Questions related to aspects of World War II (1939-1945 AD). An international conflict whose major participants were the fascist countries of Germany, Italy, and Japan engaged against the allied nations of the UK, France, USSR, and the USA. The conflict began with the German invasion of Poland and ...
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Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
This has always bothered me. Everyone knows that having to fight on two opposite fronts at once is bad... and it's also a well known fact that every European country which tried to invade Russia has ...
34
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8answers
3k views
Why didn't Imperial Japan attack the Soviet Union during World War 2?
Japan and the Soviet Union shared a common border in Manchuria and the German invasion of the Soviet Union weakened the Soviets greatly. In view of the advantages to Japan in seeing the Soviet Union ...
26
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7answers
2k views
Why did Hitler declare war on the USA?
Since there had not been any offensives launched by either side against the other, why declare war just because Japan had attacked the USA?
26
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4answers
2k views
Why did Chamberlain act to appease Hitler leading up to the outbreak of World War 2?
There are accounts that British Prime Minister Chamberlain sought to appease Hitler because he just didn't want Britain involved in a war at that time. Others also argue that Chamberlain was naive and ...
23
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3answers
884 views
Has Britain's 1940 invasion of Iceland been downplayed by historians?
On the face of it Operation Fork (Britain's invasion of Iceland in 1940) wasn't so terribly different from Germany's territorial landgrabs in 1939 and 1940.
Britain and her allies will have ...
23
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0answers
244 views
Were well-connected Germans able to park their sons in Norway during WWII?
Reading Antony Beevor's "The Second World War" he makes the point several times that a peculiar obsession of Hitler's was the defence of Norway and that there were close to half a million German ...
21
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2answers
1k views
What was with the “poofy” pants found in various military uniforms?
I've often wondered why do various uniforms have those "poofs" on the outsides of the legs just above the knee? Was there a particular purpose to this, or a practical reason, or was it just the result ...
20
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5answers
914 views
What was the purpose of Nazi extermination camps?
Why did they spend money and effort to build the infrastructure and organization, collect, transport and house the prisoners while execution on the spot would presumably be easier and less costly? I'm ...
20
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1answer
424 views
How beneficial were war bonds to the US during WWII
I've been watching classic cartoon shorts from Disney and Warner Brothers. So many devoted time to encouraging Americans to buy war bonds.
Did money collected from war bonds amount to a significant ...
19
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4answers
799 views
Why didn't France and UK invade Germany September 3rd 1939?
On September 3rd 1939, when UK and France declared war on Germany, both ordinary Polish people and government officials became enthusiastic. There were spontaneous demonstrations of support for the ...
19
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1answer
537 views
Third Reich? What were the other two?
Nazi Germany is widely called the Third Reich. But what were the First and Second Reich then?
17
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6answers
1k views
Why wasn't the Republic of Ireland invaded (by either side) in WW2?
Ireland was neutral in WW2, however it was never invaded (by either side). How come? Why wasn't Ireland invaded by the UK to prevent the Germans invading? Why didn't germany invade ireland? It would ...
17
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1answer
2k views
Did World War II-era bombs actually whistle?
In WWII-era films and newsreels, aerial bombs are often shown making a whistling sound as they fall; starting high pitched, then decreasing as the bomb approaches the Earth (example here, starting at ...
16
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7answers
3k views
What were the post World War 2 effects on Germany?
What where the impacts of WW2 on Germany? Obviously the war meant that a lot of resources where spent and that the youth population was significantly reduced. How did this affect Germany's post war ...
16
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3answers
2k views
How did Nazi Germany finance itself during WW2?
How did Nazi Germany finance itself during the war? They produced a large amount of war material during 1939-1945, but how was this production financed? What were Germany's revenue streams that ...
16
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2answers
723 views
Are there any records that indicate a submarine vs submarine battle?
I am aware of only one which is the U-864 was sunk by the HMS Venturer but that was when both were being submerged -- according to wikipedia. Is that accurate? Which battles did happen between two ...
15
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3answers
886 views
How was the United States able to produce excellent tanks in 1942?
