Okay, so I know Nazi Germany got screwed on the eastern front after Kursk, but how about the western front (after D-day). Did they pull something off or did they just lose up until berlin

I've always been the most interested in ancient history, and the earliest cities and civilizations. I find all ancient civ interesting, but Mesopotamia is the most well-known to me so I thought I'd include it as a guideline for era. Searches on Amazon or the library aren't of much help--most of the material I can find is geared toward teaching school children.

A few preferences of mine:

1. I'm more interested in peoples/cultures than descriptions of, or pictures of, artifacts (although I know the various tools of life are part of culture)

2. After far too many years of school, I prefer not to read text books. I still will if they're all that's available, though.

3. Quality of writing is much more important to me than quality of images.

Sorry, mods, if this question is too general or not in the right forum. I tried to find the subreddit that fit it best and looked at the FAQ :)

Thank you in advance for your help!!

There are a number of books on the topic, but as I am completely new to this particular area of History, I have no idea where to even begin. If this post is against the rules, my apologies, I tried scanning them and didn't find anything about asking for sources.

I have read plenty on how it happened and what came later, but I haven't really found the reason for the war to begin with. What were they trying to accomplish? What were they planning to do had they won?

Excluding outliers like Chernobyl of course.

A friend recently told me a remarkable story about her grandfather, a WWII vet. It goes like this:

Grandfather, a polish-American man living in Nebraska, never spoke about his service. At least not until very recently. According to her, he had been involved in a failed European invasion, a "practice dday," that had ended catastrophically, with almost everyone killed. One of the few survivors, her grandfather had been forbidden from discussing the operation, or its outcome, to mitigate the impact of such a failure on the war effort/nation. She said the operation had been revealed in recent years via release of some documents overseas, and the U.S. government had recognized her grandfather (as one of, maybe the only? still living survivor) for both his service and many years of silence.

She (admittedly) didn't have a ton more details, but I thought the story was interesting and sounded plausible (re: propaganda/information control). Curious to see if anyone on AskHistorians knows what the real story here could be!

Real question. The more I try and find answers about the Holy Ghost the less cohesive it becomes. I am not asking about current spiritual practices.

I am asking of it's historical origins and impact. Where did the concept come from? Is it a misrepresentation of a greater theological ideal? Was it an incorporation of a deity or concept from another religion? It seems alternately idolized (Denying it is an Unpardonable Sin.) and completely ignored.

Please and Thank You.

I recently went to the shooting range and didn't have my ear protection so had to make do with the foam plugs.

After 200 rounds of .45 and .9 mm my right ear was deaf for about 5 hours.

That got me thinking of the hundreds of thousands of rounds of larger caliber rounds fired day after day in the trenches on top of the hundreds of thousands of artillery shells exploding during large battles such as Verdun.

How did the different armies deal with this? Were a great number of Veterans of WW1 left deaf or hard of hearing? Was there a public response to account for this (like a means of making special consideration for those who lost hearing during the war the way the ADA accommodates disabled people with ramps.)

Germany was a major contributor in the modernization of the Republic of China's military up until 1941, and even had control of Qingdao.

Why didn't Germany ally with the ROC instead of with Japan?

I have seen mention at various points of the significant societal pressures on young men of draftable age to sign up and serve in various conflicts, and I chose WWII because that is the conflict where, from what I've seen, there was the most societal consensus that it was the right/good/patriotic thing to do. I've also seen mention that people viewed as shirkers - those who refused to sign-up or serve - would be shunned or thought ill of by others.

My question would then be twofold - firstly is that latter portion accurate (ie, were non-serving young men treated poorly during WWII on the assumption they were shirking), and secondly did that same treatment, if it existed, befall 4-Fs and other people who either volunteered or reported when drafted, but were found to be unfit for service?

A final tag-on question if I may, the SSS literature to this day speaks of rigorous "physical, mental, and moral" tests of recruits to ensure they are suitable for the military. What on earth do they mean by "moral" tests? Is this simply a criminal background check, or was it also used for subjective elimination of people the recruiter decided were undesirable? Bearing in mind the 20 year rule, I'd be interested in how it was used during actual drafts, WWII through Vietnam.

I can't find it anywhere. I'm not actually sure if they even lost power, but my packet for World history says so.

His bayonet charge is almost always talked about in descriptions of Gettysburg, but I've noticed it seems to get mentioned less in descriptions of the battle that were written before The Killer Angels and the movie Gettysburg came out. Did it really prevent disaster as it's often portrayed as doing? Or is it discussed mostly because it makes for a good story?

In order to fire a matchlock weapon (arquebus, musket, etc.) one needs a lit fuse, gunpowder, and projectile. How did units keep themselves supplied with these during battle? How did they lit their fuse in the first place? Do they keep them lit while re-loading?

Did they have special "ammunition carriers" or "lit slow-match carriers"?

Thanks in advance!

For example: in many games, the first unit you can build is just a guy with a club or some other combo of sticks and stones. You can always create this sort of unit before your civilization/nation is technologically advanced to do things like writing. Did these primitive warriors ever group up amongst themselves or get grouped together by some alpha figure serving as a general or some sort? Or are the first mentions of armies in more established (comparably modern) times like Egypt/Babylon/Greece/etc?

I have read that Native American groups from both North and South America had dogs. What would these dogs have looked like, and were they brought from Siberia or were they domesticated in America? Do they still exist? Were they affected by diseases the same way their owners were? What did the Indians use them for?

I cannot seem to find much information on my own, and I have wondered about this for a while.

It might not be anyone's business but the Turks', but I am very curious. What prompted the name change to "Istanbul"? Especially since the city had already been under Turkish rule for quite some time before the name was changed, and since controlling a great city of antiquity is a pretty big feather in your fez.

From what I read, David Barton is largely a historical revisionist, is this true?