on the streets and the people soon gathered and got out of control. They took out their anger on their dead bodies, trampling them. People kicked Mussolini's jaw, fired shots into his head, urinated on his body, stuffed dead mice in his mouth, cracked his skull, removed one of his eyes from his sockets, and many other grim things. His body was eventually taken down and buried anonymously in a Milan cemetery. Part of his brain was actually given to St. Elizabeth’s Psychiatric Hospital in Washington, D.C. for study (and as a grisly trophy). Decades later, in 1966, an American diplomat gave this piece of grey matter back to Mussolini's widow, Donna Rachele. He claimed that the Americans studied it to figure out what makes a dictator. She ended up placing the relic in his tomb, which receives 100,000 visitors every year.

Adolf Hitler

1. In 1913, Hitler, Trotsky, Tito, Freud, Stalin, and others all lived in Vienna.

Somehow (at some point in 1913), Leon Trotsky, Joseph Stalin, Sigmund Freud, Marshal Tito, Adolf Hitler, Emperor Franz, and his successor Archduke Franz Ferdinand all lived very close to each other in Vienna, Austria. Hitler was in his twenties at the time and he was attempting to study painting at the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts (something which he never succeeded at). The details of this are fascinating so if you want to read more check out this link.

2. He had many health conditions.

Adolf Hitler's health has been a big topic throughout history and a great deal of his medical record is known. He apparently suffered from monorchism (the condition of having only one testicle), Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, many gastrointestinal issues resulting in frequent flatulence, and numerous mental health issues. A big theory for why he had so many issues is that he is significantly inbred. His father was second cousins with his mother, and this likely might have been a big reason for his conditions.

3. His descendants have possibly agreed to die childless.

Hitler married his long time lover Eva Braun in April 1945, but they had no children, as they died by suicide only hours later. However, Hitler does in fact have descendants alive today. His half brother, Alois Hitler Jr. married an Irish woman named Bridget Dowling and they had two son, William Patrick Hitler (who later changed his last name to Stuart-Houston) and Heinrich. William did not stay in Germany and in fact served in the United States Navy during World War II. William ended up having four sons (one of which ended up dying in a car accident). His three remaining sons (Alexander, Louis, and Brian) have all agreed to not have children in order to ensure the end of Adolf's bloodline. Two other descendants are still alive as well (Peter Raubal and Heiner Hochegger, grandchildren of Angela, Adolf's half-sister) and while they haven't made the same pact as the Stuart-Houstons, they have expressed no interest in continuing the bloodline either and have not had children.

However, there is a wrinkle in this matter. A potential direct grandson of Adolf Hitler is alive today. His name is Philippe Loret and he claims that his father was the son of a woman that had a fling with Adolf Hitler during his youth. This claim is not entirely substantiated but if true, it would mean that his bloodline has not ended, as Philippe has three children.

Sources:

~ Danny (DarylOnABarrel)

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