World War 2 Facts

A B-25 bomber slammed into the Empire State Building in heavy fog. Elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver was burned on the 80th floor. Rescuers placed her in an elevator to get her down - but the crash had severed the cables. She plummeted 75 stories to the basement. She survived. She still holds the Guinness World Record 80 years later.

The Taj Mahal was disguised three times to protect it from bombers. In 1942, British engineers wrapped the dome in bamboo scaffolding. Without GPS, it looked like a building site from the air. India used the same trick in 1965 and 1971. In 1971, over 18,000 lbs of green jute were draped over the marble. Not one bomb ever fell.

More than 800 C-47 transport planes carried over 13,000 paratroopers across the Channel before dawn on D-Day. One flew at the front. After the war it hauled freight for decades. Then it sat in a Wisconsin boneyard, next in line to be cut up and modernized. An Air Force historian chasing a serial number found it there. Passengers still board through the door the paratroopers jumped from.