world war ii history

Checking wiki we read .... "Start of World War II In private discussions in 1939, Hitler declared Britain the main enemy to be defeated and that Poland's obliteration was a necessary prelude for that goal." In my kid's 11th grade history book we read .... "Hitler was ready to conquer Europe."...

I stumbled upon a book that I ended up really liking, so I thought I would share it. The book is called "Roll Me Over". The author is Raymond Gantter. It is a personal memoir of his time as an infantryman in World War II. Gantter was first deployed as an infantryman in Belgium in 1944, just...

This thread began as a discussion on the attack on a maternity ward in Afghanistan, but has been comprehensively derailed into a discussion on WWII. Accordingly I have split the thread. This is not exactly what I am arguing, but, yes, I believe the 55 millions deaths of WWII could have easily...

"Kaga' and "Akagi" to be exact: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50124313 That sound you hear is Roland Emmerich rushing to try to get publicity for his upcoming film on Midway which opens in November.... Probably be as accurate as "The Patriot" and "Anoynymous":jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp

OK, the German army in WW2 was infamous for its Blitzkrieg ability, the ability to move fast and conquer. We hear about it all the time, but my question is, what's the key to making it work? I mean, why didn't anyone else do that before? What was Germany's key to making it work? I could...

The 75th anniversary of D-Day is coming up. We will no doubt be treated to lots of retrospectives, a note that there aren't very many survivors left, and lots and lots of photos and videos that were shot on June 6, 1944. There's one scene I've seen at least a hundred times. The camera looks...

The US sailor famously photographed kissing a stranger in New York's Times Square to celebrate the end of World War Two has died aged 95. The picture of George Mendonsa bending over and kissing 21-year-old Greta Zimmer Friedman on VJ Day (Victory over Japan) became one of the most enduring...

This is likely old news to many, but I just read it recently. Before and during WWII, IBM provided the materials and equipment that helped the Nazis identify, round up and murder European Jews. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/ibmholocaust.htm?noredirect=on...

Before I start, this is a purely SF / alt-history exercise. I'm not proposing in all seriousness that time travel is possible, nor that something like this has actually happened. So, you know, no need for this to go into the technology forum ;) So, anyway, the general consensus seems to be that...

In which I wonder about some feats in recorded history, and specifically HOW did they manage that. And my first question that was gnawing at me for some time has to do with Michael Wittmann's destruction of 6 T-34 tanks in 1941, all alone, starting his long record as an ace tank commander. At...

https://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/roland-emmerich-directing-midway-world-war-2-battle-movie-1202442458/ :jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp:jaw-dropp And in more recent news, he has cast Woody Harrerlson as Nimitz: :eek::eek::eek::eek::eek: So now the guy who gave us such...

Alternative history to the many smart people here: Say that the French don't allow the Rhine to be re-occupied in 1936. Hitler goes down to one of the assassination attempts against him. So the Germans calm down and don't launch WWII. Mussolini just spins around doing nothing until he gets...

So there's a truism that Stalin killed more than Hitler, having killed 20 million. However, according to historian Tim Snyder... He goes on.... and finally. http://www.nybooks.com/daily/2011/01/27/hitler-vs-stalin-who-was-worse/ I have heard from other sources that the death figures...

Last night I watched an amazing film about the clearing of German mines laid around Denmark during WWII. German POWs were used, many of them youths who had been drafted into the German army during the last months of the fighting. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3841424/ The film is called "Land...

Disclaimer: I'm not much of a WW2 historian. My interest in history starts to taper off slowly around the time when they start bringing guns to a knife fight. So much talking out the ass may occur. But this is the thought that came to mind: "Throw your soldiers into positions whence there is...

Hitler did not want war with the USA. It was Roosevelt who wanted war with Germany. Roosevelt was supplying Britain and the Soviet Union with military supplies while proclaiming "neutrality". He talked about "democracy" while helping dictator Stalin. 6 months before Pearl Harbor he ordered...

Why don't you cut the foreplay short and show your evidence of the "hoax?" This is a continuation from here due to the length of the previous thread. As always, all Holocaust-related discussion should be confined to this thread. Thank you.

in another thread there was a link to this twitter feed and I noted the comment.. I'm not so sure this is true. I think that while the US didn't single handedly win WW2 as sometime movies would like us to believe, that without their entrance, the war would have favoured the Axis. Without the...

Having seen the film 'Dunkirk' I was surprised to discover that it has been heavily criticised by critics. In particular, the French claim it fails to give adequate credit to their forces. The film was released in India, where disappointed film goers are upset that the Indian forces were not...

This thread has been split from All Things Trump & Russia, as the conversation developed into a discussion of WWII and appeasement. Perhaps, we should take a look back into history on how the war in Europe began when Britain and France became ignorant and overlooked Hitler's violations...

I was reading about the movie Dunkirk at the IMDB here; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5013056/trivia One of the trivia items reads; What does this mean? What if the British army been destroyed on the beach by the Germans. Would this have kept them out of the war with Germany taking over Europe...

In WWII when was this closed and where did the Japanese staff go to? (if not to Japan)

In The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the Architecture of an American Myth, Gar Alperovitz, a former research fellow at Harvard and King's College and a research scientist at the University of Maryland, makes a powerful case that the U.S. did not need to nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki and that...

Even back then, most people knew that the Bolsheviks and Stalin were monsters. So why didn't the allies back Hitler. Well Russia was for the most part an oriental country. In part probably due to them having been ruled by the Mongol Golden Horde for centuries. Did the allies not back Hitler...

A friend of mine is looking for the unit her grandfather served in during World War II and I was hoping someone here might be able to help her out. She has the following information Truppenteil: 3. Kp.le.Radf.StrmBau Btl. 308 I'm guessing Kp is the third Korps and BTL is battalion but the...

In "Allied," Brad Pitt portrays a Canadian WWII officer in London whose wife (Marion Cotillard) is suspected of spying for the Germans. His superiors set a trap for her and warn him that if she fails the test, he will have to kill her himself or both will be executed. Question: Could this ever...

At least this is the conclusion reached by no less than Russia’s Supreme Court in a ruling of 1st September 2016. The Court has fined with a penalty of 200,000 roubles Vladimir Luzgin, a Russian blogger for having written on his blog “The communists and Germany jointly invaded Poland, sparking...

I've previously only read about this tangentially, and I've seen numbers of around 150 000 to 200 000 victims, with widely varying proportions of the population in various areas, the Romani within Germany being the worst off. This is thought to have comprised around 15-25% of the population...

During World War 2 both sides committed war crimes and atrocities. The propaganda that the Allies were the "good guys" and the Axis were the "bad guys" belongs in a comic book. Everything is not so black and white. The new documentary Hellstorm shows the crimes of the victors - saturation...

Just stumbled onto some dreck on Youtube called Hellstorm. It starts off with a monologue on how the other nations were envious of Germany and were trying to kill it through moral degradation and drugs which kept the nation impoverished and feeble. Then along came HITLER and Germany rebounded...