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Jaw Dropping World War II Stories that Deserve to be in the History Books

Khalid Elhassan August 25, 2021 37 min

Skeeter Vaughan's knife throwing feat earned him a place in history — Skeeter Vaughan. Film Web

Sakae Oba's holdout entailed a great feat of elusiveness and determination — Sakae Oba. War Thunder Live

2. The Fox of Saipan

Captain Sakae Oba and his men caused the Americans on Saipan no end of trouble. They raided outposts and supply dumps, ambushed patrols, and took potshots at sentries. The US command sent out numerous patrols to track down and finish off the holdouts but to no avail. Plans were drawn for a massive dragnet in which American military personnel would line up across the entire island, separated from each other by only two meters, then sweep Saipan from end to end.

A Marine moving cautiously through the jungle of Saipan. National Archives

In a masterful feat of evasiveness, the holdouts avoided detection, and the dragnet turned into a debacle that led to the reassignment of the chagrined officer in charge of the operation. Oba’s elusiveness led the Marines in Saipan to nickname him “The Fox”. Captain Oba and his men continued the fight after the war had ended. They dismissed as “fake news” and enemy propaganda the news of Japan’s surrender that were blared via loudspeakers and contained in leaflets airdropped over the jungle.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.