I read WW2 fiction and non on a regular basis so I had heard of some of these 'facts'. I thought that the book was written well, and I particularly liked the very short snippets, nothing long and arduous.
I found some ridiculous, some eye brow raising, some incredibly sad, and some humbling. Some just didn't hold my attention, but due to the way the book is presented, you could just skip a page.
All in all a great read.
Thanks to Netgalley, Richard Dehham & M. J. Trow and Thistle publishing for the opportunity to read and review.

Weird War 2 is a fascinating compendium of weird and wonderful stories from,amazingly enough,World War 2 by Richard Denham and M.J.Trow,whose contribution is a concise and thorough overview of the war and it's causes.
Not for the purist,there are no sources given and the author admits somewhat bizarrely that "Some of the facts are aren't necessarily what actually happened", it is however very interesting and often amusing..
I read it from cover to cover in a few hours but it's ideal as a book to "dip into." with it's brief chapters.
Thankfully amongst the more humorous, though not for the members of the animal kingdom concerned,things like Bat Bombs and anti-tank Dogs the book also tells of atrocities,bombings and some of the less savoury characters to remind readers that war might throw up amusing oddities but it's a truly awful thing that often brings out the worst in people.
An easy read that is also quite disturbing in places with M.J.Trow's brief history lesson at the beginning as good a WW" primer as you'll find anywhere.

Weird War 2 is a collection of totally disparate facts from World War II that range from horrific to humorous, and from recognisable to strange. Most are aimed at being at least slightly weird, and it does reinforce the saying that “truth is stranger than fiction”. The stories cover all regions of conflict including the Western front, the Eastern front, North Africa and the Pacific.

It is remarkable how creative and innovative we become during times of war and how technology advances made during WWI and WWII haven’t happened at the same pace since. The slant of this book is that not all creative solutions were grounded in common sense. For example, tank dogs left with a payload of explosives to run under an enemy tank and explode but most returned to their owners killing more of them than the enemy. There are also plans to use cats, bats, rats and pigeons, and of course, there are always those myths around the Nazi gold, the supernatural, the occult and Sci-Fi advances.

One of the most touching stories is when a young British soldier Norman Turgel who was one of the first to enter the Bergen Belsen concentration camp and when he came across a young woman Gena, starving and in rags, he proclaimed that “This is the girl I’m going to marry”. They did marry and had a happy life with 3 children and she became known as the Bride of Belsen.

All the facts are coded with exclamation marks ranging from ! to !!!, which is an indication of how weird the fact is. !!! being the weirdest. What I found was that it is a useful book to read for a bit of fun but only for short spells. Reading it in a continuous flow, with such diverse information, made it distracting for me. It’s like a lot of encyclopaedic reference books, they are great and interesting to delve into for short periods but not as a read through.

If you love titbits of information you’ll love this book. My son loves to challenge me with little snippets of information. I have my revenge .

Many thanks to Thistle Publishing Limited and NetGalley for an ARC version of the book in return for an honest review.

A collection of little-known facts about WWII?

I approached this tome with interest as many years ago my college thesis was based on the rise of the Third Reich. This book has no chronological order but is a collection of facts, some of which are interesting, others of which are already well known yet few of which are weird. To be frank, I found the foreword by M J Trow more readable than the main body of the text itself.

It’s a book for dipping into rather than reading straight through and would be useful as a stocking filler at Christmas for anyone with interest in military history. Each “chapter” consists of between 1 and 5 pages, so it’s hardly taxing to read. Unfortunately, as with all lists of this type, the facts which the reader already knows about are too long whereas the ones a reader finds interesting are far too truncated.

It’s a shame that one of the weirdest WWII facts plays no part in the book. There has for some time been enough doubt that Hitler and Eva Braun died in their Berlin bunker for this to be included as a highlight. Whether true or not its inclusion has as much validity as many of the other so-called facts mentioned.

It’s not a volume I shall be looking to in future, but some may find it vaguely interesting or amusing.

mr zorg

Breakaway Reviewers received a copy of the book to review

Fascinatingly fun and informative. I felt like I learnt more from this than I have ever learnt. From the beginning saying how we have rose tinted glasses to those days and then the introduction I was hooked. It’s a subject that is relevant, recent and should be a reminder. This book gives a whole new view to the World War Two

If you are a WWII buff and love your history with a touch of humour and quirkiness, then this is for you. The number of madcap schemes, larger than life characters and tales that are fantastical are too numerous to mention. The stories are short and concise, inviting you to seek out more - and possibly, maybe, provide some with the inspiration for a fictional tome set in the period. This certainly validates that phrase that fact is much better than fiction!

There are many books about the World War II but Weird War 2 attempts something different. It’s a collection of weird facts, myths ; some known & some unknown, some amusing and disturbing, all from the World War II. It also has some interesting yet forgotten stories. At the very outset, the writer is honest to admit that not all the stories may be real and many don’t have any reference or source to back them. Having said that, it still is a very entertaining read.


