Some of their reactions and rituals surrounding mortality resemble ours
World War II was a conflict like no other. Allies and Axis powers clashed for six years, millions of people lost their lives, and the world was never the same afterward. To this day, there are still many unanswered questions about this terrible time in history, including unsolved mysteries that took place during and after the war.
From people vanishing to treasures yet to be found, in this gallery we look at the greatest unsolved mysteries of World War II. Click through to learn more.
The Battle of Los Angeles, also known as the Great Los Angeles Air Raid, took place on the night of February 24-25, 1942. It was a supposed attack by the Japanese on the US.
Except it wasn't. Alarms went off, search lights were pointed towards the sky, and anti-aircraft artillery was used. But it turns out that there was nothing to be seen the next day.
That is except for a few damaged buildings and cars, hit by artillery shells. But it was deemed a false alarm, possibly caused by a lost weather balloon. Still, many theories have arisen from the event, including UFO conspiracy theories.
Allied flight crews started to see some mysterious lights in the sky, which they dubbed "foo fighters." These balls of light would behave strangely, follow the planes, and move rapidly. They were essentially a type of UFO.
These were not enemy aircraft though, as "foo fighters" never really attacked Allied crews. Numerous theories have arisen, of course, from German secret weapons, to pilots' hallucinations caused by fatigue, electrostatic phenomena, and, yes, aliens.
The Nazis built a network of underground tunnels, which was supposedly used to transport looted treasures. It is said that one train full of gold is trapped in a collapsed tunnel somewhere in Lower Silesia (near Wroclaw in Poland).
Despite numerous efforts to locate the train, no one has been able to find it to this day. Indeed, some historians claim that it never existed. But no one has been able to prove it either way.
On April 5, 1943, the American B-24D Liberator aircraft, known as the "Lady Be Good," disappeared somewhere on its way to a Libyan airfield.
In May 1948, the wreckage was found in the desert located south of the airfield. But there was no sign of the crew.
It was not until 1960 that remains were found. There was evidence that the crew had parachuted out of the plane about 16 miles (25 km) before the aircraft crashed. What exactly happened remains a mystery to this day.
The Columbus Globe for State and Industry Leaders, also known as "Hitler's Globe," popularized by Charlie Chaplin in 'The Great Dictator' (1940), was actually owned by the Nazi leader. What happened to such a prized possession? No one knows.
On December 5, 1945, five bombers known as Flight 19 vanished. And then the search and rescue aircraft sent to look for them also vanished. No wreckage or bodies were ever found. Flight 19 is one of the many mysterious disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle.
Operation Paperclip saw many German scientists relocating to the US. But, in fact, many others fled Europe. These escape networks became known as ratlines.
For instance, Adolf Eichmann (one of the major players in the Holocaust) was eventually captured by the Mossad (Israel's intelligence agency) in Argentina and later sentenced to death.
It is not exactly known how ratlines worked and who was involved. However, Pope Pius XII is said to have played a part, but unfortunately there are no known documents in the Vatican to prove it one way or the other.
The Amber Room was an actual room inside the Catherine House, a royal palace in Pushkin, Russia. This photo from 1917 is the only color record of the Amber Room before World War II.
Of course, then the Nazis entered the room in 1941 and stole the elaborate amber and gold panels. They were supposedly shipped to Königsberg, Germany (now Kaliningrad, Russia), never to be seen again. The room has since been recreated (pictured).
In 1941, a Scottish farmer found a plane crashed on his land, but a man was standing next to it. The man was Nazi Party leader Rudolf Hess.
The high-ranking Nazi official flew from Germany to Scotland, and managed to escape all radars and, consequently, anti-aircraft artillery. This was, of course, until he crashed in Scotland.
Hess' supposed reason to fly to Scotland was that he wanted to negotiate peace with the UK, but no one bought his excuse.
Rudolf Hess was captured and eventually spent his last last days in the Allied-control Spandau Prison in Berlin, where he remained until in death in 1987.
Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita reportedly buried a looted treasure somewhere in the Philippines. Yamashita was eventually executed by American forces in 1946, so the secret might have died with him. It goes without saying that a treasure hunt begun.
A man named Rogelio Roxas reportedly found part of the treasure in 1971. He then sued former Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos for confiscating it. Roxas won, but the court ruling came after he had died. As for the rest of the treasure, well, no one knows.
Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg is considered a World War II hero for saving thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary.
Wallenberg was eventually captured by Soviet officers in early 1945, and no one knows exactly what happened next. The Soviets claimed that he died in 1947, but sightings were reported as late as the 1980s.
The Pearl Harbor attack took place on December 7, 1941. Then, on December 8, 1942, an aircraft coming from Japan was detected by a Navy radar. Navy pilots went to intercept the invader, but they reportedly saw an American P-40 fighter instead of an enemy plane.
The P-40 fighter, however, had bullet holes, ruined landing gear, and the pilot, who was covered in blood, waived at them. The plane then crashed, but there was no sign of the pilot. The story is disputed to this day, and many claimed it to be an urban myth.
The Blood Flag got its name after it got stained with blood during Hitler’s failed coup, known as the Beer Hall Putsch of 1923. It became a powerful symbol for the party, but it vanished after the war ended. Was it destroyed? Does it still exist? These questions remain unanswered.
Die Glocke was a rumored Nazi secret Wunderwaffe (German for "Wonder Weapon") in the shape of a bell. It has been dismissed by many experts as a conspiracy theory, but is it?
Sources: (Grunge) (The Archive)
See also: World War II submarines that disappeared without a trace
Unsolved mysteries of World War II
What ever happened to the train fun of looted gold?
LIFESTYLE History
World War II was a conflict like no other. Allies and Axis powers clashed for six years, millions of people lost their lives, and the world was never the same afterward. To this day, there are still many unanswered questions about this terrible time in history, including unsolved mysteries that took place during and after the war.
From people vanishing to treasures yet to be found, in this gallery we look at the greatest unsolved mysteries of World War II. Click through to learn more.