World War II Odds and Ends by VaccaD

German strategists experimented with the idea of the schnellbomber, or "fast bomber", an unarmed bomber that could outrun any opposition. While their designs didn't work as planned, the British aircraft company de Haviland made the concept work with WHAT TACTICAL BOMBER, also known as the "wooden wonder" because it was made out of wood to help keep its weight down?

WHAT ALLIED DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN involved faking a plane crash off the coast of Spain, in an area where German intelligence was known to operate, and having a body wash up on shore carrying a letter regarding Allied plans to invade Greece and Sardinia -- rather than the real target of Sicily?

An apartment building overlooking 9th January Square was given WHAT NAME after the Battle of Stalingrad? The name honors the junior sergeant who held the building with a 25 man unit for two months against constant German attacks; afterwards, the Soviet commander at Stalingrad boasted that Germany lost more men trying to take the building than they had in taking Paris.

Lt. Hirō Onoda, the last Japanese officer to surrender after WWII, carried out combat operations until losing his last solder in 1972. He finally surrendered to the government of WHAT COUNTRY in 1974?

WHAT COUNTRY was the only European country to officially fight on Germany's side during WWII while still allowing Jews to serve in its armed forces? There were even Jewish chaplains in units fighting alongside German units.

During WWII, Japanese forces captured two islands that were part of the "incorporated" United States (that is to say, they were legally part of the US rather than a possession of the US). NAME BOTH ISLANDS.

WHAT SENIOR SS OFFICER, known as "The Most Dangerous Man in Europe", led several daring commando missions, including the 1943 rescue of Benito Mussolini from Italian royalist forces? After the war he escaped from prison and provided military advice and mercenaries to a client list that included Francisco Franco, Juan Peron, Muammar Gaddafi, the PLO, and apartheid-era South Africa.

The "battle" of WHAT CITY, from February 24 to February 25, 1942, is notable for not actually involving any opposing forces? Most explanations involve an outbreak of mass hysteria, but some believers in the paranormal have argued that the "enemy aircraft" the defenders fired on were actually extraterrestrial spacecraft.

Although Portugal was neutral during World War II, WHAT MODERN-DAY COUNTRY, then a Portuguese colony, was occupied by Australian and Dutch forces in 1941 against Portugal's wishes, then invaded by the Axis in 1942? About 11% of the civilian population died during the Axis occupation, one of the worst rates of civilian deaths in WWII.

The term "Europe's Last Battlefield" is sometimes used to refer to the Dutch island of Texel, which in 1945 was defended by a mixture of Germans and conscripted POWs from WHAT MODERN-DAY COUNTRY? The former POWs mutinied against the Germans in April, and the battle only ended when Canadian forces arrived on May 20 -- 12 days after Germany's surrender.

As of December 18, 2015, three World War II-era heads of state are still alive. Name ANY ONE OF THE COUNTRIES they represented. (Hints: none of the three countries are still headed by their WWII-era leader, one country had only limited recognition during WWII and has even less recognition today, two counties were belligerents in the war, and all three rulers were subject to regents for at least some of the war.)

During World War II, the US government launched Project X-Ray, an attempt to train WHAT SORT OF ANIMAL to carry time-delay firebombs, then drop them into Japan to start fires? Despite some promising tests the project was never put into practice, although an accidental release of the animals wound up incinerating an auxiliary air base in New Mexico.