Found out recently that my grandfather was part of the german occupation force of Kreta. Since my family can't give me a lot of information i really don't know where to start. All i know is, that he served in the SA early on in southern germany and was stationed on Crete as part of a mechanized unit. It's kind of personal for me so i really want to do this on my own but i would be really grateful if any of you could help me with some pointers. Thanks in advance. *Edit: I forgot to mention that he was captured by the British. So if any of you know if and or where to find archives of german pow taken by the british, i would be grateful.

why did WW2 happen? what is the munich agreement?

I've come to this question through a couple of avenues.

First, I've always heard that a new 2nd lt. in Vietnam had a life expectancy of just a few minutes. This always made me assume it was because they were new or 'green' and didn't have the experience to survive in combat. Is there any truth to this?

Also, I know it sounds lame but popular culture tends to show grizzled veterans a lot and they tend to survive battle. For example, shows like Band of Brothers or the Pacific etc.. these are 'true' story events (true in quotes due to the hollywood aspect of doing 'true' stories) that depict veterans living through battle after battle and not wanting to get to know new recruits because they feel they would die soon. Is this just the nature of the show, that they focus on men who survived and told their story or is there something to the notion that 'greener' troops were more likely to die in combat.

(Also, I know these shows show veterans dying a lot as well. It is just a perception I have come away with)

I'm interested in this because it often feels like the nature of death in battle is random chance, and I wanted to know how true that was.

What was happening in California or Arizona or Texas during 1776? Lexington & Concord is going on, and like 80% of what is now the United States may not have even known and likely didn't care. We all celebrate July 4, but for like 2/3 of the territory of the continental U S, I know none of their history until they became a state. What the heck was going on from like 1776-1849 in most of our country? Who lived there? Why did they leave? Or were they assimilated when people moved West? I know all about the Native Americans and the Alamo, but that's it. Surely Mexico created a substantial amount of history in the Southwestern United States. People from Asia or South America surely must have occupied what became America's "west coast". Or was it just barren wasteland? I find that hard to believe.

I'm just wondering, Islam had a Golden Age of its own for about 500 years give or take a century or two. But I'm just wondering, Christianity was another one of the big religions of that time and did the Church have its own Golden Age like Islam did and if so when did it happen?

Given the attitude towards Ceasar by Cato and other members of the Senate even before he crossed The Rubicon, could it be argued that they were as equally to blame for the collapse of The Republic?

is true that men pull women's hair? there was some religious ritual about it?

I know that Bohemia and Prague were heavily associated with PanSlavism but was there ever a specifically West Slavic counterpart to Yugoslavism, i.e. A movement to unite the Czech, Slovak and Polish people?

Just left me thinking, why wasn't there too much "celebration of victory" in the west over communism?, was it because the cold war didn't really ended? (i.e. post-USSR Russia, China), or was the Cold War just political, not really on the minds of citizens? (although there were fucktons of propaganda during the Red Scare)

As far as I know, the Byzantine Empire was, to put it overly simply, rich and under one ruler, as Western Europe was poor and a collection of different states and monarchies. What was the factors that led to their different evolution?

I remember reading somewhere that there was a chance the USA almost joined the Central Powers in World War 1, however I am not sure what the reasoning was behind it.

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to have some recommendations about some books about the Minoan people. If possible more broad to start with and then if possible more information about the social aspects of this "civilisation".

Also, I would really appreciate to have them as e-books if possible, would make it a lot easier to take away.

Many thanks,

Andro

Similarly, why on earth would Japan attack the US—an economic and military giant that even some Japanese leaders acknowledged would inevitably crush them?

The Rashidun and Umayyad caliphates expanded outwards at a breathtaking pace. Islam only existed in the Arabian peninsula in 622 CE, but by 750 CE the lands controlled by the caliphate extended from the Pyrenees to the Indus.

What was life like for people in these territories during this century? Was conversion to Islam strictly enforced, or were people allowed to continue worshiping their old gods? Did the Muslims try to change the legal and political systems in the regions they conquered or were they content to collect tribute and allow their subjects autonomy? Are there any records of popular resistance against the conquerors and their new religion?

Did life for the common person in Iran, Morocco or Spain change very much? Would they see a lot of Arab people around? Would they hear much Arabic? Would they be familiar with Islam even if they had not adopted it? In general, was Islam received enthusiastically or did people want to retain their old religions?