Today marks the 77th anniversary of the start of World War II —when Hitler's Nazi army invaded Poland.

Hitler's engineers secretly developed some of the most ambitious projects and rapidly produced sophisticated technology decades before its time.

In the 2015 fall issue of Weapons of WWII magazine, author KM Lee detailed some of Hitler's advanced weaponry.

Here's a look at are some of the secret, lethal weapons the Nazis created during World War II:

SEE ALSO: Hitler created the largest gun ever, and it was a total disaster

Hitler's stealth 'flying wing' bomber

Referred to as "Hitler's secret weapon," the Horten Ho 229 bomber was designed to carry 2,000 pounds of armaments while flying at 49,000 feet at speeds north of 600 mph.

Equipped with twin turbojet engines, two cannons, and R4M rockets, the Horten Ho 229 was the world's first stealth aircraft and took its first flight in 1944.

Source: Weapons of WWII magazine

According to the Smithsonian, Nazi Luftwaffe chief Hermann Göring allocated half a million Reich Marks to brothers Reimar and Walter Horten to manufacture the aircraft.

Plagued with problems, the Horten didn't last long in combat. Instead, the bomber's engineering did inspire today's modern stealth aircraft — like the Northrop Gruman B-2 bomber.

Source: Weapons of WWII magazine

The Fritz X radio-guided bomb

Considered the "grandfather of smart bombs," the Fritz X was a 3,450-pound explosive equipped with a radio receiver and sophisticated tail controls that helped guide the bomb to its target.

According to the US Air Force, the Fritz X could penetrate 28 inches of armor and could be deployed from 20,000 feet,an altitude out of reach for antiaircraft equipment at the time.

Less than a month after it was developed, the Nazis sank Italian battleship Roma off Sardinia in September 1943. However, the Fritz X's combat use was limited since only a few Luftwaffe aircraft were designed to carry the bomb.

Source: Weapons of WWII magazine

On August 23, 1939, German foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop and Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov signed a nonaggression pact between their two countries. Contained within the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was a secret protocol for the division of Poland and the Baltic states between German and Soviet "spheres of influence."

Just eight days later, German operatives disguised as Polish saboteurs carried out a false-flag operation at the German radio station at Gleiwitz. On September 1, without a formal declaration of war, German forces invaded Poland in an operation that many historians agree was the opening battle of World War II in Europe.

Polish planning did not anticipate an attack from Germany before 1942, so the Poles were still building up and modernizing their military. Without much of a defense, Warsaw relied on its British and French allies for protection in the event of an attack.

The audacity of the Nazi invasion caught everyone by surprise, and the Poles were left to fight the Germans with anything they had at hand — including World War I-era horse cavalry.

Despite the dawn of the mechanized era of warfare, the Polish army included horse-mounted cavalry based largely on its experience during the Polish-Soviet war, where it decimated Soviet lines at the Battle of Komarów. But as technology advanced, the Poles learned that cavalry could be used as mounted infantry armed with the latest weapons and able to quickly move within the battlespace. To this end, Polish cavalry carried machine guns and antitank rifles but still retained sabers on the chance they might be useful in a typical cavalry fight.

On the first day of the Nazi invasion — 77 years ago on Thursday — the Polish cavalry met the Germans at the battle of Tuchola Forest. The Germans caught the Polish army off guard and were advancing quickly through what defenses Poland could muster. In an effort to save the main Polish force, the 18th Pomeranian Uhlans — a cavalry unit — were deployed to cover the retreat.

At the Tuchola Forest, the Polish cavalry spotted German infantry in a clearing. Polish commander Col. Mastalerz ordered a charge in hopes of taking the Nazis by surprise and dispersing the German unit. He ordered the 1st squadron commander, Eugeniusz Świeściak, to lead two squadrons in the charge.

Wielding modern weaponry along with their sabers, the cavalrymen surprised the Nazis and were soon in close combat. The Germans were quickly overwhelmed.

The Polish victory was short-lived. As the German infantry retreated, armored cars mounted with machine guns appeared from the woods and opened fire on the Uhlans. Caught in the open with no time to deploy their heavy weapons, the cavalrymen rushed for cover. Świeściak was killed and Mastalerz later fell to the German guns trying to rescue his comrade.

Despite suffering numerous casualties, the 18th Pomeranian Uhlans completed their mission and stalled the German advance in their sector. This allowed other Polish units to fall back to a secondary defensive line. The Uhlans' cavalry charge on horseback would be one of the last cavalry charges in history.

When reporters surveyed the battlefield the next day, they saw numerous dead horses and cavalrymen — with their sabers — and German armor still nearby. This led one Italian journalist to the incorrect conclusion that the Poles had charged German tanks with nothing but swords and lances. German propaganda quickly took this version of the story and used it as a means to convey the superiority of the German army and its technology.

The myth was then perpetuated further by the Soviets after the war to show the ineptitude of Polish commanders. The myth continued long after the war, with some Poles even retelling it as a story of the gallantry of the Polish military.

Ultimately, the 18th Pomeranian Uhlans would hold out for just three more days before ceasing to exist as a fighting unit. Poland would continue to resist, though once the Soviet Union joined the Nazi operation on September 17 to claim its portion of the country, it was all but over. Most Polish resistance was finished by the end of the month, but a brave few held out until October 6 before finally surrendering.

