I've been searching for good pictures of MG42 gunners, and I can't find any that show the gear. i assume they used mostly the same stuff as the rest of the army, bur what specialized gear did they use?

It seems many cultures have tales of weapons with magical and mythical properties. King Arthur's Excalibur, Beowulf's Hrunting, Sun WUkong's Jingu Bang, Thor's Mjolnir, Yamato Takeru's Kusanagi, etc. What is the first culture that attributed a weapon with supernatural properties?

Hey askhistorians,

I'm looking for a comprehensive but accessible (and cheap) biography of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Any suggestions?

I know that he served in the Florentine Republic but which social class did that constitute at the time?

During William Tecumseh Sherman's march to the sea at the end of the civil war he destroyed much of what his men couldn't use, including heating and twisting the rails so they couldn't be used. Sometimes they would even wrap them around trees. Are there any of these left, particularly the ones around trees?

As history has shown, the UK was not fond of the League of Nations and is certainly not too happy in the European Union. This being said, has there ever been tensions between the UK and UN due to superseding legislation or anything like that?

If they were, what degree of censorship/changes were made? Were they usually dubbed in Russian/English?

This may be more an etymological question, but...

In my US history textbook, it said that that Carolina was given to a bunch of wealthy nobles... And named after Charles II. How does one get Carolina from Charles? I understand Virginia and Queen Elizabeth, Georgia and King George, etc... But I don't see how one gets to Carolina from Charles.

Please enlighten me.

Could a group of men just set off and go raiding? or were Viking raids organized by local authorities, exclusively? Was there large "overhead" costs that would prevented small scale, decentralized excursions?

Was it viewed as just another round of Protestant infighting? Was the Church worried/pleased/something else about the potential impact this could have on the Catholic French population of North America or the Church's missionary activities there?

Can somebody explain to me why there are numerous questions about the katana, but not about the jian?

For example, searching through askhistorians, there are several questions about the katana, but virtually zero when querying "jian".

I'm not well versed in either weapons, but at a cursory glance in wikipedia it seems like the jian is far older and has seen more military use than the katana, which has generally played second fiddle to the yari and other pole weapons.

Thanks

So I'm a fan of the Napoleonic Era, and I would say I know just enough about it but not the detailed specifics. So I have some few nitpicky questions I was hopijg you guys could help answer.

Austria and Napoleon: From what I know, Napoleon had a large amount of hate for Austrians saying that there empire should be broken or destroyed. He even created songs or his men sang songs, singing about how Austrians were cowards. What grudge does Napoleon bear against Austria? The only major connections I made are Marie Antoinette and the idea that Austria was mobilizing against the revolution, when the revolution started.

French Uniforms- Yes this is a nitpicky one, but it's been bugging me for awhile. Early and towards the middle years of the Napoleonic wars, French Line Infantry would wear white vests with blue jackets and often times brown trousers. Then the war progresses, after retreating from Russia and to Waterloo, French Infantry are depicted always wearing trenchcoats and even his Imperial Guard Regiments. So why was there a transition to handsome uniforms parading through streets to bland trenchcoats in the summer?

What was the actual goal of Napoleon? In American history I hear talk of how Napoleon was a crazed dictator with a lust for power driving him to go on a rampage through Europe. However people from France have told me Napoleon's goal was to spread ideas of the French Revolution. Now Napoleon being a power hungry dictator would explain why he went fighting against everyone in Europe but it seems to vague, or like propaganda. On the other hand if Napoleon wanted to spread ideas of the French Revolution there could've been alternative ways and he had no SOLID reason to declare war. What was Napoleon's agenda?

Egypt- What exactly happened in Egpyt? I know that Napoleon was doing very well in the beginning but then he was forced to retreat from Egypt and leave his men behind. I don't understand how he remained popular from this action. I received this info from my American textbook and some of my info from it, rest is internet searches.

Why did Swiss, Polish, Bavarian, Dutch, (Danish?) and "Italians" fight for Napoleon? What reason did any of them have. The only one I know is that the Swiss have always had close ties with France, but what other relations did the other nationalities have?

I don't really understand why they would ban them. Can anybody enlighten me on this? Also, what's up with their own secure library at the Vatican? Shouldn't they be giving the old artifacts, books,etc to museums?

As I understand it, tobacco was unknown in Europe before being discovered in the Americas. Does this mean smoking, in any form, was non-existent in Europe?

Obviously, tobacco is not the only thing one can smoke, but I am unsure if the alternatives pre-date tobacco or vice-versa.

So in my high school history classes we always learned that the black panther party was seen as a threat to american society but i just found out that at their peak, they only had several thousand members. What exactly did they do that inspired so much fear in the public or was it just the very nature of the group's existence that did this?

By the time the English got here, it seems that the people who arrived before them damaged the land for the most part? What did the English specifically do? How did they deal with the "new land?"

Did they write anything about it?

I understand that this was where Industrial War started and that most tactics were way out of date by the time they hit the actual front. So I am curious, what would a Infantry Man expect for his Basic Training? Did they have Basic training as we think of it today?

We hear so often (maybe incorrectly?) of various technological or scientific advances facing criticism for all sorts of reasons. I'm wondering if the printing press met with any.

Were they treated better as being of Germanic stock, or worse due to being a 'traitor to the fatherland?'

More generally, how were German-Americans viewed by the Nazis?

Similarly, and apologies if this is too much for one question, as Italian-Americans historically had more ties to the old country - how did soldiers reconcile this with fighting against the country of their ancestors?

Thanks.