Questions tagged [world-war-two]
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, China, the USSR, and the USA. The conflict began with the German invasion of Poland and formally ended with the American victory over Japan.
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How did Cairo and the Nile River compare to Stalingrad and the Volga as a barrier to an Axis advance? [closed]
In the Soviet Union, the German Sixth Army made it "to," but not "through" Stalingrad and the Volga River. This was largely because of the natural defenses provided by the city and ...
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Did Nazi propaganda about the USSR change after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact?
I'm well-aware that Soviet propaganda completely changed its orientation after the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, starting a much more positive portrayal of the Nazis in many aspects up until the German ...
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How did the allies address the economic debts of axis nations following world war 2?
How were the economic debts of axis nations addressed after World War 2? I am particularly interested in:
Plans that were agreed upon to address debt and reconstruction of Germany and Japan.
How ...
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In the US Army in WWII how long did it typically take for a promotion from private to PFC?
In early 1943 how long might it take for an US Army inductee to be promoted from private to PFC? What were the requirements?
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Who of the British military have had access to the ULTRA messages of the Enigma in September 1944?
Access to the decrypted messages of the German Enigma, called ULTRA, was very limited. Everyone working for Bletchley Park (BP) or in contact with BP had to sign a life-long secrecy act with stiff ...
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Was there the potential for additional alternate supply routes to China toward the end of World War II?
For most of the war, the Allies airlifted a trickle of supplies to China from Assam (India) to Kuming (China) over the (Himalayan) "Hump", enough to keep China in the war. In the winter of ...
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Were there concrete plans, 40-41, for Japan to attack Singapore/Indonesia, while avoiding a fight with the US?
(I am writing this from memory, so please forgive inaccuracies in my citations.)
In Shattered Sword I found this mention-in-passing that roughly said:
"While not thinking that a war with the US ...
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Why did Mussolini say that people are not really free if they don't have access to the ocean?
On the 10th of June 1940, Benito Mussolini announced his war declaration to the Italian people, and he said (video, at 6:10):
Noi impugnamo le armi per risolvere, dopo il problema risolto delle ...
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Where can I find a picture or physical description of the A3 scramble telephone system?
Who has a picture or physical description of the A3 scramble telephone system, which was used for speech privacy by Roosevelt and Churchill between 1940 and 1943. The system was most likely located ...
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How can I open the binding on this WW2 era Navy log?
I'd like to digitally archive this book (ww2 navy log). The pages were written before being bound in the book so it has to be taken apart to photograph the pages. Has anyone seen a book like this and ...
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What are they wearing over their shoulders?
What is the Tsar wearing over his shoulder? I believe this has been worn by armies since the 18th century up to around WW2. I scanned through this article but to no end: https://www.rbth.com/arts/2015/...
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Where can I find Japanese oil production figures through WWII?
I am searching for scientific or statistical sources for data on petroleum production in Japan from 1920 till 1945. I had found some statistics in League of Nations Statistical Bulletins, but there is ...
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Why did NSDAP hate communism (socialism), despite having socialism within the party?
Why did Germany during the era of NSDAP have a different point of view on socialism? It was not like the socialism that formed communism in the Soviet Union. I believe that Germany's fight against the ...
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Why did Germany decide not to restore the Hohenzollern dynasty to the throne of a German Empire after the defeat of Hitler in World War Two?
During World War Two, Hitler removed the Hohenzollern princes from serving in the German Army after he saw the outpouring of grief and sympathy from the German public upon the death of one of the ...
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How were Mercy Dogs of WWI and WWII trained to know which soldier is from their side and which one isn't?
So, I have been reading about the Mercy Dogs of WWI and WWII. I was wondering, how did they actually train dogs to know which soldier belonged to their 'side', and which soldier belonged to the 'enemy ...
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Where did Carlson's Raiders get Boys anti-tank rifles in 1942 and why?
According to English Wikipedia, during the 1942 Raid on Makin Atoll (modern-day Butaritari, Kiribati) the Marine Raiders used Boys anti-tank rifles to attack the Japanese flying boats that attempted ...