Most military histories of the war in North Africa, and especially those produced from a British point-of-view, emphasise the greenness of the American troops which landed there in 1942. There is a ...
15
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2answers
97 views
+50
How popular was Mozart in France before WWII and after it?
Another intriguing statement by Robert Paxton:
I was surprised myself to learn that Mozart had been little played in
France before 1940, and that his prominence since 1945 in the French
...
15
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1answer
323 views
Military brothels in WW2
Did any of the other belligerents of WW2 besides Japan and Germany provide their troops with authorised military brothels?
14
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1answer
515 views
What is this military patch with the silhouette of a pegasus on it?
I found this patch among my grandfather's things. I know it's a military patch of some sort because it was with his war memorabilia. He served in the European theater during WWII, if that helps at ...
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5answers
1k views
Why weren't aircraft carriers utilized during D-day?
Why were aircraft carriers not used during and following D-Day? They could have added a great deal of range to the air support operations.
13
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5answers
790 views
Why did Hitler not concentrate more on North Africa?
The Germans knew that oil would be crucial to the war and that they would likely need to capture new sources for the war effort.
The main oil-producing regions at the time that might be captured were ...
12
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8answers
1k views
What was the ratio of German to Soviet losses on eastern front during different stages of the war?
I've read somewhere that the ratio of Soviet to German casualties on the eastern front was 1.4 for the whole war. But what about data for different stages of the war? (this ratio wasn't constant after ...
12
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2answers
588 views
What were the Nazi racial views on Hungarians and the Japanese?
Hungary and Japan were Nazi Germany's allies during WWII, yet it could not possibly be argued that the Japanese belong to the "Aryan race", and Hungarians speak a non-Indo-European language, which ...
12
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2answers
975 views
Were there any attempts to assassinate Joseph Stalin?
Were there any attempts to assassinate Stalin? I haven't learned of any attempt to kill him, was he so brutal that no one tried to kill him?
12
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1answer
440 views
Was there actually a project by the Nazis to create supernatural monsters/weapons?
In many American sci-fi/fantasy fictional works, there's a trope about Nazis creating/attempting to create/use supernatural weapons/monsters (examples Hellboy movie, Indian Jones movie etc.) What, if ...
12
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5answers
952 views
Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
At the beginning of WW2, although they were slow in actually attacking Germany, Britain and France did declare war against it after Germany invaded Poland. The reason for this was the treaty where ...
12
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1answer
209 views
Did the Germans have a team equivalent to the one from Bletchey Park in the UK during WWII?
There is a lot of information about the British code breakers at Bletchey Park and the work they did for cryptography, computing and the war effort.
Still, I haven't heard a lot about a German ...
12
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1answer
136 views
Jurisdiction on german occupied territories after WW II
Who's seen Black Book?
At the end, after the war, one of the German Generals requests that Hauptsturmführer Muntze be executed under Article 153 for treason.
What is Article 153? Been trying to ...
11
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5answers
2k views
World War II - Have Historians Envisioned How The Axis Powers Might Have Won? [closed]
OK, so it's a "WWII What If" question, I have searched on here and cannot find an example of this being asked before, which I find surprising. Maybe my searching abilities aren't very good.
Anyhow, ...
11
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2answers
267 views
What was the role of the Soviet Navy during WWII?
Most books of WWII speak of the naval battles of allied and axis powers during the war, but none about the Soviet navy. The soviets had an active fleet at the time, why did it not engage the Germans ...
11
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2answers
676 views
Did Joseph Stalin kill anyone personally?
I read "Stalin: Triumph and tragedy" by Dmitri Volkogonov and (I believe) it said that Stalin didn't kill anyone with his own hands. He signed a lot of "death list", but those are just pieces of ...
11
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1answer
233 views
What were the original casualty projections for Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
I remember hearing several times that the bombs dropped on Japan were a lot deadlier than expected. What were the original projections for casualties for both and how much less than the actual ...
11
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2answers
106 views
percentage of British and American troops involved in direct combat with enemy in World War II
How large a proportion of British and American troops were involved in direct combat with the enemy in World War II? What was the casualty rate among those men?
