60
The Kurds had very little involvement in WWII and no capacity to take action as a group. At the time, just about all of them lived in the Kurdish areas of Turkey, Iran and Iraq. They had no self-determination, and those states acted as follows:
Turkey was neutral throughout WWII.
Iran was invaded and occupied jointly by the USSR and the British Empire in ...
52
There are a few recorded instances of Soviet penal troops being intentionally sent over mines, at least according to survivors:
It is hard to judge
whether there was a deliberate sacrifice of penal soldiers, but Pyl’tsyn describes how
Batov, commander of the army to which his penal battalion was attached,
deliberately sent its soldiers—all of them ...
37
I'm most of the way through reading Nevil Wylie's Britain, Switzerland and the Second World War (Oxford University Press, 2003), and there do not seem to have been any attempts by either side to press Switzerland to take an active part in the war.
The Swiss would have been extremely un-receptive to any such suggestions, given that neutrality had been the ...
35
Is the generally accepted evaluation of the proposed invasion as utterly impossible based on the true facts?
The evaluation of the invasion is based on the fact that there was no way for Germany to even land troops. Nobody thinks that the British home defense army could have withstood the German Army on the battlefield. The question could be how much of the ...
32
Actually some of the answer is found on Wikipedia, but in the pan-Mongolism article:
In 1943, the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office predicted that the Soviet Union would promote the idea of a Greater Mongolia to detach China's Inner Mongolia and East Mongolia from Chinese influence.[46] A year later, the then-Soviet satellite Tuvan People's Republic ...
27
It appears from the auction details, that the serial number of the tank is 18688.
The serial number does appear on this list of known Sherman serial numbers compiled by Pierre-Olivier Buan (who has been cited as an expert on tanks of this era) and others.
The entry identifies the tank's type as M4A4(75), which was manufactured by Chrysler. The registration ...
22
To begin with, the answer to the question in your title:
Do we know the situation in Britain before Sealion (summer 1940)?
is, quite simply, yes.
There is a Wikipedia article on British anti-invasion preparations of the Second World War which provides a fairly succinct overview. Detailed reports and maps are held by the UK National Archives (usually ...
13
The American and British army commanders made some mistakes that are clear in retrospect (and Mark Clark's error, with respect to winning the war, in going for Rome rather than cutting off and destroying the Germans retreating from Monte Cassino was obvious at the time). They tend to look less competent than the German generals, and there are historical ...
12
There's a (probably) exhaustive list of Shermans (Shermen?) with illustrations at tanks-encyclopedia.com/ww2/US/M4_Sherman.php.
Disclaimer: A lot of models were so similar that it'd be a bit of a chore to try to match up the pics above with this page, though.
12
Just some additional information, from an Oct. 10 NYT Article
(apologies if there's a paywall)
...
Did Kurds fight in World War II?
It is unclear whether any Kurds were at the Normandy landings, but there is evidence that some of them fought on the side of the Allied forces during World War II.
Some background: The Kurds, despite being the ...
10
Probably, to some extent. But clearly Nazi imagery just lacks the stigma it has in the west--not just in Thailand but throughout many Asian countries with very different histories. For a few examples and some good analysis, check out the article "'Nazi-chic': Why dressing up in Nazi uniforms isn't as controversial in Asia".
Regarding how long this has been ...
9
The seams appear to all be welded, not cast, so it cannot be an M4A1, an M4 Composite, or an M4A6, according to the chart on this Wikipedia article.
It's got the 75mm gun, not the 76mm or the 105mm gun, which helps eliminate some models like the M4A3E8.
Also note the protrusions at the top of the front hull. The front of any of the "Jumbo" variants is ...
7
Soviets were generally tactically inept in WW2, but wanted rapid advance
First, let's quickly look at Red Army situation before WW2 and in early months of the conflict in the East. Red Army was expanding in late 1930's and early 1940's as were practically all European (and even world) armies, preparing for conflict that seemed inevitable. Rapid expansion ...
6
...why was the Deutschland not sent on commerce raiding missions as opposed to larger battles?
Bad timing, and a bit of bad luck. She wasn't "less effective" by any means (other than being somewhat lighter build than her sister ships), she just did not get a chance at that one good raiding sortie that her sister ships had.
I'll mis-use the quotation markup ...
6
Probably WW2, as the 39 seems to indicate year. A cartridge with the same markings is listed on a retail page here:
...is headstamped SF (Société Française des Munitions de
Issy-les-Moulineaux (French Society for Munitions) France) over H 4 39
(December 1939) I . The brass primer is stamped EB 211 39 (1939) .
The only variation is one entry on the ...
5
Recent authors of books about WWII that cover mostly allied point of view, like Anthony Beevor or Rick Atkinson, are quite critic of Allied commanders (like Patton, Montgomery or Clark), specially because they were interested on looking good, get fame or solve personal issues. For example:
Mark Clark forced his army to reach Rome before D-Day, because he ...
4
The most interesting misconception from that author comes down to dates. The evacuation of Dunkirk happened in May-June 1940, so the map is from before Dunkirk. Before that point, the bulk of the British army was fighting in France. Until the Germans took the French/Belgian coast, there was was nowhere from which an invasion could be launched.
So it is ...
4
Circumstances more then lack of talent
Allied troops and commanders were mostly "green". Vast majority of commanders in France of 1944 never had opportunity to lead large formations (armies, corps, divisions) in the field. Some had experience from Northern Africa and Italy (Omar Bradley, Bernard Montgomery ...) but even that was on different terrain, ...
3
The Deutschland was sent on a commerce raiding mission at the start of the war. However, she was not allowed to begin raiding until 26th September 1939, because Hitler hoped to make peace with Britain and France after taking Poland.
Deutschland was assigned to the North Atlantic, where the weather in October and November tends to be substantially worse ...
2
One has to put Cooper's observations in the context of his position.
As an ordnance person tasked with recovering and repairing wrecked Shermans, that's what he would spend most of his time looking at. So it's understandable that he would have a very negative opinion of them. If you spent all day in a junkyard, you might develop a less than positive ...
2
Question: Has Britain's 1940 invasion of Iceland been downplayed by historians?
Short Answer:
Yes down played by history, Not comparable to Germany's land grabs, Played a large role in WWII.
Detailed Answer:
Background
After Denmark fell to the Nazi's(April, 1940) Britain became concerned that Iceland a then Danish territory if occupied ...
1
Question:
The man I was talking to claimed that the number of 6 million Jewish deaths in the holocaust is fake, because the 6 million figure has remained the same in the face of these substantial plaque changes (from 4 million to less than 2 million).
Short Answer:
The original plaque at Auschwitz of 4 million deaths and the new ...
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