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Did Nazi Germany ever actually make it illegal to practice Judaism?
While I appreciate that the Nazis tried to portray their anti-Semitism as based on racial, and not religious differences per se, and I understand that if one converted to Judaism, one would be ...
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How well were early WW2 naval tactics and strategy accounting for the importance of aircraft carriers? [closed]
I'm not an expert in WW2, but I've heard some conflicting claims about aircraft carriers and how they changed the nature of naval warfare. I know carriers entered wide use in WW2, but not how their ...
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What are the grenades and artillery cited in this testimony?
In the testimony of a Soviet officer of the raid on Tatsinskaya cited by Wikipedia, the Soviet officer speaks of two elements faced by Soviet tanks:
Enemy artillery
Germans "launching grenades [...
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Did the Luftwaffe tactically support Tobruk's capture in 1942?
In the comic AfrikaKorps, the capture of Tobruk in 1942 is highlighted as the consequence of tactical bombings of the Tobruk perimeter. The reasons of the defeat are given as:
Lack of antitank ...
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What was the true extent of German losses at Prokhorovka?
Recently I came accross what seemed to be a new thesis about the battle of Prokhorovka. I read the book Kursk of the German author and historian Roman Töppel, who explains alongside other "new ...
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Why did the United States drop a uranium bomb instead of a plutonium bomb on Hiroshima?
Why did the United States choose to use an untested uranium-fueled (Little Boy) bomb at Hiroshima instead of a plutonium-fueled (Fat Man) bomb, which had been successfully tested at Trinity? Surely ...
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After World War 2, why did European farmers switch from crop cultivation to grazing?
In George Marshall's speech announcing the Marshall Plan, he claims:
There is a phase of this matter which is both interesting and serious. The farmer has always produced the foodstuffs to exchange ...
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How could Stutthof's inmates reach Palmnicken?
There's a Palmnicken Massacre section in Polish article about Stutthof concentration camp (not available in English version). It says (translation mine):
The female prisoners of the sub-camps were ...
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What happened to the Soviet emissaries at the siege of Budapest?
Before the siege of Budapest, the Soviets sent two emissaries to the German to offer them a chance to surrender. According to one version of the story (recounted on the English Wikipedia, see the end ...
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What to do about historical Wikipedia articles contradicting each other in different languages? [closed]
There are several examples where two versions of the same Wikipedia page in different languages contradict each other. One concrete historical example, is this recount of how two Soviet emissaries ...
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How is "Jones series" used in the National Archives Office of Strategic Services records?
I was looking around on the National Archives' website in their World War II archives and came across Records of the Office of Strategic Services 1940-1946 (RG 226). One of the contents of the records ...
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Can you identify a location based on the traditional dress in a photo from WW2?
Could anyone assist us in identifying the possible location of this photo, based on the woman's dress? My grandfather is in the photo, which was taken during WW2. We know that he served in both the ...
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Why did the Red Army change uniforms in 1943?
In 1943, the Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Rabóče-krestʹjánskaja Krásnaja ármija, RKKA) of the Soviet Union decided to adopt shoulder boards instead of collar tabs for rank identification. This is ...
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Where can I find military records for soldiers in Merrill's Marauders?
My uncle fought with Merrill's Marauders. Can I get more information on his military awards?
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Why didn't American POWs in Germany seek support from Russian infantry, in WWII?
Why didn't Robert Anderson Hoover, and Jerome "Jerry" Ennis, request assistance from Russians that they ran into — to return to USA or UK? Sadly, the Russians (have) mistreated civilians. ...
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Where does the name 'D-Day' come from?
What is the significance of the name D-Day? My whole life I thought it was a 4 day plan, starting with A-Day, then B-Day, C-Day and finally D-Day.
I just learned that in French, it's referred to as... ...
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Where would the first nuke have been dropped in Germany? [closed]
Germany surrendered before the nuclear bomb was ready for production. The Allies had a Germany first policy: if the German government hadn't surrendered, Hiroshima wouldn't have been the first city to ...
