They were important to the fighting in the Pacific but I don't know anything about the logistics behind them. I'm mostly wondering if construction equipment/concrete was carried with the Navy? Was it stored at depots? Australia? How long would they take to construct?

I've noticed that when i think of Romans, I think of tall shields and short swords. It seems that a phalanx with spear-like weaponry would have been more efficient. If the Romans did abandon this form of combat, I'm curious why and how it transformed from spear-like weaponry to using short swords.

We seen the so called "bad guys" of history, Hitler, Stalin and what not, but did Fidel Castro help his country? I understand he was a dictator but he is not mentioned in the history books over here.

This ancestor, whose name was Antony, was 37 years old in 1930. What war could he be referring to? I wondered if he might mean the US involvement with Pancho Villa but he would seem too young for that?

After 1932, it seems that the Democrats and Republicans more or less coalesced into their modern forms. However, before 1932 it seems that each party had conservative, moderate, and progressive factions. What were the issues that united all the Democrats into one party and all the Republicans into another?

For example, why did some progressives (Fiorello La Guardia, Robert La Follette, Jeannette Rankin, Richard Pettigrew, George Norris) join the Republican Party, while other progressives (Glen Taylor, FDR, Rex Tugwell, William Jennings Bryan) joined the Democrats?

Hi! I was just curious why the ancient egyptians stopped building those massive pyramids they were so keen on for centuries and started digging underground tombs instead? Was it simply due to economic considerations or did some other events made them change their mind? Thanks in advance for all your answers!

Does it have anything to do with propaganda campaigns run in the U.S.? If so, which?

It's to my knowledge that 'nothing' actually happened to them. The foremost trait of Viking culture was raiding. It's my understanding that Vikings ceased when the raiding ceased. What happened in Northern Europe during the middle of the 11th century to halt Viking raids, and essentially putting an end to Vikings as a whole?

I want to say Rwanda but I might be thinking of something different.

My understanding is that the traditional view of Philippe Petain is as a radical reactionary who became engulfed in the defeatist mentality of WWII France, and so he collaborated with the Nazis for personal gain and/or fear of the complete conquest of France.

However I read a few things describing the amount of respect he obtained from De Gaulle for willfully returning to France to face his punishment, and how even Truman desired for his release a year after the war ended.

It sounds like he's a chivalrous man. Just a leftover of the 'old-guard' of Europe, who was misunderstood by contemporaries.

I know that when moving they could be a bit of a pain but in situations of more static defence surely they would have been superior to air cooled machine guns?

So why no water cooled versions of the MG-42, for instance, which went through ammo so quickly that the barrels were in need of constant replacement (which I know was a quick process in an MG-42 but was still time in which you could have sent another hundred of so rounds downrange)?

I overheard two people at school talking about how other people in their class were wrong about saying christopher columbus was a bad person for killing off a bunch of native americans because it was a product of its time. Is this a resonable opinion and is it right/wrong?

My main focus is that of the lee enfields during the war and the refurbs that were sold to civilians like my grandfather after the war which had the stock cut down into a "sport" version. What was the advantage of this? Why wouldn't it of be implemented during the manufacturing process?