This book can be broadly divided into different parts viz;
. Weird Facts: The Battle of LA (did the Japanese raid LA?), Allies & Germans fighting together, Hitler almost dying in WWI,Ghost Armies and various high profile disappearances & conspiracies.

• Nazi & Allied Super-weapons, Myths & Rumors: From V1 & V2 rockets to Ice ships, From anti tank Dog (which incidentally killed more dog trainers than enemies), Bat Bombs & Bat Soldiers, Search for Atlantis & weird Nazi experiments

But the highlight of the book for me were the stories about the bravery, sacrifice and kindness of some individuals, amidst the destruction of the war. Some of them like, A Japanese navy pilot who regretted bombing a US town, the story of The Stalingrad Symphony: holding of a musical performance in Stalingrad at the height of the Nazi siege, the Bride of Belsen, The Kindertransport project, the German priest who saved thousands of Jewish lives or the Russian female sniper were truly memorable. These are the stories that restore your faith in humanity and will stay with you long after you have read the book.

Each topic has a brief summary and the stories are short but well detailed . Overall this book is a superb collection of interesting facts & myths and if you are history buff you will find this entertaining & exciting to read.

Thank you NetGalley and Thistle Publishing for the ARC.

Very interesting read. These are amusing and informative stories. This is a very good historical read. My only problem with it is lack of references. I am a keen reader of historical books and I like to know that a lot of research has gone into them and that they are as accurate as possible.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Thanks to Author/publisher for giving me an ARC.

True to each word in the title, after reading the book one cannot help but wonder how many weird things went during the war.

There is a good introduction so anyone who knows nothing about world war 2 will be able to read this and understand the context.

Fun quick read.

One of those books filled with zany facts and weird stories around the build up to and duration of World War II.
A wonderful introduction set it all in context so that the light humorous tales don’t diminish the horrors of this time of conflict and unimaginable deaths.
Some interesting subjects are covered and wider reading prior to this and items seen on TV are familiar. Most are crazy and incredible but demonstrate that sometimes only with the distance of time can they be understood.
I liked the speculation about why the public were allowed to or led to believe misleading information. At a time when much could be controlled the control of facts are fiction was vital for the war effort.
There is something for everyone here from the last Japanese soldier to surrender to the use of animals to gain an advantage.
Each subject has a brief summary and explanation under a title. Each title is presented in alphabetical order.
In passing it speaks clearly about Fascism being a strong factor in anti-Communist alliances and the reality of such views in Great Britain at the time of Hitler’s rise to power. It also has themes of appeasement and that America coming to our aid not a given.
I was also angered that our war debt to America was not repaid until long after the war ended.
Perhaps not a book to be read in one sitting but coffee table book to dip into; certainly an alternative to nothing on the box. The subjects here could raise some interesting conversations like Henry Ford was a fan of Mr Hitler - discuss!
Plenty here to relax you and get your brain going. From the role of secret weapons to spies.
A good addition to the stranger facts around this period, in comic tones but never belittling the sacrifice, loss or terrible events at this time.

I thoroughly enjoyed the author's writing style and found the book easy to read. Denham covers some very unusual events and some quirky military inventions. He managed to find dark humour in the most unlikely places. However, from a military historians perspective, the book does not give detailed enough descriptions of the more bizarre facts of WW2. This did not detract from the read, and gave me a lot of ideas on areas to research in the future.

To be honest, I did not know that the war rumour machine was quite so powerful!

The introduction by MJ Trow, succinctly covered the timeline of virtually all the major events of the entire war. (Just one little niggle about the Battle of Britain, German Stukas were bombers not fighters!).

Looking forward to reading Weird War Two Part Two!

Arc provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!


This is not an academic study; there is no bibliography or footnotes. The author himself states that there will be no reference to historical sources. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed it. World War Two is such a heavy topic, we have a war that took nearly 50 million lives (civilian and military), cause so much heartache, destruction and really showed the worst of humanity.

With so many millions involved, the rumour machine went into overdrive, tall stories built on fear of the unknown. It’s full of strange anecdotes and facts that keep you reading onto the next one. Parachuting Sheep? Pilot Pigeons? Rifles that fire round corners? Men who never were? You will find them all here, the weird, wonderful and barely believable of World War Two.

I really enjoyed it and I think any history buff would find this a thrilling read as I did!

3.5 stars

I liked this book. It was interesting and it didn't shy away from harrowing stories, even if this was written for more of a younger audience. The fact there were no sources is kind of odd to me, even if the author did explain why in the introduction, but I don't know. I'm one of those people that likes sources. As entertainment though, this was a good one. I learned some things I didn't know before and I did catch myself saying I'd 'read one more before I go to bed,' and end up reading about ten more facts. Overall a good book and I would recommend it. 3,5 out of 5 stars.

This is a short book with even shorter vignettes of incidents during the war. Many of the stories are well known to historians but a few are unusual and interesting. The stories do not get into deep detail primarily I think because the author does not seem to be well versed in military history and terminology.