Many other units, as well as the Polish government, managed to escape the Nazis and take up the fight from abroad in other Allied nations. Polish troops would later return to help liberate Europe, taking part in such battles as Operation Market Garden. Poland would never regain most of the territory seized by the Soviet Union in 1939, greatly reducing the land area of Poland to this day.

SEE ALSO: Hitler's secret Nazi war machines of World War II

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Rare footage shows the successful testing of the most powerful weapon known to man

To keep the many men and machines in fighting shape during the World War II invasion of France, logistics technicians sure had their work cut out for them. Bomb, bullets, planes and tanks were top priorities, so there was little room for luxury items that’d keep the troops in good spirits while fighting Nazis.

And when a British brewery donated gallons of beer for troops on the front, there was no way to get it to the men by conventional means.

Enter Britain’s Royal Air Force.

In the early days after the Normandy invasion of June 1944, British and American troops noticed an acute shortage of adult beverages — namely beer. Many British soldiers complained about watery cider being the only drink available in recently liberated French towns. Luckily for them, the Royal Air Force was on the tap (pun intended) to solve the problem.

With no room for cargo on their small fighter planes, RAF pilots arrived at a novel solution – using drop tanks to transport suds instead of fuel.

The drop tanks of a Spitfire each carried 45 gallons of gas, meaning a plane could transport 90 gallons of extra liquid. When carrying fuel, the tanks were used and then discarded.

For the purposes of ferrying beer, ground crews set about steam cleaning the tanks for their special deliveries. These flights became known as “flying pubs” by the troops they served. A few British breweries, such as Heneger and Constable, donated free beer for the RAF to take to the front. Other units had to pool their funds and buy the beer.

As the desire for refreshment increased in Normandy, the RAF began employing the Hawker Typhoon which could carry even more than the Spitfire. Unfortunately, the Typhoon was often mistaken by inexperienced American pilots as the German Focke-Wulf 190.

According to one British captain, the beer deliveries were attacked twice in one day by U.S. P-47 Thunderbolts. The Typhoon had to jettison its tanks into the English Channel to take evasive action, costing the troops on the ground dearly.

The drop tanks also had a serious disadvantage. While they could carry large amounts of beer, the initial runs still tasted of fuel. Even after the tanks had been used several times and lost their fuel taste, they still imparted a metallic flavor to the beer.

To counter this problem, ground crews developed Modification XXX, a change made to the wing pylons of Spitfire Mk. IXs that allowed them to carry actual kegs of beer.

These kegs, often called ‘beer bombs,’ were standard wooden kegs with a specially-designed nose cone and attachments for transport under the wing of the Spitfire. Though they carried less beer, it arrived tasting like it just came out of the tap at the pub, chilled by the altitude of the flight over the channel.

To ensure their compatriots remained satisfied, pilots would often return to England for rudimentary maintenance issues or other administrative needs in order to grab another round. As the need for beer increased, all replacement Spitfires and Typhoons being shipped to airfields in France carried ‘beer bombs’ in their bomb racks to the joy of the thirsty crews manning the airfields.

When the Americans learned of what the British were doing they joined in, even bringing over ice cream for the GIs as well.

As the practice gained popularity, Britain’s Custom and Excise Ministry caught wind and tried to shut it down. Thankfully by that time, there were more organized official shipments of beer making it to the troops. However, the enterprising pilots kept up their flights with semi-official permission from higher-ups, they just kept it a better secret.

SEE ALSO: Hitler's secret Nazi war machines of World War II

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: America's B-2 stealth bomber is unlike any military aircraft in the world

Washington (AFP) - The woman dramatically kissed by a sailor celebrating the end of World War II in an iconic photograph seen around the world has died, according to The New York Times. She was 92.

Greta Zimmer Friedman passed away from pneumonia, her son Joshua Friedman told the paper.

Then a 21-year-old dental assistant, Friedman was grabbed and kissed by an elated sailor in New York's Times Square on August 14, 1945 as news spread that Japan had surrendered and WWII would end.

Photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt shot the iconic image, which would endure as a defining 20th century American photograph after it ran as a full page in Life magazine.

The 2012 book "The Kissing Sailor: The Mystery Behind the Photo That Ended World War II" published by the Naval Institute Press identified the pair as Friedman and George Mendonsa.

Though their passionate embrace might indicate otherwise, Friedman and Mendonsa did not know each other and never had a romantic relationship. In fact, the sailor's future wife, Rita Mendonsa, can be seen grinning above his shoulder in the photograph.

In a 2005 interview archived by the Veterans History Project, Friedman said she had never seen the image until the 1960s when she looked at a book of Eisenstaedt photography.

"I'm not sure about the kiss... it was just somebody celebrating," Friedman recalled in that interview. "It wasn't a romantic event. It was just an event of 'thank God the war is over.'"

SEE ALSO: Researchers found out how many miles a week you need to run to improve your health — and it’s surprisingly low

Join the conversation about this story »

In honor of the upcoming centennial of the US’s entry into the first World War, the Library of Congress has made available online several personal notes of two of America’s greatest generals.

The diaries belonging to John J. Pershing, the commander-in-chief of the American Expeditionary Forces in World War I, and George S. Patton, a WWI tank commander and famous World War II general. 

