4
Thomas Pierson Frank Stopped The Nazis From Flooding London
As we've previously discussed, in terms of batshit crazy plots and doomsday devices, fictional Nazis seem pretty toned down compared to their real-life counterparts. It's ironic, then, that for all their occult worship and prototype stealth jets, they came within a hair's breadth of destroying their one of their greatest enemies through sheer dumb luck.
During the war, the Luftwaffe dropped countless bombs on London -- as they did with many other cities and towns -- in order to force a surrender from the British. They hit homes, they hit businesses, they hit government buildings, they hit everything ... including the embankments that prevent the River Thames from flooding London. If those walls had been destroyed, the ensuing flooding would've caused mass devastation.
Imperial War Museum"Hello."
The only thing that stopped them? Thomas Pierson Frank and the Thames Flood Prevention Emergency Repairs Team.
When Frank and his Dam(un)busters received a report that an embankment had been damaged, they would immediately head out and repair it before things escalated. And It wasn't just the threat of floods that the team had to contend with. If the public was aware of the danger, they would've understandably freaked out and started panicking, which could have led to the Nazis learning about this weakness and giving London history's worst pool party.
For this reason, the team worked at night. But you know who else was also working at night, don't you?
Australian War Memorial"Hallo."
Despite records showing that the embankments were damaged 120+ times during the war, the actions of Frank and the TFPERT meant that they never broke.
3
Mary Babnik Brown's Hair Helped Guide Bombing Raids
Although Dr. Strangelove might've made it look easy, conducting a bombing raid involves precise planning and aiming a step beyond simply choosing a cowboy hat and using the good ol' thumb measurement system. Unless you like wasting hugely expensive ordinance and committing war crimes, in which case, be our guest.
U.S. GovernmentPlease stop daring readers to commit war crimes -- Cracked Legal Dept.