Redditors who are fascinated with World Wars I and II, what are some trivial story that actually happened?

1. After WW2, a large amount of aircraft tires were left in Italy. Someone bought a bunch of them, built a frame, and threw in a engine. These became Vespas.
   — shitterplug


2. During WWI a British soldier being held in a German POW camp received word that his mother was ill and didn't have long left. So the Germans gave him a 2 week pass! He went home, said his goodbyes to his mother then returned to Germany to be put back in the POW camp. Edit-Here's a link http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-23957605 He tried escaping not long after he returned.
   — themadhatter85


3. I think it was during the race to the sea when there was apparently a cease fire due to a massive rain storm that flooded the trenches. Everyone had to get out of the trenches and stand in no man's land. There is supposed to be a moment of mutual misery between the sides that caused them to just not fight each other on parts of the line. Edit: this was ww1
   — Walt_the_White






4. My grandfather and his mate jumped into a foxhole (trench?) during a shelling in the Ardennes and proceeded to surrender to a German soldier who had (unbeknownst to them) frozen to death against the wall with his weapon pointed in their general direction... Took them a moment to figure out. It was one of his favorite stories.
   — Wickerhero


5. Not so much a story, but powerboat racing only became a thing because there were so many surplus aircraft engines lying around at the end of the war.
   — nliausacmmv


6. [A native American becomes a war chief in WWII!](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Medicine_Crow) >Medicine Crow completed all four tasks required to become a war chief: touching an enemy without killing him (counting coup), taking an enemy's weapon, leading a successful war party, and stealing an enemy's horse. He touched a living enemy soldier and disarmed him after turning a corner and finding himself face to face with a young German soldier. >Whenever he went into battle, he wore his war paint beneath his uniform and a sacred eagle feather beneath his helmet.
   — yarg_pirothoth






7. A German ME109 pilot, Franz Stigler chased down an American B-17 piloted by Charlie Brown (Yes, that was his name) trying to get back to England after making a bombing run. The bomber was severly damaged and several of the crew were wounded which would have made it an easy kill. Rather than shooting him down, Stigler escorted him out of German territory and out over the North Sea, flying close to him to prevent fire from ground AA crews. Several decades after the war, they tracked Stigler down and they both met and became close friends.
   — Hetzer58


8. Here's somthing from the southeast asian theatre, which hardly gets any attention anymore. My grandfather was born in china and moved to Singapore with his wife before the war. When the Japanese were storming through china in 1937 (well before any fighting happened in Europe or the Pacific), he was part of a resistance group gathering donations and funds from southeast asian chinese to help their brothers up back in china. Fast forward 5 years and Japan invaded southeast asia, having easily pushed aside the British forces in singapore who had bigger problems back home. Naturally, grandpa was right up the Japanese kill list. One day, the japanese MPs went to grandpa's house to arrest him but he happened to be running errands a couple of blocks down. Grandpa saw the commotion knew he could not retuen home anymore. Rather than hide in the jungles or flee, he went up to another japanese patrol and, in fluent japanese, explained that he was a japanese sympathizer and offered his services as a driver. For the 3 year occupation, he lived a good life among the japanese soldiers even while he was a wanted man. I can only imagine the look on grandma's face when he returned home after the surrender.
   — LostTheGame42


9. My grandpa was a POW in a German prison camp for most of the war. He became friends with a French POW, and after the war, they both survived, the French guy gave my grandpa a Napoleonic era gold coin. My grandpa made a wedding band out of it as a way to always remember his friend. I'm wearing it right now. Edit: To all the people asking for a picture, I'll post one later today as another edit to this post. Edit 2: Here's a imgur link to some pictures I just took of it. https://imgur.com/gallery/q1hrI Sorry about the quality.
   — Sigmar_Heldenhammer






10. My favorite WWII story is of Yang Kyoungjong. He was a Korean kid who got conscripted into the Japanese army in 1938. The next year he was captured by the Red army and forced in a labor camp, and later drafted into the military. In 1943, he was captured by the Germans and sent to serve in the Wehrmacht in France where, on D-Day, he surrendered to American paratroopers.
    — CaptainMegaJuice


11. One of my favorite stories is about Shifty Powers, one of the guys in Band of Brothers. He had such a keen sense of observation in the woods that he noticed a tree had moved overnight - it was a German patrol trying to sneak up on his group!
    — milesbw


12. In my grandmother's neighborhood, women were hidden in false attics when the Japanese came to 'inspect' homes looking to exploit them. Men would stay downstairs and create some excuse to explain why they were not home. These attics were made of very thin sheets of wood covering the crossbeams. One neighbor's wife accidentally stepped off a crossbeam and made a hole in a sheet, seconds before the Japanese got to the door. Her quick thinking husband grabbed a laundry pole, with clothing still pegged to it, and stood under the hole explaining that he'd accidentally struck the ceiling while doing laundry. The Japanese laughed and left; but they weren't sure if they'd actually bought the story and the ladies stayed hidden for several days in case they came back.
    — pisang22






13. My Grandpa was in WWII and he never really talked about what he did, but there are 2 stories he told me. First one takes place in Russia. Grandpa was in the Navy and one night him and his buddies were out on the town having a grand time. Now, Grandpa could hold his own but he was 20 at the time and was still new to drinking. He got good and drunk, bought a white mink fur coat for my grandmother and then drank some more. While they stumbled back to ship Grandpa slipped on some ice and that coat landed in the snow. A sober person wouldn't have an issue finding the coat but Grandpa was quite wasted at this point and so were all his buddies, plus it was very dark. They never found the coat, but I found out why he never drank champagne after that night. Second story. Grandpa couldn't swim, in fact, he was terrified of the water. So he joined the Navy. Anyway, while he was on ship, the entire 2 years, he wore a life vest. He wore it no matter what, even slept with it. The day comes that he can finally go home and while he was walking off the boat he took the vest off and threw it in the water. It sank. I think these are about as trivial as you can get, but they're my favorite trivial stories from WWII.
    — Apathetic_Tea


14. I'm adding another story of my grandfather's just because I feel like it might actually be appreciated. The war had ended and they were moving back toward France but were still in Germany. They were moving through some town and heard what my grandfather called "bed check Charlie" (I guess they were small aircraft used by the Germans to designate artillery targets at night) Anyway, this plane comes in for a landing in a muddy field behind a row of houses, guy landed but nosed it and the plane flipped over at the last minute. They all go running over to see what the deal was and this Luftwaffe pilot opens the door (upside down) and out spills HUNDREDS of pounds of raw bacon. Dude decided since the war was over he'd bring home the bacon. Yes, they all ate bacon that day.
    — Wickerhero