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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In which town of Europe (Germany ?) were this 2 photos taken during WWII?
These two photographs have been in my family for many years.
I am almost sure they were taken during WWII, most probably in Germany. I have no idea by whom.
No information at the back of the ...
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Did Yakuza attack US soldiers post-WWII?
According to this link Did any Yakuza fight for Japan during WWII? on Quora, a poster said "The Yakuza in post WW2 Japan formed groups that killed US occupying soldiers that they found abusing or ...
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Rape perpetrated by American soldiers during WWII?
A while back, I had a disturbing encounter with someone related to a Jewish survivor from the Auschwitz death camp. This survivor apparently claims that not only Red Army soldiers, but also G.I.'s ...
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Why did the Fallschirmjäger have such terrible parachutes?
German Fallschirmjäger had pretty bad parachutes. They used the RZ rig which has the parachutist hanging, dangling actually, from his back on one line. It was dangerous to use, and prevented the man ...
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Did the situation described in Imitation Game ever happen?
In the movie Imitation Game, there is a scene where a message is decrypted. In this message, a German submarine says he's going to attack a ship: the decoders decide not to warn the ship because they ...
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How did Oswald Mosley escape treason charges?
Oswald was a Nazi sympathizer that went to the Berghof and met Hitler and Eva Braun. Germany was a country that Britain had open hostilities against. Oswald
fraternized with the enemy.
Being what it ...
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Is there a history of Canadian soldiers in Northern Ireland during WW2?
I can’t find any history of Canadian Soldiers being in Northern Ireland during WW2, yet my Canadian father married my Irish mum in Belfast in Dec 1943. My Dad died in 1965 when I was 13, now at the ...
MCW♦
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Did US troops insist on segregation in British pubs?
Can anyone refresh my memory on this? Wikipedia is no help, as I cannot remember the name of the incident, and any search terms would be too wide.
I understand it involved attempts by USA troops to ...
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Were RMS Lancastria survivors strafed?
The bombing and sinking of RMS Lancastria popped up in the "on this day" Wikipedia feed.
RMS Lancastria
In the article there is this paragraph:
When German aircraft began strafing survivors in ...
CommunityBot
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Did Patton actually predict the German 'Winter offensive' to Allied leadership, as portrayed in 'Patton'?
From the movie, the full quote is,
There's absolutely no reason for us to assume the Germans are mounting a major offensive. The weather is awful, their supplies are low, and the German Army hasn't ...
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Do we know if Patton ever said "l'audace l'audace toujours l'audace"?
Do we know if George S. Patton said that even though George C. Scott quoted Frederick the Great in the movie?
If Patton did, what does the quote actually mean in the situation?
Related question
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Did any German generals question the wisdom of Störfang (June 1942 attack on Sevastopol), right before Case Blue?
Currently reading Where the Iron Crosses Grow: The Crimea 1941-44 by Forczyk which is now looking at the attack on Sevastopol in June 1942: Störfang, led by Manstein.
This is an odd battle by German ...
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How extensively was German communication decrypted during the 1930s & 1940s?
RE: Marxists.org
In letter 288 of this Stalin-Roosevelt correspondence archive Stalin talks about faulty information from George Marshall about the Balaton offensive. This was long after the German ...
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How did the position of German settlers change when they went to occupied Poland?
I've read in Architects of Annihilation that the average size of the land-plots received by settlers was 25 hectares, what sort of plots did they have before? How did they feel about moving, was it ...
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What tensions arose between locals and the administrators of forced labor POW camps in the US for captured German WWII soldiers?
A 1983 interview of a 71-year-old Kansas farmer named Andy Olson was recently reprinted in a small daily called the Council Grove (KS) Republican. Mr. Olson was one of the many Kansas farmers who used ...
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Based on his service record, where was this soldier deployed in WW2?
I am trying to work out where my grandmother's cousin, Henry Adler, saw action during WW2. Henry was born June 14th 1917 in Glasgow. I have his Soldier's Service and Pay Book as well as his Soldier's ...
