Fanciful Facts

[Dirk]

All of the American troops who landed on the Normandy beaches on D Day did their beach assault training in North Devon from 1943 - 1944.
Saunton, Croyde and Woolacombe beaches were used to simulate the real landing zones. They were initially trained for the landing and to fight inland for the first mile. This was quickly pulled back to the first 1000 yds after it was calculated that there would be a 90% casualty rate at that distance.

Recommended reading - 'Spirit of the Sands' by Richard Bass.

I now live where the American troops had their camp, some of the roads on the estate are the original concrete roads laid in '43. I still come across lots of WW2 artifacts when walking my dog on Braunton Burrows. Quite poignant really.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

During WWI the British Army used a German designed type of fuse in their shrapnel artillery shells. After the war, Vickers had to pay Krupps Industries royalties for every shell fired.

 

[classic33]

Think of Wales.
From now on, everytime you write an equal sign (=), you will forever think of Wales and, in particular, Robert Recorde of Tenby. (You can bore your friends with this snippit!) He was a brilliant 16th-century academic who bestowed this algebraic symbol on the world – (thanks).

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

If you wanted to send a letter to someone on Mars, Royal Mail would charge £11,602.25. (They consulted Nasa to work that one out.)

 

[Big Dave laaa]

You talk bolloc*s my dog chases fly's and moths round the house. She spends half her walks looking up at birds.

This is correct, dog's can in fact look up. Gun dogs wouldn't be much use if they couldn't............on the other hand......

# Pigs can't look up.

 

[FrankCrank]

....you're telling porkies...........

 

[SteCenturion]

Eric Cantona was right about that trawler ....

& he is the 3rd most esteemed Wizard in Marseille.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Worked for me, we're still together 20yrs later.

I was on pint 9 when i met my future wife..
i walked into the scrap yard , singles night in the pub lounge ,and she was on the collect subs shift..
she said you cant come in here unless you join....
i said its my local..Bit of banter..
we need to go out for a meal and sort this out...

ohhh ok then..and i got a date and free night in the club..
she thought i was sober..lol

 

[Profpointy]

It's well known that the recipient of Adolf Hitler's missing testicle was German physicist Karl Heinz Globeschwiper.

What isn't so well known though is that in October 1945 he was spirited away to the USSR to work on the Sputnik programme.

He was then given the new identity of a Soviet scientist, Ivan Ooduknickabolokov.

But at what point did it end up in the Albert Hall, and anyway, I though his mother cut it off when he was small

 

[Speicher]

Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on the 12th February 1809.

Tosh watches Eggheads.

 

[stephec]

But at what point did it end up in the Albert Hall, and anyway, I though his mother cut it off when he was small

In 1969 when the first WWII documents were declassified that song was found to have been prepared by Neville Chamberlain as a morale booster in the event of war breaking out, he wrote it three days after returning from Munich.

 

[Joey Shabadoo]

When Canada changed it's National Anthem in 1998, a newspaper campaign helped "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats to third place in the public vote.

 

[shouldbeinbed]

When Canada changed it's National Anthem in 1998, a newspaper campaign helped "The Safety Dance" by Men Without Hats to third place in the public vote.

That would have been ace. Good job it's pretty social media or it'd have won by a landslide.

 

[Dirk]

Rembrandt was colour blind.

 

[fatblokish]

Soap is made from whales, which explains why whales dissolve in warm water.