The now digitized journals offer a public view into the inner thoughts of the two men.

Pershing’s diaries describes his command of the American Expeditionary Forces in France during World War I and onwards, while Patton’s diaries ranges from the Mexican Punitive Expedition all the way to WWII.

Also contained within their notes — which span the late-1800s to the late-1900s — are speeches, maps, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, photos, and other noteworthy memorabilia.

Their respective entries also yield humorous insight into the men's natures, as in the case of Patton’s entry on September 7, 1918:

“Went to 42 Maj Murphy G3. Found that they had adopted my plan in total. Thought Col Hughes less of an ass.”

Pershing was instrumental in leading the fight towards the eventual armistice with Germany during WWI, after having driller the US’s nascent military into a capable fighting force.

Patton, who was one of Pershing’s aide-de-camps, is probably best known for his relentless and strict military bearing that made him the WWII legend he is today.

Check out Pershing's and Patton's collection from the Library of Congress.

SEE ALSO: The most chilling details from the recently found diary of the head of the Nazi SS

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The US military uses this tactic to get hundreds of troops onto the ground in a matter of minutes

Sometimes the world seems normal and boring. Other times, not so much. Sometimes, you realize it's a place where mad sci—er, architects spend decades trying to implement kooky plans to drain the Mediterranean Sea and join the continents of Europe and Africa.

Atlas Obscura writer Toon Lambrechts dug up this fascinating, discarded, real-life idea, which makes an appearance in the 1962 Phillip K. Dick novel "The Man in the High Castle" (the book that inspired the Amazon TV series of the same name).

As Lambrechts explains, the actual plan to drain the Mediterranean wasn't a Nazi idea at all — though its designer was happy to pitch it to them once they took power.

German architect Herman Sörgel first proposed the scheme in 1929, then popularized it three years later in his book "Atlantropa." (Atlantropa was his name for the post-drainage Euro-African landscape.)

Lambrechts explains how it would have worked:

Not hampered by any sense of reality or modesty, Sörgel's Atlantropa design envisioned three gigantic dams which dwarf contemporary superstructures like China’s Three Gorges Dam. The biggest barrage would be built across the Straights of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco, separating the Mediterranean from the Atlantic Ocean. A second dam would block the Dardanelles and shut off the Black Sea. As if that were not enough, a third dam would stretch out between Sicily and Tunisia, cutting the Mediterranean in two, with different water levels on either side.

The result wouldn't have been entirely dry land between the continents, but a tremendous amount of hydroelectric power and plenty of new land to cultivate.

Sörgel apparently thought the project, concieved after World War I, would unite European nations in common purpose and ease post-war tensions. Lambrechts writes that the German public and media loved the idea, though the Nazis rejected it. Even though he was never successful, Sörgel continued to push for Atlantropa until his death in 1952.

Read more about it at Atlas Obscura.

SEE ALSO: Trump has some questions about climate change. We answered them

SEE ALSO: A massive solar storm could wipe out almost all of our modern technology — and we'd have just hours to prepare

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Astronomers discovered a second ‘alien megastructure’ star that’s even stranger than the first one

During World War II, the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the 2nd Polish Corps had an unusual soldier among its ranks, a 440-pound Syrian bear named Wojtek.

Wojtek first came to the company as a cub, but over the course of the war he matured and was given the rank of corporal in the Polish army.

Here's Wojtek's amazing story below.

SEE ALSO: 10 shocking facts about World War II

After being released from a Siberian labor camp during the Nazi invasion of Russia in 1942, the 22nd Polish Supply Brigade began a long trek south toward Persia. Along the way, they bought an orphaned bear.

Source: The Soldier Bear

"He was like a child, like a small dog. He was given milk from a bottle, like a baby. So therefore he felt that these soldiers are nearly his parents, and therefore he trusted in us and was very friendly," Wojciech Narebski, former Polish soldier, told the BBC.

Source: BBC

As he grew, his diet changed, but he remained friendly.

Source: The Soldier Bear

Europe and Asia, taken together, are the heart of humanity. That’s where 5 billion out of the 7 billion people in the world live. When instability comes to this part of the world, it shakes humanity.

That’s why the geopolitical pattern developing in Eurasia is so ominous. It is like a hurricane—absorbing huge amounts of energy from the ocean, using that energy to build a vast, integrated structure, and then destroying whatever it touches.

The Eurasian landmass is the main source of that kind of energy in the world. When the various regions start to destabilize and then join together, it creates a geopolitical storm. We are now watching to see whether a hurricane will form.

Parallels with World War II

This is not a phenomenon we see often. The last time we saw it was before World War II when every region in Eurasia started to destabilize. The destabilized areas then merged into one single integrated conflict, and it caused devastation throughout the region.

First let’s focus on the situation before World War II. Europe entered a massive economic depression after World War I. These economic problems led to political problems and the rise of Hitler and Mussolini. They also led to militarization.

In the Soviet Union, the revolution led to massive economic dislocation, starvation, and politically, to dictatorship and mass murder. The Middle East was relatively stable, save that the Arabs deeply resented the British domination of the region and were quietly organizing against it.