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What was the nature of the Resistance in 1938 Czechoslovakia?
I wonder if someone might help me. I'm writing a novel. My protagonist is a dual national (English born, German parents) bio chemist contracted to work for Freiburg University 1938. At the time ...
MCW♦
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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 (...
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Did some Nazi death camp guards use Lee Enfield rifles?
I was watching the Netflix series The Devil Next Door and there was was video footage of a Nazi death camp. What was strange was that one of the guards appeared to be wielding a Lee Enfield No4 rifle ...
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At what point did Soviet armored units have qualitative parity with Wehrmacht armored units?
Was the T-26 a match for the Panzer II,III, and IV in the early stages of Barbarossa?
The T-34 has been given a lot of credit as the tipping point where Soviet technology created a weapons platform ...
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Was Robert McNamara present at Los Alamos, 1945?
In this photo, a group of important people involved in the Manhattan Project can be seen at an award ceremony in 1945. The description says
Presentation of Army-Navy E Award at Fuller Lodge, Los ...
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Why did the Nazis bother distinguishing Jews on the basis of statehood and citizenship (if they saw a "world of races" and not of states)?
All quotes below from Snyder (Black Earth, 2015, bold font added by me):
When the survival of the state was in question, Antonescu slowed the persecution of Jews. Hitler, who actually believed in a ...
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Sources / books from WW1 veterans before WW2? [closed]
can you suggest any books that look into how WW1 veterans reacted in the impending run-up to ww2? Or names of people to look into. It doesn't have to be the entire focus of the book.
I am interested ...
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Did the Soviets learn about the SS tattoos only in late 1945 (and why so late)?
Antony Beevor, in the context of late April 1945 / early May 1945 in Berlin:
The French NCO claimed that they were forced labourers who had been press-ganged into uniform by the Germans when the Red ...
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Why did Nazi Bishop François Auvity escape all punishment, both criminal and ecclesiastical, after the Liberation of France? [closed]
Why did Nazi Bishop François Auvity escape all punishment, both criminal and ecclesiastical, after the Liberation of France by the Allies, and how could his criminal role remain hushed up for EIGHTY ...
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Why try to escape a POW camp?
I'm reading The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill, which recounts escape attempts from the Stalag Luft III POW camp in Poland during WWII.
Brickhill describes a camp where he and his fellow RAF/AAC ...
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What problems did the USA's transatlantic communication face during World War II?
I would be interested to know which means of communication (transatlantic cable?) were affected by the war compared to the pre-war period.
Were new means of communication discovered/developed?
I ...
MCW♦
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How can I obtain a record of my fathers' medals from WW2?
My father was a Private First Class in the HQ BTRY 793rd Field Artillery Battalion of the US Army. His military occupation was Salvage Technician 194 and was inducted in January 1943. Where can I find ...
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Were U.S. ships attacked in Tokyo Bay?
I remember my father, who was there, telling me that around the time of the Japanese surrender at the close of WW2 there were night-time attacks by anti-surrender imperialists on several U.S. ships in ...
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Why was France granted an equal status among victors of World War II?
How is it that France emerged from World War II with a similar status as the U.S.A., Britain, the Soviet Union, and China in terms of possession of a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, ...
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Does anyone know the history on this artillery shell I found in my grandfather’s shed?
The shell is 57 mm in diameter and 170mm long. There is a hole in the bottom of the shell 13 mm in diameter. Any information on this shell would be greatly appreciated. I would like to keep it in my ...
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Is this Groß-Deutschland 1938-1948 poster real (and produced/published by Nazi Germany)?
Source
I found the anticlockwise swastikas strange.
The poster is supposed to be from 1938.
Some Reddit comments suggest this (or a very similar poster) is fake.
(The above poster appears in the movie ...
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Did the British really bail out the Americans at the Battle of the Bulge?
Just read this article on the Battle of Kasserine Pass
America's Most Humiliating Defeat
The author made the following statement regarding British help during the battle:
As at the Battle of the ...
