Jakob Nacken, the tallest German soldier of Second World War, 1944


Jakob Nacken stood quietly while the British troops frisked him and this David vs Goliath match-up provided a rare moment of amusement during the fighting.

Jakob Nacken was born in Düsseldorf, Germany, on February 15, 1906. Both his parents were six feet two inches (1.88 m). His sister Josephine was six feet two inches (1.88 m) tall; his two-years-younger brother Wilhelm grew to be six feet two inches (1.88 m) tall; his other brother, who was eight years older than Nacken, became six feet seven inches (2.01 m).

Nacken began his career in show business performing as “Uranus” and the “giant from the Rhineland” in a German traveling circus. He was called Germany’s tallest man and was credited as being the world’s tallest man at the time.

Nacken wore size 17 boots as an adult. He had bruises on his head from hitting the tops of doorways that were built to accommodate people of normal height.

He returned to Germany at the beginning of World War II and was immediately drafted into the army, becoming their tallest soldier on record. Nacken was put into a gun crew with 250 soldiers who were captured at Calais, France, in August 1944.

Picture below

On one side towered a 7ft 3in (2.21m) German man-mountain who quit his job with an American freak show to join the Wehrmacht. On the other stood a 5ft 7in (170 cm) AP photographer Eddie Worth.

https://theculturetrip.com/pacific/new-zealand/articles/introducing-the-longest-place-name-on-earth/

matrix199:
Giants are not usually good at warfares. Ask goliath