In India too, an anti-British movement led by Mahatma Gandhi politically destabilized the sub-continent. In Japan, a militaristic government took control and went to war with China in the 1930s. China had already been in the grips of a civil war when the Japanese invasion compounded it.

Each of these regional storms was different, but each began to interact with other regions.

The economic problem in Europe affected Russia, and Russia sought to use Europe’s problems to create a political revolution there. Russia aided various factions in China, while Japan saw Europe’s domination of Southeast Asia as unacceptable.

These storms gathered and merged in the 1930s, exploding in a war that not only drew in every part of the Eurasian landmass, but drew in the United States as well. It was World War II.

The 21^st century hurricane is forming

We are now at the period when all regions of Eurasia are experiencing gathering storms. In Europe, the failure of the European Union since 2008 has created economic instability that is becoming political.

Russia is in the midst of economic and political problems and has moved to military action in Ukraine and Syria. The Middle East is in military and economic chaos, now expanding to include economic problems due to oil prices.

China has had a massive economic downturn, as has Japan, and in China the storm has become political, with the imposition of a tough dictatorship.

Central Asian countries are undergoing economic crises because of oil prices, and their governments have become unstable. India alone is no more unstable than it usually is.

The regional storms are intensifying, and they are merging. The Middle East crisis has affected Europe with migration and terrorism. European forces have been involved in the Middle East and have imposed economic sanctions on Russia.

Russia is deeply involved in Syria and jockeying for Turkish and Iranian support. The Russians and Chinese are both imposing political pressure on Central Asia in order to take advantage of their energy supplies should prices rise.

China is projecting power into the South and East China Seas and engaging Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, and Indonesia in a near-war situation.

No single overwhelming hurricane has formed, but the pattern that has emerged is generally similar to the pattern that existed in the early to mid-1930s. And that pattern turned into the greatest war in history.

What we see now is each region (India excepted) destabilizing, and the storms beginning to touch. The issue is, of course, what happens next. 

Watch George Friedman's Groundbreaking Documentary "Crisis & Chaos: Are We Moving Toward World War III?"

Russian adventurism. An ailing EU. Devastation in the Middle East. These are just three symptoms of a systemic instability engulfing a region that’s home to 5 billion of the planet’s 7 billion people.

In this provocative documentary from Mauldin Economics and Geopolitical Futures, George Friedman uncovers the crises convulsing Europe, the Middle East and Asia … and reveals the geopolitical chess moves that could trigger global conflict. Register for the online premiere now.

SEE ALSO: American conservatism is gravitating towards Putin

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: There is a secret fleet of US government trucks transporting nuclear weapons around the country

In 1939, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of a massive 3-mile-long row of buildings, destined to be an enormous beach resort for Nazi Germany. It was abandoned three years later, when World War II broke out. It would sit empty for the next 75 years. Today, German real estate company Metropole Marketing plans to convert several blocks into luxury homes and hotels.

Produced by Rob Ludacer and Chris Weller

Follow TI: On Facebook

Join the conversation about this story »

The martial tradition, training, and dominating warrior spirit of Gurkhas means they will do things in a fight that wouldn’t occur to even the most seasoned combat veterans. Gurkhas will fight outnumbered; they will fight outgunned. They hold their positions against impossible odds and often come out on top.

One of these stories of Gurkha heroism comes from Lachhiman Gurung in Burma after he was taken by surprise when Japanese troops opened up on him and his men and lobbed some grenades into their trench. Gurung picked up two of the grenades and threw them back to the 200 Japanese soldiers waiting in the darkness.

The third grenade blew up in Gurung’s hand.

He lost a few fingers, most of his right arm, and took shrapnel in his face and leg. Partially blind, bleeding profusely, and struggling to move, Gurung did something only a Gurkha would do: he pulled his Kukri knife with his good hand, stabbed the ground, and told the Japanese in a booming voice that none of them would make it past that knife.

He then picked up his rifle — a bolt-action Lee-Enfield Mk. III — chambered a round, and invited the enemy to “come fight a Gurkha.”

With his friends dead or dying, Gurung fought for hours, firing his bolt-action Lee-Enfield with one hand and killing anyone who entered his trench. He would lie down until the Japanese were on top of his position, kill the closest one at point-blank range, chamber a new round with his left hand, and then kill the enemy’s battle buddy.

Gurung killed 31 Japanese soldiers this way, fighting until morning the next day.

At the end of the battle, he was shouting“Come and fight. Come and fight. I will kill you!”

Gurung was hospitalized through the end of the war, losing partial vision in his right eye and the use of his right arm. He was awarded the Victoria Cross, Great Britain’s highest military honor, and was the only recipient still alive when his command presented medals for the battle.

Gurung’s only complaint after the fighting was that his wounded arm had flies swarming around it.

He eventually moved to the U.K. to live out his life in peace. But he reemerged in 2008 when a controversial policy revoked the rights of some Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997 to live in the country. The government said the Gurkhas failed to “demonstrate strong ties to the U.K.”

Lachhiman Gurung put on his medals rack, went over to Britain’s High Court, and made another “last stand” — this time for his fellow WWII-era Gurkhas, and he pleaded to the Court and to the Queen to be allowed to stay.

In a yet another demonstration of Gurkha tenaciousness, the British high court struck down the law that same year. It turns out Gurkhas have a special place in British hearts.

