I’m doing some historical research about the sinking of the U-550 on 4/16/1944 for a book that I’m writing (two publishing offers so far!) The USS Gandy, one of three US destroyers engaging the surfaced & largely defenseless U-boat, reported hearing “a Germanic accent” over their TBS system during the engagement. The words were not understood but it was believed to be an attempt to surrender. The U-550’s crew was indeed trying very badly to surrender at that moment, as they were crippled and under withering fire from three directions.

This claim, accurate or not, made it into the USS Gandy’s official reporting of the engagement. I’m not familiar enough with how the TBS system worked to know offhand how likely this claim is. There is no record from the German side of any such attempt, but the majority of the crew did not survive the battle so it’s possible the funker or someone other than the captain (who survived) made the attempt and subsequently died.

Several other things in the destroyers’ reports- such as the sub firing on them with its conning tower guns- are patently untrue and can be attributed to the stress and chaos of the brief but intense encounter. This claim could very well be another result of the Fog of War.

Any credible threads or ultimatums? Any odd noticeable increase or decrease in islamic terrorist activity?

The only thing I've found into explaining the motivation for the attack before it happened, are the fatwas from Al-Qaeda from 1996 and 1998, but they are really just a denouncement of the US and a call to arms for muslims.

Did the belief of witches ever cease to exist? If someone thought a girl was a witch, how might she be treated? Would someone hold their breath around a "witch" for example or do any other sort of weird behaviors?

I have no clue as to why cities such as LA and NYC aren't the capital of there respective states. so i've made a list of cities I think should be the capital of their states

Florida: Miami

California: Los Angeles

New York: New York City

Illinois: Chicago

Ohio: Cleveland

Pennsylvania: Philadelphia

Washington: Seattle

and finally Louisiana: New Orleans

I recently watched the 2019 film The Report, and also listened to a brief podcast series on Operation: Midnight Climax, and I'm interested in learning more about the history of the CIA, and, essentially, how we got from "intelligence and spycraft during WWII" to "an agency which has undeniably committed numerous severe human rights violations over decades both at home and abroad". My knowledge of the agency is currently limited to "they did MKUltra, which was a grotesque violation of human rights," "they have facilitated the overthrow of democratically elected governments in a bunch of different countries," and "they tortured a bunch of people as part of our 'War on Terror'."

Obviously I'm bringing my own biases, and I'm not exactly looking for a defense of the agency, but I would like to read some things that at least attempt a neutral perspective. Most of my normal reading tends to skew very heavily left, where the narrative is (perhaps rightly) that the CIA is deeply, deeply troubling as an agency. I'm interested in a more nuanced look at the agency, from it's inception. What books and articles would you recommend?

I have been a big fan of Greek mythology as long as I can remember, but my first exposure to Greek mythology in literature, like most people, was the Percy Jackson series. I love pretty much anything to do with Greek mythology, whether it be games, or mentions of the gods in stories and film/TV, but I'm never certain where to look for accurate stories about the deities of Olympus (or the underworld) due to oral tradition spreading misinformation which then gets documented down in literature.

If anyone knows original stories to read to get an accurate understanding of these Greek Tales, it would be greatly appreciated.

PS. If anyone also plays games, can you tell me the accuracy of zagreus' story in the game Hades?

I am doing a research project on hair styles worn by the Ancient Romans. There seems to a be a lot written about hairstyles worn by women, and some descriptions of how hair changed amongst men in the imperial period (e.g. curls in the era of Nero progressing to shorter cropped hair with bangs in the time of Trajan). But what about flat tops?

Having recent come across the classic film Spartacus (1960), the titular character is graced with a "flat top." This film is very highly regarded, and still a classic, but is this hairstyle appropriate? If not found with Romans, perhaps it was a Thracian haircut (per the ethnicity of Spartacus)? A renowned film critic Dr. Cifaretto poignantly commented on this (trying to find the exact source, I will try to return with one later). Thanks in advance!

From the Roman period where the world "salary" came from "salt", all the way upto the 20th century, when the Indian independence movement was characterized by protests against British salt taxes; what made common salt such a valuable commodity?

Why couldn't anyone with a coastline produce it? And what made it so cheap today, as compared to a century ago?

I am sorry if this has been asked repeatedly, but I'm curious. I know that the collective farming in both the Great Leap Forward and the Holodomor caused an actual reduction in grain production. But why was that so? What was happening, on the ground, for it to fail? Why didn't other Soviet plans like the production of concrete and steel fail in the same way? After the failure, what steps were taken to correct the issues present in collective farms?

Jesus was a Jew, but he started a movement that became something else entirely. Muhammad similarly started a "new" religion, but what was his "original" religion? Was he a Jew? Was he a Christian? To my understanding, these religious traditions existed in his milieu, but the relationship is unclear to me.

I know that Islam claims to be the ideological descendant of Abraham's pure religion through Ishmael, but that seems rather vague. Is there a textual tradition or remnants of an oral tradition that describes why the Israelite branch eventually became apostate?

I also understand that Islam recognizes Jesus as a great prophet, but why? Surely by Muhammad's time the Christian tradition was well established, and Jesus was firmly believed to be god himself come to earth as the Jewish messiah. What tradition of Jesus did Mohamed adhere to, and what was the basis for that tradition?

I know there's several questions here, but I guess the overall question could be rephrased as, what "scriptures" did Muhammad and his contemporaries hold sacred that provided the backdrop for why people started following him and his message?

Hello, I am looking to learn more about the English Civil War(s) (17th century) and would love any book/audiobook recommendations. Any recommendations on Cromwell biographies would also be appreciated. Thanks!

Did people wear masks back then and social distance? Did they argue and bicker and refuse to wear a mask? Was it as tense in public and did they open carry like in the beginning of covid? Did the president endorse mask wearing?

Did they have a specific uniform or did they use what evet they had