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Was the contemporaneity of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan coincidental or somehow structural?
Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan embarked on aggressive war plans on opposite sides of the globe at nearly the same time.
Was this a coincidence, or were there structural factors in the world system ...
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Is the assertion that the A-bomb deterred Stalin plausible? [closed]
An answer on Quora asserted that if the USA had not dropped the a-bomb on Japan that Stalin would've invaded France and not stopped to meet the rest of the allies in Germany?
Is there any evidence to ...
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Help identifying my great grandfather’s WWI Italian Army uniform, rank, regiment
My great grandfather was an immigrant to the USA in 1907 but wasn’t a citizen yet so couldn’t enlist. He went back to Italy to fight in the war. He was from Sellia Marina. From the research I’ve done, ...
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Is a WW2 German bank note with a LITZMANNSTAND symbol possibly fake?
Was German currency used in the Lodz ghetto?
I recently bought a 50 reichsmark bank note which has got a LITZMANNSTAND symbol stamped on it in red ink, are these fake?
Here's what the seller replied ...
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What is this Tiger tank wingman UGV?
Schneider, Tiger Battalion 507: "For some time it was expected that in action every Tiger commander would ‘pull the strings’ of two midget panzers loaded with explosives. The idea was eventually ...
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Had anyone envisioned a "wipeout" scenario for Japan in the Pacific for World War II? [closed]
By "anyone," I mean experts such as military or political leaders contemporaneously, or professional historians in retrospect.
By "wipeout," I mean a scenario in which Japan sinks ...
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Was there anything similar to the World War 1 Christmas truce in World War 2?
I know that there was an unofficial Christmas truce during World War I, so now my question is this: was there anything similar during World War 2? It is close to the holidays as I am writing this ...
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What does "APT" mean in box 34 of the WD AGO 53-55?
Reviewed my father's WD AGO Form 53-55 discharge papers from the army (Nov 1945). Does anyone know what the acronym "APT" in block 34 mean. Block 34 is titled "Wounds Received in ...
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What battle did the German and US join forces in WW2? [duplicate]
I remember learning about a battle towards the end of WW2 when some German and American forces fought side by side.
What was that Battle?
and
Were they both fighting against the SS?
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How possible was it for Japan to convert her naval aircraft to land uses?
Some years ago, I created a World War II computer game in which I obtained interesting results by having Japan use her naval aviation (the planes that fought at Coral Sea, Midway, and elsewhere in the ...
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How have estimates of the deaths in WWI and WWII changed over time?
I am curious about what the generally accepted death figures in the two world wars were at times between the wars and the present time.
There are many sources on the internet today which give numbers ...
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Were North African silver certificates actually printed in 1935?
The U.S. government printed special silver certificates (U.S. Banknotes) with yellow seals (instead of red or blue seals) so if the North African campaign failed, we could devalue those notes after ...
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Which WWII Medal and ribbon are these?
I am trying to identify a possible medal that my great grandfather was awarded as I am putting his medals together for my grandmother. Though I'm not quite sure it's a medal. I looked through his ...
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What was the strategy to protect the British Museum during the World Wars?
Today I was surprised with the claim by the CNN, that the Rosetta Stone was:
on display in The British Museum since 1802 with only one two-year
break during World War I
I assumed at first that it ...
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When Hitler started WW2, did he realize that if he lost he would die? [closed]
Was it the rule back then "if you start a war for no reason, you should die"?
I know that it was a question for the Nuremberg trial, but was there an informal rule that "starting wars ...
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What is the origin of the claim of the 27 million Soviets dead in WWII? [closed]
All throughout the existence of the USSR, there was always the claim that the number of USSR citizens who died in WWII was 20 million.
Lately, I am seeing a persistent claim that that number was 27 ...
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Why did Hitler's order to give SS members German Citizen remain in force until the 1960s? [closed]
Heinrich Boere was allowed to find refuge in Germany while under death sentence from the Dutch. I guess the obvious answer to why Germany honored laws that applied to a criminal organization is that ...
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