Lachhiman Gurung died 2010. We was 92.

SEE ALSO: Photos: Former US Navy ship extensively damaged after missile strike by Iranian-backed rebels near Yemen

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Watch a British tank from World War I drive through London's most famous landmarks

In life, Adolf Hitler was many things: a failed painter, decorated soldier, Germany’s “last hope,” and eventual mass murderer of more than six million Jews. But, according to one author, he was also a “gibbering super junkie.”

It turns out that throughout Hitler was a drug addict, according to award-winning German writer Norman Ohler, author of “Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany,” due to be released on Oct. 6.

Hitler was known to be a hypochondriac, but Ohler’s book also says he was heavily into a heroin-like substance called Eukodol.

And he suggested that the decision to invade Russia in 1941 was a direct result of his addiction. The move caused many to consider Hitler “virtually insane for taking such a risk,” according to the Huffington Post. His erratic military tactics and poor decisions in the Battle of the Bulge only added to those perceptions of insanity.

Ohler told the BBC Radio 4 that Hitler “had turned to steroids and hormone products like liver extracts of pigs, stuff like that, pretty unsavory things got into his veins.”

The book claims that throughout the entire last year of World War II, Hitler was essentially high out of his mind on upwards of 70 different drugs, including crystal meth, bull semen, and other opiates.

Ohler suggests that the deterioration of Hitler as a leader in 1944 is a direct result of his prolonged drug abuse.

His struggle came to a head during the Battle of Berlin in April 1945, when Hitler ordered raids to find whatever drugs they might be able to salvage from the pharmacies in the war-torn town center. But when that effort failed and his supply dwindled, Hitler committed suicide.

The Independent reported that the book, which contains journal excerpts from Hitler’s physician Dr. Theo Morell, says that his body was “ravaged” by drug abuse.

At one point, Hitler is cited as saying, “I cancelled injections today, to give the previous puncture holes a chance to heal. Left inside elbow good, right still has red dots (but not pustules), where injections were given.”

During that BBC Radio 4 interview, well-known World War II historian Anthony Beever applauded Ohler’s book, adding, “All of these elements show how [Hitler] was really no longer in control of himself, but he was still in control of the German armies.”

SEE ALSO: Hitler's secret Nazi war machines of World War II

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Philippines president compares himself to Hitler — says he’d be happy to 'slaughter' 3 million drug addicts

The Russian Ministry of Defense has started deploying an old kind of military deception: inflatable weaponry.

The Russian government has a growing supply of inflatable military gear, including tanks, jets, and missile batteries, provided by hot-air balloon company RusBal, as detailed by a report by The New York Times.

A demonstration in a field near Moscow illustrated the ingenuity behind the idea.

The inflatables deploy quickly and break down just as fast. They transport relatively easily, providing targets that may not only draw the enemy's fire but also affect their decision-making process, burdening a rival's leadership with the task of verifying targets.

"If you study the major battles of history, you see that trickery wins every time," Aleksei A. Komarov, RusBal's director of military sales, told The Times. “Nobody ever wins honestly."

Inflatable weaponry has a history on Europe's battlefields. Prior to the Allied invasion of Europe in 1944, Gen. George S. Patton was placed in charge of the First US Army Group (FUSAG) — a phantom force housed in cities of empty tents and deployed in vehicles made of wood, fabric, or inflatable rubber.

After Allied forces had a foothold in France, the "Ghost Army," as it came to be called, continued to serve a purpose, as it wasresponsible for more than 20 illusions that befuddled German military leadership and disguised actual Allied troop movements in France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and Germany.

Moscow's modern-day iteration of the inflatable army fits with a distinctly Russian style of subterfuge: Maskirovka, a Russian doctrine that mixes strategic and tactical deception with the aim of distorting an enemy's conception of reality, bogging down decision-makers at every level with misinformation and confusion.

Maskirovka is a longstanding practice of Russian planners. During the Cold War, maps created for the Russian public were filled with tiny inaccuracies that would make them useless should they fall into the hands of rival military planners. The cartographer who came up with the ruse was given the State Prize by Josef Stalin.

A more recent version of maskirovka was displayed in Ukraine in 2014, when masked or otherwise disguised soldiers showed up in Crimea, and later by other soldiers purportedly "vacationing" in eastern Ukraine.

According to The Times, Russian military leaders were dubious about the inflatable hardware at first, but they appear to have been won over.

"There are no gentlemen’s agreements in war," Maria Oparina, the director of RusBal and daughter of the founder, told The Times. 

"There’s no chivalry anymore. Nobody wears a red uniform. Nobody stands up to get shot at. It’s either you or me, and whoever has the best trick wins."

Read the full New York Times story here >>

SEE ALSO: Germany's post-World War II government was riddled with former Nazis

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How a struggling Soviet spy became the most powerful man in Russia

Here are some bizarre and startling facts that you may not know about World War II. 

Produced by Eames Yates. Original reporting by We Are The Mighty.

Follow BI Video: On Twitter

Join the conversation about this story »

HELSINKI (Reuters) — Finland is becoming increasingly worried about what it sees as Russian propaganda against it, including Russian questioning about the legality of its 1917 independence.

