Ten interesting facts you may not know about World War Two

Here are 10 facts about World War Two to capture children's imaginations during lockdown, as our nation commemorates the seventy-fifth anniversary of VE Day on May 8;

1. British soldiers got three sheets of toilet paper a day.

2. To avoid using the German-sounding word ‘hamburger’ during the war, Americans instead called a hamburger a liberty steak.

3. Eight out of 10 soldiers held in Russian prisoner of war camps died there.

4. Over half of people who died in WW2 were civilians.

5. Britain built 132,500 aircraft during WW2.

6. Britain had the least rationing of any country in Europe.

7. Only a few countries stayed neutral in WW2, including Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

8. The number of people killed during World War Two was more than today’s entire population of Great Britain.

9. Calvin Graham was only 12 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, and is thought to be the youngest person who fought in WW2. He won a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before the Navy found out his true age.

10. Rudolf Hess,  Adolf Hitler’s deputy in the Nazi party, was the last person to have been incarcerated in the Tower of London.