There were many Japanese occupied islands in the pacific, namely in the Bismark sea, as well as bigger areas of land, such as Indonesia, that the United States chose not to invade during World War 2 in their war against Japan. Meanwhile, other islands such as Peleliu were chosen to be invaded. What was the reason for this military doctrine? Were there specific objectives that were laid out before hand, or was it more improvisation and what seemed necessary at the time?

For almost all of military history circa-ww2 maybe, it seems like large forts and citadels are considered a large strategic advantage. Why is this? It seems counter intuitive; if you have your entire army sitting in this huge fortress, the enemy can occupy all of your other valuable lands and proceed to siege you, just waiting out your supplies. I understand the principle with castles, the source of governmental power/authority in an area, or towns with totally encompassing walls, but nothing else.

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I am just listening to the most recent Dan Carlin Hardcore History about the early days of the A-Bomb where we had it solely until 1949, and it reminded me of a Podcast Promo I listened to via Market Place, or someone. They were talking about government racially redlining, and that the US government essentially used loan policy to encourage citizen to move out of cities, most plausibly, to make for bigger targets.

Is there anyone here that has information about this, or any podcast/books I continue reading about this topic?

Its kinda weird when you look at it, Quebec city is the place in canada where most of the people speak french when the rest of canada is mostly english. How it happened? Why are they speaking french when most of the north america speak english?

It is believed that most Nazi's feld to South America, yet Spain was an authoritarian dictatorship supported by Hitler and Mussolini.

I was talking with some friends about war films and how they reflect the nations current zeitgeist. For example, Vietnam War films in the for the U.S. was a source of both catharsis and jingostic patriotism (For example of the dichotomy you have Platoon and The Green Berets).

Germany is in a relatively unique position with its history and so it would be interesting to see how in the post-WWII era Germany and Germans have portrayed themselves.

In what respect and how was Italy 'not ready' for war? Presumably Mussolini had expected there to be a war at some point, what stopped them rapidly becoming a large military power like the Nazi's did in less than 10 years when they had even longer?

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My love of history, which has been dormant since my teenage years has resurged thanks to my luckily stumbling across Mike Duncan's history of rome. I'm interested in reading more with a view to eventually take up writing articles or generating something productive out of my interest. Where should I start for my search in reliable, accessible sources? Is there a trusted search engine or website/s?

Any advice on what questions to ask (beyond the basics)? I have three grandparents still living and plan on recording their stories this year (as well as ancestors they knew). I'm hoping to make a family history that will richly convey them to future generations of the family. (Perhaps in a style similar to Ron Chernow)

My Great-Grandfather was in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, stationed in Egypt for much of 1944 before taking part in the Italian Campaign and being wounded in the Gothic Line Offensive in September of that year.

In April, he was moved to Alexandria and was part of a weeks-long operation to deal with a number of Greek troops causing "trouble". I couldn't find anything about this from searching around on Google, and we were quite intrigued when reading about it, because I was under the impression that the fighting in North Africa was more or less over by that point. I was wondering if anyone knew more about the background to this, whether this was part of a larger insurgency against the Allies.

These are the diary entries in which he mentions them:

April 1944

Sunday the 9th:
Arrived in Alex at 9.30 am Done guard on Greeks who started trouble.

Wednesday the 12th:
Moved again, nearer Greeks, now four miles away.

Thursday the 20th:
Moved again, now on the Mersa Matrue Road.
Patrols to go out every night. Greeks cut right off now.

Sunday the 23rd:
Today is the last chance for the Greeks to give in.
Went into attack of Greek, firing all night no sleep

Monday the 24th:
Greeks give in.
No casualties on Welch
Took 104 prisoners all taken to P.O.W.
4000 of them cleared camp of all arms

Tuesday the 25th:
Today of rest after a trying time, with Greeks.

Wednesday the 26th: Moved to Alex, trouble with Greek Navy. 288 men. Waiting now to fetch them out. They are in a house, makes it hard to get them out, but we will.

Thursday the 27th:
Greek navy give up without any fight. Took them to P.O.W. camp. Now doing guard over them. They are a nuisance.

Friday the 28th:
Still doing guards on Greeks, they have caused us enough work and trouble, this last three weeks

It's become a trope in comedy (see South Park's Volcano episode, for instance) to make fun of the old Cold War "in the event of a nuclear attack, duck and cover" films that were played to people.

Were they as silly as that in reality? Were they essentially just a means of pacifying the public about a situation they had no control over, or was some of that advice actually good?