Mental Floss

WORLD WAR II









Seven years of bad luck would seem like a walk in the park to these people.

Grab your lucky rabbit’s foot and read up on the tales of some of the unluckiest people in history, from the man whose backyard became a battlefield (twice!) to an absurdly accident-prone instrument inventor and beyond.

Jason Serafino








U.S. soldiers in an M24 Chaffee light tank driving through Bologna, Italy, in 1945.

Did kamikaze pilots really volunteer? Did the U.S. really declare war against the Axis powers directly after Pearl Harbor? We're debunking some of the most common misconceptions about World War II.

Jake Rossen








Col. Benjamin O. Davis (left), commanding officer of the 332nd Fighter Group, and Edward C. Gleed, group operations officer, stand in front of a plane in Ramitelli, Italy, in March 1945.

The first African American pilots to serve in the United States military, the Tuskegee Airmen helped the Allies win World War II and put the U.S. armed forces on the road to integration.

Mark Mancini