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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Where were Allied soldiers in Switzerland typically kept?
I've been researching for a short story, but I've been having trouble working out the exact trajectory of POWs who escaped from German camps into Switzerland. I know many were put up in hotels for the ...
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How many Me Bf 109 were produced in Czechoslovakia during WW2
It is known fact that Czechoslovak factories(or at least Avia) produced Messerschmitt Bf 109 during WW2. After the war ended, they for some time continued production, called Avia S-99 and when engines ...
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The Rosenberg diary and the functionalist-intentionalist debate
Today it was announced that the diary of Alfred Rosenberg was been found, after it had disappeared in 1946.
Prima facie, this would seem to be a major piece of historical evidence for the ...
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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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Has anyone seen a bracelet like this one? (WW2 Cairo)
My mother-in-law has this bracelet. It was her father's who died in Egypt in WW2. We'd love to know more about it. Has anyone ever seen one of these?
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Where did the SOE agents sit in the 161 squadron Short Stirlings?
If this question is better suited for a more aviation-oriented forum, please let me know.
During World War II SOE agents were dropped into occupied Europe by No. 161 squadron of the RAF. This ...
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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 ...
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What were the primary sources for interrogation of US soldiers in 1943 Tunisia?
Edwin Palmer Hoyt's Hitler's War contains this passage:
In January General von Arnim's army in Tunisia had enjoyed considerable success in limited actions against the Americans. The Germans had ...
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Does this WWII photo show a double-track railway?
Recently I found a Bellingcat article titled Solving World War II Photo Mysteries With Open Source Techniques. They close the article by saying:
There are still many more images in the IBCC archives ...
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Was there a separate vote on the Bulgarian demand for Western Thrace at the Paris Conference of 1946?
Although Bulgaria had withdrawn their troops from Greece in order to get an armistice in Oct 1944, Bulgaria reiterated their demand for Western Thrace (that its troops had vacated in '44) at the Paris ...
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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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During the Allied invasion of Sicily, when were 400 soldiers killed due to a sentry sleeping on the job?
In Patton's speech to the Third Army, he refers to an incident in Sicily where 400 men died because a sentry was caught sleeping on the job:
There are four hundred neatly marked graves in Sicily, all ...
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Why didn't the German population leave Dar es Salaam before the outbreak of WWII?
In the chapter 'The Beginning of the War' of his autobiography Going Solo, Roald Dahl recounts his role in stopping the German population of Dar es Salaam from fleeing to Portuguese East Africa (the ...
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What was the treatment of Polish POW in British or Soviet uniform in WW2?
Suppose that Polish soldier, member of Polish Armed Forces in the West, becomes a German POW. How good or bad would have be treated ? Like UK/US POW (relatively mildly) or like Polish POWs from 1939 (...
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How would American foreigners have been treated by Mexico shortly after the beginning of WWII?
I am curious to know what everyday life might have been like for a trio of American foreigners in the northern, near-border regions of Mexico during the early days of World War Two. Specifically, I am ...
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Who participated in the Gran Sasso raid/Operation Eiche?
I am looking for a list of all soldiers who participated in the Gran Sasso raid/Operation Eiche.
The Wikipedia list only the 4 who received Knight's Cross, and the 9 with German Cross in Gold.
But ...
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Are there data/sources on the usage of Swiss German before/after WWII?
Today remarkably across German-speaking countries Switzerland keeps a very high level of usage of dialects other than Standard High German (SHG). Although non SHG-dialects are also commonplace in ...
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Factcheck: Did Australia request 200.000 17 year old girls from Germany in 1946?
This text was written in a newspaper published in Bodø, Norway on the 2nd of August 1946. It translates to approximately:
"Girls as war compensation.
Australia is among the countries that have ...
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How did US, and the Western world's people react when USSR suddenly became an ally during WWII?
Before the USSR's participation in WWII with the West, it had a non-aggression pact with Germany, invaded Poland, and is basically the super-villain of the Red Scare. But suddenly, after USSR became ...
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Is there a breakdown for transported goods on different routes in the Persian corridor in WWII?
In August 1941, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom together occupied Iran. One motivation for that invasion was the establishment of a supply line to the Soviet Union through Iran, the so-called ...
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Can anyone help identify this statuette?
The statuette has been in my family for 3 generations now. It is presumed to be from Morocco and was brought to us before the second world war. It is damaged and it had an ivory rosary that was stolen ...
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Did any Western consulates remain open or re-open after WWII in the same buildings in which they had resided in Wuhan, Hebei, China?
The recent CNN article From one-time Chinese capital to coronavirus epicenter, Wuhan has a long history that the West had forgotten
Two generations ago, this city of 11 million people, on the ...
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What uniform is this man wearing in South Wales just before World War 2?
This picture is from a Swansea Facebook group. It was taken in South Wales just before World War 2. He was thought to be a member of the Coast Guard or Civil Defence.
What uniform is this man wearing?...
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Besides the USO, were there other organizations in New York City during WWll that provided entertainment for the troops?
I know the USO had the Stage Door canteen in NYC during the war, but were there other organizations that hosted dances/concerts at less permanent venues like at armories or community centers around ...
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Did Germany really replace wooden ties with steel ties on Russian Railroads during WW2?
This online article says
Soviet Union had a different gauge rail network and the Germans operated much heavier trains than the Russians, so when the Germans invaded they had to rebuild or modify ...
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Was the East Prussian operation "unequalled in munitions expenditure"?
