I think I have said it before but I was born on the shores of the Coral Sea, a few weeks old at the time of the battle bearing it's name so I was raised on a diet of war stories, tall tales and true, and a lot of my family have served, some in harm's way, others of us just serving. I have always been interested the topic.
This brings me to the Merlin engine, powering all [there are exceptions] the best British aircraft during the war including, of course, the Hurricane and Spitfire that saved England in 1940. [the order not accidental] It is only in recent years the penny dropped on why this [good] engine was better than the DB engine in the ME 190, it was all in the fuel. The Allies were using green AvGas, 100/130 octane which allowed higher supercharger boost while the Luftwaffe's supply of high octane fuel was very limited so basically they were flying fighter aircraft on "regular" petrol. The DB engine was still very good but heavier.
Another thing that surprised me was that it was only recently I heard of the The Wargamers a group of unranked WRENs who, with a Captain unfit for sea duties having TB, played games on the floor and worked out just how the U boat wolf packs worked and devised strategies to counter them. The Official Secrets Act squashed this story 'til no one was interested anymore. I was. There is a mini-series well worth watching about this group on Fox and possibly netflix. As happened so often, some who contributed greatly to the war effort were never recognised.
