While the Second World War came to a decisive end more than seven decades ago, many of its biggest mysteries remain unsolved to this day – from lost legendary treasures like the Amber Room to missing crews that disappeared without a trace.
10. Battle of Los Angeles
The ‘Battle of Los Angeles’ was the name given by the media to an alleged Japanese air attack against Los Angeles on February 25, 1941. It came about three months after Pearl Harbor, and one day after a Japanese submarine attacked oil installations near Santa Barbara.
It began early in the morning, triggering anti air defenses and mobilization of troops across the city. Unlike the coastal raid, the whole incident ended in the death of two civilians across the city, along with damage to a few buildings due to falling anti-aircraft shells and artillery.
Till now, we don’t know who or what triggered the series of events that day. The official version denies any Japanese involvement, though many people reported seeing multiple enemy planes in the sky before the supposed attack. A few others claimed that they saw a giant blimp in the sky earlier that day, though according to experts, it’s highly unlikely as Japan stopped using blimps after the First World War.
9. Blood Banner
The story of the Blutfahne – or the Blood Banner – began with the 1923 Nazi coup attempt in Munich, also known as the Beer Hall Putsch. By the beginning of the Second World War, the flag had reached a mythical status in Nazi circles, as it was allegedly stained with the blood of those killed during the Putsch and Adolf Hitler considered it a sacred relic of the movement. It was usually kept at the Brown House, the headquarters of the Nazi Party in Munich, and was only brought out for special occasions, like the infamous Nazi rallies.
We know that the Blutfahne was moved to various locations throughout the war to keep it safe from Allied bombs, though its fate after the war is a bit less clear. Some believe it was secretly taken as a souvenir by US forces at the end of the war, but there’s no way to prove that for certain. Despite numerous attempts to locate it by Allied countries, Blutfahne’s current whereabouts remain unknown.
8. The Amber Room
The Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union resulted in the theft of thousands of works of art. One of them was the Amber Room, also sometimes called the Eighth Wonder of the World. Created in the 18th century by Andreas Schlüter and Gottfried Wolfram, it was an intricately-designed chamber made with amber panels, gold leaves, and various precious stones. In total, the room covered about 180 square feet, with over six tons of amber and other precious stones used in its construction.
During the war, the Amber Room was dismantled and transported to Königsberg – or modern-day Kaliningrad – by the invading German army. Sadly, that’s the last anyone ever saw of it, and the fate of the room after that point is still a mystery. Some believe that it was destroyed during bombing raids, while others say that it was hidden by the Germans, or even stolen by Soviet soldiers.
7. Big Stoop Crew
On September 1, 1944, an 11-man crew of a B-24 bomber crashed and went missing in the South Pacific, somewhere near the Palau archipelago. Now known as the Big Stoop Crew – after a popular movie character of the time – they were on a bombing mission in the larger allied attempt to retake the Philippines from Japanese forces. Despite a massive search and rescue effort, no trace of the crew or the wreckage was ever found.
Some witnesses claimed that two of the members were seen parachuting out of the plane before the crash, further adding to the mystery. The circumstances of the accident have since inspired a bunch of conspiracy theories, even if there’s no evidence to back either of them. Some say that the Big Stoop Crew was captured and executed by the Japanese, though they could as well have lost their way in the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean.
6. The D-Day Crossword
Leonard Dawe was a crossword compiler for The Telegraph in 1944, as well as the prime suspect for one of the most serious security scares of the war. In May 1944, some of his daily crosswords featured the exact codes used by the Allies in the upcoming Normandy landings. They included “Utah” and “Neptune”, which stood for two of the landing beaches, and “Mulberry” – a code-name for some of the equipment to be used during the invasion.
The incident invited a direct visit by Mi5, as they suspected that Dawe was a secret German agent passing information through crossword puzzles. He had previously attracted their attention back in August 1942, when an answer in one of his puzzles spelled out “Dieppe”, one day before the Dieppe raid on the occupied northern French coast.
Ultimately, it was established that Dawe may not have had anything to do with Germany or espionage, and the appearance of the codes was merely a coincidence.
5. The Disappearance of Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish businessman and diplomat still remembered for his efforts to save Jewish refugees in Hungary during the war. He was Sweden’s special envoy to Hungary in 1944, and he used his position to issue protective passports and establish safe houses for Jews across the Nazi-occupied zone. Because of the number of lives he saved, Wallenberg is often referred to as the “Swedish Schindler.“
Sadly, we don’t know much about what happened to him after the war. In January 1945, as the Red Army approached Budapest, Wallenberg was arrested by Soviet authorities on suspicions of espionage. Despite numerous attempts by the Swedish government to secure his release, Wallenberg was never seen or heard from again. The Soviet government had at times claimed that he died of a heart attack in 1947 while in prison, though many believe that he was executed by the KGB.
4. Rommel’s Gold
Rommel’s Gold refers to a stash of gold, jewels, and other valuable items allegedly stolen by the German Afrika Korps during World War II. The treasure – said to be worth billions of dollars – is believed to have been hidden by the German general Erwin Rommel himself, possibly somewhere in the deserts of North Africa before their retreat in 1943.
While many people have attempted to search for it in the years since, the exact location of this famed treasure has never been found. Many believe that it was buried somewhere in the vast deserts of north Africa, though it could also have been shifted or transported to hidden vaults in Germany or Argentina. Of course, there’s the possibility that the treasure was only a rumor started by Rommel himself. For now, Rommel’s Gold remains one of the most elusive – even if persistent – mysteries of the war.
3. Peking Man Fossils
Before the war started, China was home to the famous Peking Man fossils, belonging to one of the earliest known hominid species from the Homo erectus family. Discovered in the 1920s in the Zhoukoudian region near Beijing, China, these fossils were evidence of early human presence in Asia, and were hence considered an important piece of the puzzle in the field of human evolution.
When the Japanese army advanced on Beijing in 1941, the fossils were packed up and shipped to the United States for safekeeping. Sadly, they never reached their destination, and their fate has since remained unknown. While some think that they’re buried under the American embassy in Beijing, others believe that they were instead captured by Chinese civilians during transit.
2. The Ghost Train
As the war started to come to an end in Europe, rumors of looted Nazi treasures gained traction across the front. One of the most infamous lost treasures of the war is now known as the Nazi Ghost Train – a mythical lost train rumored to be laden with billions of dollars worth of gold, artwork, and other valuable items.
The legend is particularly strong in Poland, where people occasionally claim to have found parts of the treasure. It’s believed that the train disappeared into the vast underground railway network built by the Nazis in Poland during the war, though no concrete evidence of its existence has ever been found. According to some, while the train might have existed at some point, it was eventually destroyed or taken away by Nazi officials during their retreat back to Germany.
1. Who Turned In Anne Frank?
Anne Frank was a young Jewish girl living in hiding in Amsterdam for the better part of the Second World War. Her accounts of life during the conflict were later turned into The Diary of a Young Girl, which remains one of the most famous first-person descriptions of the war. However, many parts of her overall story still remain unexplained, including the circumstances of her arrest.
Anne and her family were captured by the Nazis in August 1944, and she – along with her mother – was sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died within the next few months. While we know that she was arrested after an informant’s tip to the Gestapo, it’s still unclear who that informant was. Some believe that it was a neighbor who became suspicious of the Frank family’s activities, or perhaps someone working in the warehouse they were hiding in. Many potential suspects have been identified over the years, but as the case is so old, it’s no longer possible to question or prosecute most of them.