In his memoirs (text in Russian), Marshal Aleksandr Vasilevsky claims the following (emphasis added by me):
I will note in passing that in terms of munitions consumption the East Prussian operation ...
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How many German soldiers were there by the time Nazi Germany surrendered?
How many German soldiers were out there fighting by the time Nazi Germany surrendered ? (What I mean by surrendered is 8th of may 1945)
I read this and it says in early may there were around 800K ...
user22311
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Did contemporaries refer to the liberation of Yugoslavia in 1945 as a liberation?
Tito of Yugoslavia, with help from the Russians, expelled Wehrmacht troops from Belgrade in 1944, establishing himself as sole dictator with virtually no political opposition that wasn't in prison or ...
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A memorial Georgia (U.S.) plaque
This memorial plaque lists the numbers of Georgians who served in various wars and details the casualties. What I find odd is that for WWI, Korea, Vietnam, and Gulf round numbers are given for the ...
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Number of foreigners in the Waffen-SS and Wehrmacht during WWII
During World War II, thousands of non-German men fought in the Waffen-SS and in the Wehrmacht. People from all Europe, volunteers from neutral and occupied countries and enemy prisoners. Even Russian ...
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What is my Grandpa's collar insignia?
This is a photograph of my grandpa, Douglas Howard. At his retirement, I believe he was a Major in the Devon and Dorset, but my info is vague. This was a photo he gave to his future wife, and my ...
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What is the earliest documented characterization of Hitler as "dictator" in Canada's public record?
When did Canadians first label Adolf Hitler as a "dictator" ?
The CBC Article Rise of Hitler documents that former Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King visited Germany's Chancellor Adolf ...
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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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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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How accurately did Victory Through Air Power portray the state of the war at the time?
I have just watched Disney's 1943 wartime propaganda film, Victory Through Air Power. The film (which was based on Alexander P. de Seversky's book by the same name) was intended to convince government ...
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What led Chiang Kai-shek to do a U-turn against the Japanese?
The Japanese feel that Western countries are unfair in imposing the status quo on Japan and calling it “peace.” Their whole conception
of diplomatic machinery and collective security is that it is ...
user39013
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Why did Italy wait 45 days to exit WWII after the fall of Mussolini?
Benito Mussolini was deposed on the 25 of July 1943. From reading the Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Fascist_regime_in_Italy), it seems that the main reason is that the ...
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What was the relationship between the Imperial Rule Assistance Association and the Imperial General Headquarters?
I am trying to write an analysis of the bureaucracy in Japan that led to their decision to enter the War in 1941. I see both the Imperial Rule Assistance Association(IRAA) and Imperial General ...
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How has the slogan "Bis in den Tod, Rot-Weiss-Rot" been used before and after the Anschluss, and in modern times?
I am curious about Austrian slogan "Bis in den Tod! Rot-Weiss-Rot! Österreich!", usually rendered in English as "Red-White-Red until we are dead!", where "Red-White-Red" ...
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Were any Japanese defendants at the far east war criminal trials after WW2 IQ tested by the allies?
Since the Americans tested the IQ of the defendants of the Nuremberg trials I was wondering if there was an analogous deed done to the Japanese war criminals after the WW2.
I can't find anything ...
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What's the meaning of the title of Manstein's book, 'Lost victories' - missed victories or victories won in vain?
I recently shot through Manstein's Lost victories in its English translation and am curious as to what is the precise or intended meaning of its title. The original German title is Verlorene Siege, ...
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Could someone help me identify this button from a WW2 prison camp field?
I'm struggling to identify a button found in a field in Italy, where WW2's prison camps were built.
Searching online I found a lot of American's Civil War buttons that could be related to it, based on ...
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How extensive was the Allies use of inflatable decoy tanks during D-Day preparations?
I have seen in a couple WW2 documentaries, that inflatable decoy tanks were used during d-day preparations to fool the German military.
How extensive was this use? How many inflatable tanks were ...
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What happened to Johannes Heinrich Louis Munt after his trial in 1945?
I was curious what happend to Johannes Heinrich Louis Munt. He was a SS-Hauptsturmführer and Kriminalkommissar during World war 2 in the Netherlands.
He ordered the execution of more than 50 people ...
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Did German civilians really offer the Red Army to publicly shoot 30-40 civilians in exhange for free food?
According to this article (Russian), in June 1945 General Serov reported to Beriia about the following incident.
On May 28th, 1945, a Red Army soldier was shot at by someone from a window in Berlin’s ...
user23839
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How did age affect the probability of being drafted during WWII?
Did the Selective Service System and the draft boards select younger registrants first?
Were 30-year olds less likely to be selected in the early years of the war, or more likely to be selected in ...
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What was the scope and extent of Herbert Eulenburg's criticism of the Nazi regime during WW2?
During Nazi Germany, Eulenberg’s dramas were banned, his books were no
longer printed or sold. Yet, he stood firm against the threats of
party members, who continuously denounced the pacifist and ...
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Women collaborators within China during the Second Sino-Japanese War?
There are several reports of women collaborators in Europe during the Nazi occupation. I am wondering if there is any reports of this occurring in China, and what possibly happened to these women ...
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Is there a way to determine where specific Quartermaster Depot companies were based in WWII?
My father-in-law was a master sergeant of a Quartermaster Corps Depot Company during the Battle of the Bulge. I would like to find out where his depot was located (and I'm assuming it moved from time ...
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How was the Free Czech Army formed in World War 2?
I am researching my family's history in World War 2. I know that my grandfather joined the "Free Czech Army" and was evacuated from Sete France after France fell. I have found several online ...
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