War Stories

The way I heard it was the Americans and the Russians were closing in on Berlin from two sides and the Americans got there first.  Then they waited on the outskirts until the Russians got closer so they could both invade Berlin and meet in the middle.  Whether or not that's true, the Russians didn't get all of Berlin, the city was divided into four sectors for the occupation, with the Americans, the British, the French, and the Russians each getting a sector.  The rest of the country was similarly divided, but the Russians hung on to their part long after the other allies set theirs free.  That Russian part became known as East Germany, and the rest of the country became West Germany.  Berlin was not on the border, it was surrounded by East Germany.  The allies were guaranteed access to their parts of the city by treaty, but the Russians closed the border shortly after the war, necessitating the Berlin Airlift, which kept Berlin supplied until the Russians agreed to allow overland access again.

I have heard that Russia and Japan were never the best of friends, but I don't know what, if any, part the Russians played in the Pacific Theater.  I have not previously heard about the atomic bombs being used to warn the Russians to stay out of Japan, but I suppose it's possible.

Speaking of yodeling:
Two guys were in a special ops unit that operated in the Alps during the war.  They learned to yodel from the locals and developed their own secret yodeling code so that they could communicate over long distances.  They traveled the country together after the war, enjoying the vagabond lifestyle without the element of danger.  One night they requested lodging at an isolated farm house. The farmer agreed, provided that they leave his young daughter alone.  As the night wore on, one of our heroes was unable to sleep, thinking about the farmer's daughter in the next room, so he snuck in there and spent the rest of the night with her.

Early the next morning, the farmer burst into his daughter's room with a high powered rifle. The guy jumped out the window and ran away with bullets kicking up dirt at his heels.  When he thought he was out of range, he stopped and yodeled to warn his buddy of the danger.  At this point the farmer rested his gun on the windowsill, took careful aim, and dropped the guy with one shot.  "Oh Daddy!" the daughter cried, "Why did you have to shoot him? He was so pretty!" The farmer replied, "I wasn't going to shoot him, just scare him off like I done with your other boyfriends but, when he hollered 'I diddled the old lady too!', I just had to shoot him dead."