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Is there any evidence that the US strategy at Midway was deliberate?
The Battle of Midway was a crushing US victory over the Empire of Japan that, at face value, appears to be due to good SIGINT and a huge amount of luck by the Americans.
In particular, the piecemeal ...
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What operations were carried out by the partisans of the Chernihiv junction in the Great Patriotic War?
I am interested in finding out more about the Chernihiv partisan junction which was an important force throughout the Great Patriotic War, and their leader Alexei Fyodorovich Fyodorov.
Unfortunately, ...
CommunityBot
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What is this medal ribbon? WAAF
This is my mother in 1944 or 1945. I never knew she was entitled to wear a medal ribbon. Being black and white, I have to take a guess based on the layout, and I think it may be the Defence Medal but ...
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Why were some German and Japanese cities bombed more than others during WW2? Is there a scientific consensus?
I'm trying to study the long-run effects the strategic bombing of German and Japanese cities had on urban and economic development.
Reading some articles about it I get contradictory information about ...
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How important were Soviet raw material supplies for Nazi Germany in the first two years of WW2?
During the first nearly two years of WW2 (from September 1939 to June 1941), the Soviet Union was among the largest suppliers of raw materials (oil, rubber, grain, iron ore, etc.) for Nazi Germany.
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Why were medium bombers so low in numbers in Allied air forces?
The medium bombers of WWII are numerous. We could mention for the Americans the B-18, B-23, B-10 to which could be added the famous B-25 Mitchell and B-26 Marauder. In the British air force, they were ...
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When and where did the Allies use starvation tactics in WW2?
There's a paper that claims in relation to the Nuremberg trials:
The American‑run tribunal hearing the case affirmed the legal “propriety of attempting to reduce [a place controlled by the enemy to] ...
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Did Allied bombers return from enemy airspace with undropped bombs?
First episode of new TV series "Masters of the Air" depicts the U.S. 100th Bomb Group’s first combat mission to bomb U-boat pens in Bremen on June 25, 1943. Historical sources I can find ...
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What has happened to proximity fuzes after World War 2?
Arguably one of the most important military inventions of World War 2 was the proximity fuze. It greatly increased the lethality of artillery shells, since an airburst has a higher chance of covering ...
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What's the best way to research personal military records of a soldier that served in the 101st Airborne Division during WWII?
I'm trying to conduct research on an soldier that served in Company B, 327th Glider Infantry Regiment, 101ST Airborne Division in WWII. I have his name and birthday but no additional identifying ...
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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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What were the areas of European countries in 1936 and 1949?
Are there sources (e.g. gazetteers or encyclopedia) that list the precise areas of the different European countries in ~1936 (before Germany's Anschluß with Austria), and again in ~1949 (after the ...
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How big were the two German pockets at the end of the battle of Stalingrad?
I've often read about Stalingrad, but one piece of info eludes me. At the time of their surrender, the Germans were reduced to 2 'pockets'. How big were they in terms of area?
MCW♦
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Under the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, how many of each aircraft did the USSR receive?
The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact was signed 1939 Aug 23, and lasted till 1941 Jun 22.
During that time, how many aircraft were delivered to the Soviet Union, and what types were they? I'm especially ...
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Was Isserson a good commander on the field?
Isserson is one of the fathers of the deep battle doctrine and was one of the most brilliant minds of the Soviet Army. (According to Joukov's memoir)
However, Isserson was also described as an awful ...
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How were the day-to-day activities of the French Resistance financed?
Fighting a war, even as loosely-organised or underground force, is expensive - you need places to stay and keep things; you need to feed and equip people; you need to obtain, maintain and fuel ...
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What were the postwar non-military uses of the Rolls-Royce built Merlin Engines in Britain?
The Rolls-Royce Merlin Engine powered some of the most famous airplanes of World War II, including the Spitfire, the Hurricane, the Mosquito, the Mustang, and the Lancaster.
By the end of its ...
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