10
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6answers
2k views
Why did Nazi soldiers do Hitler's bidding?
The atrocities committed by Nazi soldiers during World War II are well known. I'd like to know what motivated these soldiers to do Hitler's bidding? Were they brain-washed? Did they believe they were ...
10
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4answers
698 views
Why Did the US Drop Nuclear Weapons on a Weakened Japan
Why did the United States drop two nuclear bombs on the Japanese mainland when they were already on the wining side?
10
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5answers
505 views
What was Finland's position in World War Two?
What was Finland's position in World War Two? Apparently, they were fighting against the Soviet Union, but not as Nazi Germany's ally. Are there reasons for this, and were they actually on Germany's ...
10
votes
2answers
384 views
Why didn't the US choose to demolish Tokyo with an atom bomb?
Tokyo was Japan's capital. Why didn't the US choose Tokyo to demolish with Atom Bomb?
Bonus Question: What factors decided to bring Hiroshima and Nagasaki on table?
10
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2answers
280 views
Why were there no Internment camps for German-American Citizens in USA during WW2?
I am certainly aware of Japanese-americans being detained in Internment camps , after the attack on Pearl Harbor , and subsequent declaration of war on United States , by the empire of Japan.
About ...
10
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5answers
573 views
Were there any war movies made during WW2 that were well regarded by front-line American soldiers?
I've read in a few places that American soldiers during WWII (meaning men who had actually seen combat, not rear echelon troops) preferred light comedy or romance movies to the sanitized propaganda in ...
10
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2answers
214 views
Aside from the Jews, did Hitler had a final solution plan for other ethnicities / races in the Third Reich?
We know that the Nazi ideology explicitly singled out Jews as the main reason to all Germany's problems. An thus there were exterminated. Nazis also persecuted gypsies, polish people, and many POW. ...
10
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3answers
898 views
How was occupied France governed during World War II?
During the occupation of France during World War II, how was the area governed? Specifically, were local governments still allowed and who handled normal police activities? If local Frenchmen did ...
10
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2answers
143 views
Could The Soviet Union have continued fighting World War II without Caucasus oil?
In 1942, Germany's Fall Blau was initially aimed at capturing or interdicting shipments of oil from the Caucasus to the rest of the Soviet Union. Even though armies were diverted to Stalingrad and ...
10
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3answers
143 views
Tito's partisans loyalty
Why was Tito able to rally the loyalty of so much of the young people in ex-Yugoslavia, and the royalist Draza Michailovich (Драгољуб "Дража" Михаиловић) was not? The so-called chetnicks, loyal to the ...
10
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1answer
146 views
Austria and Iron Curtain during Cold War
Winston Churchill's Iron Curtain speech from 1946 contains the following famous passage:
From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain
has descended across the ...
10
votes
1answer
298 views
How frequently were homing pigeons used in the World Wars?
It seems that the strategic weight of specially breeded pigeons is much higher than I thought at first, based on the number of pigeons used and the effort to stop them. (In WW2 Germans even trained ...
10
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0answers
78 views
Are photos of WWII US Navy damage reports available online?
I have located a PDF of the USS Marblehead's Bomb Damage Report from 4 Feb 1942. The report lists plates of photographs which are not included in the report I have found.
Do copies of this report ...
10
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1answer
189 views
Did the United States have a third atomic bomb to drop on Japan?
On 15 August, six days after the bombing of Nagasaki, Japan announced its surrender to the United States, signing the instrument of surrender on 2 September, officially ending the war.
The question ...
9
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2answers
274 views
Did Churchill and Roosevelt know about the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, or the following secret pacts between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union?
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was the non-aggression pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany prior to, and during WWII. It seems that the actions of the two countries after the invasion of Poland ...
9
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2answers
218 views
Did Hitler make the right decision for Germany when he called off Operation Zitadelle (during the Battle of Kursk)?
On the night of 9/10 July, the Western Allies mounted an amphibious
invasion of Sicily. Three days later, Hitler summoned Günther von
Kluge and Erich von Manstein to his Wolfsschanze ...