The country shares a 1,340 km (833 mile) border and a difficult and bloody history with Russia, of which it was once a part. Moscow's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and saber-rattling in the Baltic Sea have raised security concerns in the militarily neutral European Union country.

Earlier this month, Finland and Estonia both accused Russian fighter jets of violating their airspace. Russia has also started moving nuclear-capable missiles into its Kaliningrad enclave bordering Poland and Lithuania.

Sitting in his office in the government palace — built for Russia's Grand Duchy of Finland — Markku Mantila leads a network of officials who monitor attempts to influence the country.

He says Finland is facing intensifying media attacks led by Kremlin.

"We believe this aggressive influencing from Russia aims at creating distrust between leaders and citizens, and to have us make decisions harmful to ourselves," he said. "It also aims to make citizens suspicious about the European Union, and to warn Finland over not joining NATO."

Finland won independence during Russia's revolution of 1917 but nearly lost it fighting the Soviet Union in World War Two. It kept close to the West economically and politically during the Cold War but avoided confrontation with Moscow.

Mantila, who is also the head of government communications, says Russian media last month reported on "cold-blooded" Finnish authorities taking custody of children from a Russian family living in Finland "due to their nationality."

The Finnish government denied the reports, while declining to comment on an individual case due to the legal procedure. However, the story has been replicated hundreds of times in Russia over the past few weeks.

A report by Kremlin-led NTV said "even the locals call Finland a land of ruthless and irrational child terror."

Plaque hit with ax

Mantila, showing on his laptop what he said were false news pictures, skewed authority statements and pro-Kremlin online discussions, said his network has verified around 20 cases of clear information operations against Finland from the past few years, and around 30 "very likely" such operations.

"There is a systematic lying campaign going on ... It is not a question of bad journalism, I believe it is controlled from the center," he said.

Kremlin and Russian foreign ministry officials were not immediately available for a comment.

Foreign Minister Timo Soini has also acknowledged the alleged propaganda, saying the government was countering false information with facts.

"All states engage in propaganda, authoritarian states even more so," he told Reuters.

Some of the incidents have taken aim at Finland's independence and at its historical figures.

In June, a university in St. Petersburg put up a plaque commemorating Carl Gustaf Mannerheim, Finland's most famous military officer and former president, who had served in the Tsar's army but later led Finnish armed forces in World War Two.

The plaque quickly became a target for protesters who have called Mannerheim — regarded in Finland as a symbol of the country's struggle against the Soviet Union — a murderer and ruthless Nazi collaborator.

"The plaque's been shot at, hit with an ax and doused in red paint several times," Mantila said, noting that Finland had nothing to do with the plaque project in the first place.

Mantila said he believed the whole episode was a follow-up to earlier reports that suggested that Lenin's Bolshevik administration had no right to accept Finland's independence.

Finland celebrates its hundred years of independence next year, also the anniversary of the Bolshevik revolution.

(By Jussi Rosendahl and Tuomas Forsell; additional reporting by Tatiana Ustinova and Alexander Winning in Moscow; editing by Jeremy Gaunt)

SEE ALSO: The mixed success of economic sanctions, in one infographic

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How a struggling Soviet spy became the most powerful man in Russia

A Nazi weather station, Schatzgraber ("Treasure Hunter"), was recently uncovered in the Arctic, with hundreds of items recovered by Russian scientists. 

Follow BI Video: On Twitter

Join the conversation about this story »

Navy pilot David S. McCampbell, a commander at the time, set the single mission aerial combat record when he led a two-plane flight against a 60-plane Japanese attack and shot down at least nine of the enemy himself, forcing the Japanese forces back before they could fire on a single American ship.

McCampbell was the commander of the Navy’s Air Group Fifteen, often known as the “Fabled Fifteen,” on Oct. 24, 1944, when a large Japanese force was spotted near the USS Essex during the Battle of Leyte Gulf. The Japanese would have been nearly guaranteed a victory against the Essex since no aircraft were ready to defend the carrier.

Crews rushed to prepare McCampbell’s Hellcat and the commander jumped into his bird before it could even be entirely filled with fuel. McCampbell took off with just one other fighter to face approximately 60 Japanese planes.

In the air, McCampbell proved his reputation as one of the Navy’s fiercest pilots. He was able to engage the Japanese out of range of the carrier and shot down nine of them while disrupting the formations of the rest. The Japanese eventually turned back without firing a single time on the Essex.

The pilot would later receive the Medal of Honor for his actions. His nine aerial victories that day are believed to have taken place in 95 minutes, meaning he averaged about one enemy plane shot down every 10 minutes.

Then, the very next day, McCampbell and the Fabled Fifteen went on the attack. McCampbell acted as the targeting coordinator and piloted one of the planes in a massive assault with planes from three task groups. The American formation destroyed an aircraft carrier, a cruiser, and two destroyers while also damaging five other large ships. He later received the Navy Cross for this engagement.

McCampbell’s reputation as a feared pilot was earned well before Oct. 1944, too. In June of that year, he led a flight of U.S. defenders against an 80-plane attack by Japanese forces, disrupting the attack and shooting down seven of the enemy. In September, he led an attack on Japanese ships, shot down four enemy planes, and heavily damaged a merchant ship.