Thank you Thistle publishing for offering me this advanced copy of Weird War Two for review. Many books have been written about World War II and this book is not another book regurgitating the same material from different author's perspective. Needless to say WWII was gruesome with uncountable lives lost and psychological trauma suffered for years by those who survived. The echoes of this war was felt in all aspects be it economical, social, cultural, personal, political, psychological, and on and on the list goes. During those times of hardship and unbelievable tragedy there were some anecdotes and events that momentarily made you forget the suffering and made you laugh out loud. This book is a collection of such anecdotes and events that were too trivial to gain attention and were sidelined by past authors and scholars. Some are plain weird, some made you question the sanity of those leading this war and some are outright ridiculous. It is a quick read with each anecdote not more than a page and half in length. If you are a WWII historian or simple looking to get a better understanding of the mindset of those who lived during those times, pick up this book and have a good laugh and learn a thing or two along the way. You may need to do fact checking for yourself but hey, like I said this book is collection of ridiculous and borderline unbelievable anecdotes and events so who cares. about facts. Read anyways.

Great book of strange facts and stories of WW 11. I have read other books about this, but I think think this is one of the best because there are facts included with the weird. I loved it. My husband who is a huge history buff had not heard about of most of these stories. So basically I read some of this book out loud so he could hear it. He plans to buy it so he can read the rest of it. There are many stories about Hitler and the Nazi's. They were sad and terrible. Balloon bombs and blow up dolls made me snicker a little. This book has so !much in it that you never knew but wish you had. Yes, I would totally buy it. I received this book from Net Galley and Thistle Publishing for a honest review and no compensation otherwise.

The name (Weird War Two) is certainly appropriate for this book. Reading about the oddities that happened in World War II, is something that is likely to interest a WWII buff. There are some many oddities that are being reported, it reads a bit like “fake news” as some of the happenings are so extreme. Obviously the author has spent a lot of time researching and compiling the information. As a reader who generally likes to know more, the lack of any reference material is off-putting. It is understandable that this is not cited like a research paper but at the end of each short essay, it would have been very nice or even in an appendix. The length of the “chapters” is all very short – generally a page or two. If you are interested in reading about some of the oddities of the second world war, then this is the volume for you. The writing is conversational in nature and flows easily making reading a breeze. I would recommend the book for the war buff looking for some conversational anecdotes to share.

I ate this short collection of usually no more than two page forays into the bloodiest and yet weirdest wars on record. The Nazis were formidable but completely crazy and this short piece will reinforce that fact.

This book is for fun not research as there are not a lot of footnotes to fact check but it is very interesting!!!

Weird War 2 by Richard Denham is a look at the odd and experimental plans to gain the upper hand in the war. Aside from the curious, there are also some myths that are straightened out. Denham is the co-author of the popular 'Britannia' series with M. J. Trow. These books follow a group of soldiers and their descendants through the madness of a chain of events which will eventually lead to the fall of Roman Britain and the descent into the Dark Ages.

World War II was a conflict that killed well over 50 million people directly and many millions indirectly through displacement and famine. It is not a war that is associated with humor, but in hindsight, several programs that were taken seriously are now seen as almost comical. From sheep and cat bombs to antitank dogs there were a number of weaponized animal programs that failed miserably. There are also stories of actual products and event of the war from Fanta to Marines (not soldiers) raising the flag on Iwo Jima that are separated from their mythical in their origins. Other stories reflect heroes like the Navajo Code Talkers whose talk could not be decoded by the enemy and the allies own code breaker who was later charged as a homosexual.

Denham leads the reader through an improbable collection of stories and facts from World War II. Each item is only a page or two but provides enough information to explain the event or project. Are the stories true? There does seem to be enough supporting evidence although none of the stories are cited as the author claims there is still some disagreement among historians. Several of the stories I have had heard of before in my reading and history classes. Some, however, are very new to me. A fun look at out of the box thinking that accompanied WWII and the desire for a technological edge.

Thank you NetGalley and Thistle Publishing for the eARC.
A fascinating, quick read with some astonishing facts and stories (perhaps true, or embellished?) of WWII.
My father was in a German camp for most of the war and when rescued only weighed, at 6 feet tall, 98 pounds. He told me many stories, some horrendous, but, to my surprise, many funny ones. He said he never laughed so much as during his imprisonment, because he and his fellow inmates got up to some hilarious stunts. He said it was the only way to stave off despondency. The other thing that was amazing to me was that most of the men, upon their rescue, first asked for cigarettes instead of food!
This book is funny as well as sad, and makes you wonder 'what the heck were they thinking?!' The stories of the use of animals gave me the creeps, but the poor guy who kept getting shot in the butt made me laugh (guiltily). One can only shake one's head at the thought processes of the supposedly same men who came up with these ridiculous ideas...it beggars belief!
Highly recommended for history buffs and anyone interested in WWII, or just anyone who loves a great read.