History Thread

[Gaucho]

Ironically, their much simpler tanks turned out to be a big advantage for the Russians. The Germans had trouble getting spare parts for their awesome panzers to the frontline. Then again, they were all stuck in the mud anyway.

[tifosi77]

I think the supply lines were big problems as well because the rail road tracks from Europe into Russia were either wider or more narrow... at least I remember reading something about that.

Yes, I forget which but the rail lines were a different gauge.

Of course, resupply was only became an issue when the Nazis were unable to close escrow (as it were) before winter set in.

[Kaizer]

So is hitler coming back from the moon to fight ISIL?

[Pavel Bure]

Ironically, their much simpler tanks turned out to be a big advantage for the Russians. The Germans had trouble getting spare parts for their awesome panzers to the frontline. Then again, they were all stuck in the mud anyway.

The Russian tanks had angled armor which the Germans did not. When a shell would hit those tanks it would often ricochet meditating the damage.

[Geezer]

I didn't realize Nellie Bly was a Burgh girl. I'd knew she was a journalist but didn't know much else about her.

http://www.post-gazette.com/life/lifest ... 1209060318" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Geezer]

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/almanac-glo ... ellie-bly/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tifosi77]

Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

[Geezer]

http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2015/01/ ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[tifosi77]

One of the most emotional responses I ever had in my life was on a class trip to the Holocaust Memorial Museum in D.C. Was taking a class about the history of Nazism and fascism, and the professor organized the trip. The early sections of it are about the build up to the Final Solution and is pretty antiseptic in the way it presents information. Then you go through a section and come out on a replica of the rail yard gate at Auschwitz with the 'Arbeit Macht Frei' sign hanging over a cattle car. The museum then proceeds to punch you in the stomach for the rest of your stay. It's just so stark.

[mac5155]

Yeah, I've never been in a museum with so many people yet you could hear a pin drop. I could've spent an entire day in the museum reading everything. The bunkhouses were just unreal.. maybe 2 feet between your wooden slab to lay on and the next one above you. The shoes...eyeglasses.. hair.. just bone chilling.

[PensFanInDC]

I've been to Dachau three times. I've never been in a more powerful place in my life. The first time I was 16 and me and a bunch of other kids were talking and laughing as we got off the bus. The second we walked in the gates it stopped. Not because we made a conscious decision to be respectful, but because the mood instantly changed.

[tifosi77]

The stupid replica sign in a museum nearly made me cry, I can't even imagine being at the actual locations.

[Sam's Drunk Dog]

I visited Dachau when I was in Germany a couple years ago for work. It was the most eerie and somber place I have ever been. The experience of walking through the crematoriums is one I won't ever forget.

[GSdrums87]

Just read Teddy Roosevelt's 'New Nationalism' speech. Amazing how he could basically same the exact same thing today in 2015.

[newarenanow]

Yesterday was also 29 years since the Challenger blew up.

[Geezer]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/29/opinion/l ... index.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wish present generations knew more about Japan's atrocities in WWII and in China prior to 1941

[Digitalgypsy66]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/29/opinion/l ... index.html

I wish present generations knew more about Japan's atrocities in WWII and in China prior to 1941

Yeah, Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang should be required reading. Scary stuff that is almost unknown in the West.

[newarenanow]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/29/opinion/l ... index.html

I wish present generations knew more about Japan's atrocities in WWII and in China prior to 1941

Yeah, I think you hear a ton about the western theater of the war, but not the eastern side outside of a handful of events.

My grandpap was in the navy over there. He didn't see major action or anything, but told us about some of the stuff going on and how gruesome/crazy it was.

[meow]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/29/opinion/l ... index.html

I wish present generations knew more about Japan's atrocities in WWII and in China prior to 1941

mrs. meow wrote her senior thesis on the Bataan Death March. She cried only a daily basis while doing her research.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

ww2 was awful in so many ways. Holocaust, Japanese war crimes, US bombing the **** out of Japan, etc.

[bigkam]

"It is well that war is so terrible--or we would grow too fond of it".
--Attributed to R.E. Lee at Fredericksburg

[Gaucho]

We seem to be very fond of it.

[count2infinity]

We?

[Gaucho]

Mankind.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

I don't think the public is generally fond of it, I just think humanity is naturally screwed because every so often you get a psycho with charisma take charge of a country with desperate and confused citizens (Hitler, Stalin, Tojo, Pol Pot, Saddam, etc.)


I'm hoping the internet and hyper accelerated communication will make things not so bad but it also doesn't help either. Just look at all the recruiting ISIS is able to do.


And its not like the "good countries" are helping the cause either. Just look at the US' track record: firebombing of Tokyo + Hiroshima and Nagasaki, napalming every square inch of Vietnam and Cambodia and killing thousands of innocents in the middle east with reckless drone strikes