Did they fight 1 battle, or several battles to win the wars or was it more common to siege down holdings?

edit: in the medieval era, not today

A story I was told by my grandfather when young was that he and his friends had a "gang", called "The Lazy J". The way it was told sounded like they were numbered more than just a couple buddies. When the war came they all left, everyone one but him. He was put in the reserves for being blind in one eye. None of his friends made it out alive.

What might have happened to them? Might they all have served in the same unit? Might they all have died at Dieppe?

Anyone that could provide a little insight or info would be much appreciated, I was too young to ask for more details but these are details I remember very clear.

Thank you very much! Apologies if this is posted in the wrong place.

WW1 is the primary focus.

This theory occasionally comes up on Internet forums, the idea behind it being that the Viking attacks on monasteries and churches (as well as the subsequent spread of paganism in England under the Danelaw) had some deeper motivation behind them, namely a kind of attempt by the pagan Vikings at fighting back against Christian conversion attempts. Proponents of this idea would probably take the medieval chroniclers' description of a 'Great Heathen Army' pretty literally.

How much truth is there in this idea?

I know that his father was wealthy and his mother was not, but after Leonardo was grown up and on his own was he well-off or on the poorer side?

Hello everyone, first time posting on /r/AskHistorians!

My question is: Did generals in the Second World War engage in direct combat with the enemy, as implied by some of their decorations? I know several US generals received gallantry decorations during the war (I think Bradley and Ridgway both earned CIBs), and many generals are photographed in helmets with sidearms at the front, though were they actually involved directly in the fighting (actively engaging the enemy)? Or were generals' combat decorations more matters of military politics? (like MacArthur being awarded the MOH, or more recently Petraeus's Bronze Star)

Many thanks in advance for any replies!

Users, Comrades, Romans,

in light of our growing userbase and popularity (thank you all so much!!!!), the XIX AskHistorians Party Congress has in its infinite wisdom decreed to expand the People's Commissariat for the Defense of High Quality Answers modteam for the second time in 2016.

Please join me in welcoming these awesome new faces who will do their gosh darn best in removing your one-liners keeping up the quality of the sub:

• /u/agentdcf is flaired in Modern Britain | Environment. Returning to the fold of your benevolent overlords the modteam after a long hiatus, they have promised to bake bread for us all and as an avid football (the real variety, you know, what they play in Europe) fan to entertain us with a Griezmann-like display of ball tricks.

• /u/Iphikrates is flaired in Greek Warfare. When reached out to what his future program holds, they promised that every phalanx will be reformed and that he will make sure that every shield is polished and every spear is pointy in the defense of quality.

• /u/WARitter is flaired in European Armour and Weapons 1250-1600. Rumored to own a white steed, they have graciously accepted a position as AskHistorians Armorer to defend history and quality to the last breath.

• /u/ThucydidesWasAwesome is flaired in American-Cuban Relations. Asked for comment, they only quote their name's sake with: "The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."

Combining their powers, they conjure Captain Planet will moderate the sub with style, verve, and vigor.

agnetdfc, Iphikrates, WARitter, Thucydides: A warm welcome and may your modque always be short.

I understand how the Mississippi River (and it's many tributaries) became a vital piece of infrastructure for the purposes of communications, trade, travel, and irrigation. But what about during times of war in particular?

Did the Mississippi River (or specific locations along the River) provide any additional strategic advantages for the Union or the Confederates during the Civil War?

What battles were fought on, or near the Mississippi, and how did the results affect the eventual outcome of the war? Were there navy battles on the Mississippi (perhaps using steamboats instead of seafaring vessels)?

Thanks!

Hi,

I've recently discovered a healthy fascination with intelligence/counterintelligence and the various methods of espionage utilized by everyone from national governments to corporations to terrorist/insurgent groups and sadly the content that I could dig up on it was somewhat...lacking. The few threads the search function dug up for me that seemed relevant seemed to primarily focus on WW2 era espionage, though I did find a few promising titles related to the Cold War.

My interest is rather broad so I'm looking for information on both pre-modern espionage methods from before the days of rapid long distance communication all the way up to the current (though I understand that anything post-1996 is technically off-limits, which cuts off what I'd imagine to be a very, very important period of intelligence history post-9/11). Topics of particular interest to me would be the formation of the Soviet intelligence apparatus, the intelligence/counterintelligence operations the superpowers launched against each other in Asia, South America, Africa, and Europe through the Cold War, and if possible how the advent of widely available computers (and thus hacking, using malware to steal/destroy information or hardware, and the vastly reduced time between gaining actionable intelligence and acting on it that they allowed) effected the field.

I'd also love to read any good accounts of corporate espionage or the methods used by terrorist/insurgent groups, as frankly most of what I've found on the latter via google have been short 30 page think tank PDF extracts...which, while interesting, aren't quite meaty enough for my preference.

Thanks in advance.

Were clerics allowed to interpret the Quran? How open was the state to academic pursuit in Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle? Was there internal policing of the Academics in the society? Were people with foreign ideas allowed to visit?

People always bring up, in regards to today's protests, that blocking interstates was the wrong idea and way, and that MLK's way was better. However, they aren't really specific. I'm not trying to make this into a present day political discussion but I am trying to see how Civil Rights Movement protesters protested in comparison to today.

Over the last few years as I said, I have become interested in history, mostly wars and the building of history's greatest empires, though I do take interest in things off of that subject. I like to browse this sub and read some of the shorter answers, but a lot of the bigger questions that needs to cover multiples years of history tend to be a bit too long for me. Is there a website, or app, or anything, that can help me learn about history in a way that is easy for me?

I started watching Marco Polo on Netflix again and it just occurred to me that merchants went through some tough time traveling the Silk Road.

So it got me thinking, how hard was it to travel the Silk Road. I am guessing there were naturally bandit raids but generally speaking was it very common or there was some sort of unspoken law to protect the merchants across such wide distance between Empires? Do we have any accounts of how difficult the journeys generally were and all the dangers?

[deleted]

I'm curious if the participating societies in the war referred to World War II by that name during the war or shortly after. If so, how did people feel about that name? At the time, did they see it as an inevitable outflow of World War I as we do? Would they have resented that interpretation? If this name was not given to that war until later, what was it called in the meantime?

Also, I understand that World War I was referred to as the Great War even in the 1940s. When did that change?

For example, which Pharaoh would have been most likely, I have been given the suggestion that it may have been Amenhotep III, given his large building project and the death of his first born son. What is the most likely period for this to occur?

[deleted]

As I understand it, mercury/hydraulic mining decimated California's environment and disrupted Native hunting practices..

However, I have 0 idea why mercury was used or in what way. I've read up on mercury being used in sluice boxes, but I'm still not sure why