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I was looking through old family photos and I came across an tattered leather wallet engraved 'Berlin' with some coat of arms. I asked my grandmother about it, and she says it was her father's from being in the (British) Navy. With Berlin being so far in land, were the British Navy ever deployed there in the West Berlin occupation?

Are there any good records of deployment available for free?

I'm writing a script for a movie called "The Holy War" which follows a late teenager from France and one from Syria during one of the crusades. The movie starts with their finding out about the new Crusade then switches and follows each of their lives throughout the Holy War.

Of course, I want to give them both love interests back at home to think about, but I am unsure how the common man of medieval Syria or Egypt did courtship. Let's put this in the time frame of what you classically think of a medieval crusade, like late 1100s through the mid 1200s

I've heard that the Aztec's fundamentally viewed warfare differently than the Spanish conquerors because the Aztecs often waged war to secure human sacrifices. Is this true and what role did these differences play during the conquest? Did they significantly undermine the Aztec's chance at resisting or did it only play a minor role?

Its always assumed that every soldier was a fanatical follower of Hitler. However since those who wish to avoid fighting appear in every nation across the world at that time, surley we can assume the same of Germany and ghose forced to fight. Are there any specific examples therefore of German soldiers who were regular people and not die hard Hitler fanatics?

Can you tell me more about them in 1941?When did they form?Who were their leaders and other information about them and where can I find more about them?

Does it really need to be seen as a product of its time, with really misogynistic and castist ideas?

Were beds always these sizes? At what point did certain offerings of bed sizes become standard?

How did the names of particular bed sizes like "Twin", "Double", "Queen", "King" or "California King" come about?

What I wonder is how common were rapes and violence towards women hundreds of years ago (especially in western countries). And when did society start being aware of/punishing it?

Edit: Spelling

To be clear, I understand that the general concept of "collectibles" and vintage items from the past having grown in value due to their rarity was well understood 20 years ago (and long before that).

But I ask about this specifically because it seems like the fervor with which large numbers of people bought into the idea of beanie babies being a future goldmine was inexplicably intense and focused. It seems like the kind of thing where they would have been fixated on a past example and saying, "this beanie baby craze, it's going to be just like with X," where X was some past toy that was now a priceless collectible.

It just seems like such a weird thing to have become so widely bought into, when it didn't happen with other toys from the 90s.

I've always been curious about this time period. I wonder where slaves might have gone, if some chose to stay for a wage, if some went into their own businesses. Obviously it was different for every person, but I was curious of any patterns.

I've also heard that freedom for slaves was good for awhile, but became much worse with Jim Crowe laws became a thing. I imagine there was a time period that was much better pre-Jim Crow, correct? Any information wouls be great to learn about!

Were there settlers who stayed, or retreated back to Rome? Did native Europeans rejoice when they found out? Did life change much, besides wars that took place and the coming of the Medieval period, or did it stay the same or similar?

Any good sources on the topic/s, online or otherwise, would be greatly appreciated.

There seems to be some sort of informal tradition that states that a large bureaucratic state needs to have some eunuchs around to grease the wheels and generally be mid-level administrators.

So how did eunuchs get typecast into that role and were they really as common as they seem in media?

I'm making an assumption, but it seems like historian's views of ancient civilizations are a more refined and detailed than those of historians 100 years ago, and light years ahead of people 1,000 years ago. How do historians today seem to know more about ancient societies than historians in the past? I assume that there is a tendency for primary sources to be lost to time, so shouldn't our views of the past get less reliable the further removed we are in time from the society that is being studied? Or is it just a modern bias that we think we know more?

I recently read parts of James Truslow Adams "The Epic of America" and noticed the use of it but had previously only thought the phrase came about during the 1950s when that attitude was very prevalent. Can anyone explain the true origins of this phrase?