By the end of the war, McCampbell was credited with 34 victories over enemy planes and went down in history as being the only man to earn a Medal of Honor and a Navy Cross in two days. He was promoted to the rank of captain before his retirement.

SEE ALSO: The Pentagon is demanding soldiers pay back huge cash bonuses that were given out by mistake

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Hitler's Nazi military base in the Arctic was just discovered by Russian scientists

BERLIN (AP) — A private Berlin museum has unveiled a replica of part of the bunker where Adolf Hitler spent the final phase of World War II, a project that hasn't been universally welcomed.

The replica of Hitler's office went on display Thursday in a former air-raid shelter some 2 kilometers (1 ¼ miles) from the site of the real bunker demolished long ago.

Curator Wieland Giebel says the Berlin Story Bunker isn't staging a "Hitler show."

Giebel tells new agency dpa that the replica only can be seen on a guided tour beginning in a shelter that was meant for 3,500 people and by the war's end housed 12,000, a contrast with the comparatively spacious Fuehrer bunker.

The nearby Topography of Terror museum, which documents Nazi crimes, criticized the reproduction as showmanship.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The story of Lisa Brennan-Jobs, the daughter Steve Jobs claimed wasn't his

In the early days of World War II the Germans still had an advantage over the British. Even though the Royal Air Force had won the Battle of Britain, its bombers suffered heavy losses when they crossed the channel into occupied Europe.

British scientist believed this was due to advances in German radar technology.

Reconnaissance photos showed that the Germans indeed had a complex radar system involving two types of systems – long-range early warning and short-range precision – that allowed them to effectively guide night fighters to British bomber formations. In order to develop effective countermeasures against these radar systems the British scientists needed to study one.

Operation Biting was conceived to steal a German “Wurzburg” short-range radar.

A German radar installation at Bruneval, France, was identified as the best target to conduct a raid against.

The plan called for C Company, 2nd Parachute battalion led by Maj. John Frost to parachute into France, assault the German position, steal the radar, and then evacuate by sea back to England with their loot. Accompanying the paratroopers would be a Royal Air Force technician who would oversee the dismantling and transport of the radar.

After extensive training and briefings, the raid was set for late February, 1942, when a full moon and high tides would provide the perfect environment for the assault force.

On the last night of the mission window, the conditions were just right and the men of C Company embarked for France aboard converted Whitley bombers of No. 51 Squadron.

The company was divided into five sections each named after a famous British naval officer: Nelson, Jellicoe, Hardy, Drake, and Rodney. Three sections – Jellicoe, Hardy, and Drake – would assault the German garrison at the station and capture the Wurzburg radar. While this was taking place, Nelson would clear the evacuation beach and the area between it and the station. Finally, Rodney would be in reserve guarding the most likely approach of a German counterattack.

The drop was almost entirely successful with only a portion of the Nelson section missing the drop zone a couple miles. The rest of the paratroopers and their equipment landed on target. Frost and the three assault sections were able to rendezvous in just 10 minutes. The Germans still had no idea British paratroopers were in the area.

That didn’t last long though, as the paratroopers assaulted the villa near the radar station. The paratroopers killed the lone German defending the house with a machine gun on the upper floor. But the attack alerted the rest of the garrison in other nearby buildings who immediately began returning fire killing one of the paratroopers. Frost stated that once the firing started“for the whole two hours of the operation there was never a moment when some firing was not going on.”

As the paratroopers battled the Germans, Flight Sgt. C.W.H. Cox, the RAF technician sent along to dismantle the radar, led the engineers to the radar set to begin its deconstruction under heavy German fire. After a half hour of work they had the parts and information they needed and loaded them onto special carts to haul them to the evacuation beach. The men of C Company had also managed to capture two German radar technicians who had vital knowledge of the operation of the Wurzburg radar.

Frost then ordered the force to withdraw to the beach. This was just in time, as a column of German vehicles began to arrive at the radar station. Almost immediately upon departure the paratroopers encountered a German pillbox that should have been cleared by the Nelson task force. Due to a communications breakdown Frost had not learned about the missed drops of a large portion of the Nelson group.

A small portion of the force had arrived and was fighting to hold the beach but the remainder had been moving at double time to reach their objective. After a brief firefight with a German patrol, the remainder of Nelson arrived on the scene and cleared the pillbox allowing the rest of the force to continue to the beach.

Once on the beach, the communications problem became even worse – the paratroopers had no contact with the Royal Navy flotilla assigned to evacuate them. Frost tried to raise them on the radio and when that failed, he decided to fire signal flares.

The flares worked, and just in time, as a lookout spotted a trail of headlights moving toward the beach. Three Royal Navy landing craft came ashore and the paratroopers hastily loaded themselves and their prizes onboard before setting out for home. The return trip was without incident and the raiders returned to England to a hero’s welcome.

The British losses were two killed, two wounded, and six men captured who had become separated during the fighting. But the amount of intelligence they returned to England was near priceless. The information provided by the captured Germans and the radar itself allowed the British to advance their countermeasures.

This would prove crucial in the airborne operations at Normandy two years later.

The raid received praise from all over, including the Germans and Americans. A German report from the leader of the army’s airborne forces praised the execution of the raid.

A New York Times article dated March 3, 1942, predicted that the success of the raid had “changed the nature of warfare itself” and that soon these types of commando units and actions would grow to encompass much larger formations such as the airborne divisions that the Allies formed.

