Neither fantasy nor science fiction (nor, for that matter, manga/anime), but:
In the early aftermath of World War II, the Soviets are searching Europe for lost/hidden artworks they can steal and then sell to unscrupulous collectors,
using the money raised to finance subversion and espionage. A message from a military intelligence colonel sends the hero searching to beat the Communists to
one such treasure trove. This was the plot of Andre Norton's At Swords' Points, which came out in 1954, and Helen MacInnes' Pray for a
Brave Heart, published in 1955. I've wondered if both authors were inspired by some real-life incident, but I never found any evidence of such. (I
think, by the way, that in both books the colonel was murdered by the Reds shortly after passing on the message, but I can't at the moment prove it for the
MacInnes book.)
Life imitates art (I mentioned this one a few years ago in another thread):
To battle enemy attackers, the Japanese pack airplanes with supercharged engines full of explosives and ram them into the enemy's ships. The enemy response
includes atom-bombing Japan. John W. Campbell, Jr., used this as part of the backstory for his story "Frictional Losses," published in July 1936.
And life imitates life:
On the morning of Sunday the seventh, a force of carrier-launched planes came out of the wall of cloud that frequently builds up over the Koolau Range just
north of Pearl Harbor. The clouds had masked the planes from visual detection, and they caught the defenders napping, shooting up neatly parked rows of
airplanes on the ground and dropping bombs to devastating effect. Nine years and ten months later, it happened again; this second
time the pilots were Japanese rather than American, the bullets and bombs they used were all too real -- and the defenses were equally unready.
-----
Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.
In the early aftermath of World War II, the Soviets are searching Europe for lost/hidden artworks they can steal and then sell to unscrupulous collectors,
using the money raised to finance subversion and espionage. A message from a military intelligence colonel sends the hero searching to beat the Communists to
one such treasure trove. This was the plot of Andre Norton's At Swords' Points, which came out in 1954, and Helen MacInnes' Pray for a
Brave Heart, published in 1955. I've wondered if both authors were inspired by some real-life incident, but I never found any evidence of such. (I
think, by the way, that in both books the colonel was murdered by the Reds shortly after passing on the message, but I can't at the moment prove it for the
MacInnes book.)
Life imitates art (I mentioned this one a few years ago in another thread):
To battle enemy attackers, the Japanese pack airplanes with supercharged engines full of explosives and ram them into the enemy's ships. The enemy response
includes atom-bombing Japan. John W. Campbell, Jr., used this as part of the backstory for his story "Frictional Losses," published in July 1936.
And life imitates life:
On the morning of Sunday the seventh, a force of carrier-launched planes came out of the wall of cloud that frequently builds up over the Koolau Range just
north of Pearl Harbor. The clouds had masked the planes from visual detection, and they caught the defenders napping, shooting up neatly parked rows of
airplanes on the ground and dropping bombs to devastating effect. Nine years and ten months later, it happened again; this second
time the pilots were Japanese rather than American, the bullets and bombs they used were all too real -- and the defenses were equally unready.
-----
Big Brother is watching you. And damn, you are so bloody BORING.