As for the men of C Company and Frost, they would see action in North Africa and Italy before being a part of the ill-fated Operation Market-Garden.

SEE ALSO: Why Russia just introduced an 'extremely dangerous' new nuclear missile called the 'Satan 2'

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: The richest village in China is one of the most mysterious places on earth

By mid-1940, Nazi Germany had swept over Western Europe, conquering France and holding territory from the English Channel north to Norway.

Late that summer, Hitler and the German Luftwaffe turned their attention to England, with the Nazi dictator aiming to use his air forces to soften up Great Britain for an eventual ground invasion — codenamed Operation Sea Lion.

In its way stood Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the recently formed RAF Fighter Command, which could field the Hawker Hurricane and the Supermarine Spitfire, some of the best fighter aircraft in the world at the time.

The Battle of Britain raged in the skies above southern England from late June to October 1940. Nazi fighters and bombers raked the English countryside, cities, ports, and airfields with bullets and bombs over this period.

On September 15, the RAF achieved a seminal victory, downing 56 Luftwaffe planes while losing 28.

Two days later, Hitler postponed Sea Lion "until further notice." He kept invasion forces at high readiness, but Sea Lion was finally scrapped in February 1942.

Even with the invasion looking less likely, Nazi Germany continued to launch attacks on England — some of which would claim thousands of lives in and around London in a night — carrying out the Blitz from late 1940 to mid-1941, when Hitler redeployed his air forces to participate in the invasion of Russia.

SEE ALSO: Vivid color photos from the Great Depression show life in one of America's darkest times

Field guns are pictured in preparation to defend against possible invasion, with nonstop training in all kinds of warfare going at military centers all over Britain, July 9, 1940. During training, a mimic battle was held during which a creeping barrage was laid down and machine-gun nests and other strong points were attacked.

A dead German pilot lies among the wreckage of his Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber, which was brought down over Sussex during the Battle of Britain, in August 1940.

Skies over England are the broad canvas on which are painted the picture of war. Here, a German raider wheels through bursts of antiaircraft fire above a southeast coastal area in England. At the right, a barrage balloon falls in flames during the same August 11, 1940, attack.

Allied sailors braved one of the world’s most dangerous oceans while dodging German U-boats and Luftwaffe attacks to keep the Soviet military supplied throughout World War II.

When Germany attacked Russia in June of 1941, the Allied Powers gained a new and powerful member. The massive Soviet Union had a significant industrial capacity and a large population that suddenly found itself joined with the British and French.

But Hitler’s gamble wasn’t entirely crazy. He had real reason to believe that an invasion of Russia could succeed, giving the Third Reich all of the Soviets’ great treasure. To win the war, the Allied Powers had to make sure that Russia didn’t fall.

This meant that the Soviet Union would have to be supplied with massive amounts of planes, tanks, oil, barbed wire, soap, and a thousand other necessities. There were two major shipping routes to move materials into Russia, the Mediterranean and the Arctic routes.

The Arctic was the more dangerous route, and approximately 3,000 sailors died while sailing it during World War II.

German Kriegsmarine and Luftwaffe forces maintained bases on the northern edges of Norway, allowing them to conduct constant patrols against Allies in the Arctic. Frequent storms caused ice to collect on ships, especially in the winter.

The summer brought its own danger as the Arctic Circle experiences periods where the sun doesn’t set. In some of the northernmost parts of Norway and Finland that the convoys had to pass, the sun doesn’t set for up to three months. During those portions of the year, the convoys were susceptible to being spotted and attacked during every hour of every day for the entirety of the approximately 10 to 15-day trip each direction.

Robert Carse, a sailor on one of the convoys, described what it was like to suffer a combined Luftwaffe and Kriegsmarine attack in the North Atlantic:

That was hell. There is no other word I know for it. Everywhere you looked aloft you saw them, crossing and recrossing us, hammering down and back, the bombs brown, sleek in the air, screaming to burst furiously white in the sea. All around us, as so slowly we kept on going, the pure blue of the sea was mottled blackish with the greasy patches of their bomb discharges. Our ship was missed closely time and again. We drew our breaths in a kind of gasping-choke.

Carse and the convoy beat off multiple Messerschmitt attacks until one was able to drop a bomb that headed directly for the TNT-loaded ship. Miraculously, a last-second wind gust blew the bomb off to the side of the ship. The resulting concussion damaged the ship but failed to detonate the explosives the ship was carrying. Carse and the convoy continued along their route.

The Arctic deliveries continued until May 1945, just after Germany signed the articles of surrender ending World War II. In the tense build-up to the Cold War, Russian Premier Joseph Stalin denied the importance of the deliveries to keeping the Soviet Union in the war. But, Russian Consul General in Scotland Andrey A. Pritsepov recognized the merchant marine and Navy veterans in an August 2016 ceremony.

“Russia is indebted to the brave Scottish men who risked their lives in dangerous conditions to deliver vital aid and equipment to the eastern front,” he said. “It was a journey against all odds. Many have never returned. Their sacrifice and heroism comprise a proud chapter in our shared history.”

SEE ALSO: The most and least peaceful countries in the world, ranked

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Elon Musk just unveiled something that could revolutionize how you power your home