I'm watching Saving Private Ryan and after seeing the massive casualties that occurred on the beaches during D-day I thought: Isn't there a better way to do this? I'm sure this is a though that the allied leaders had too and I know they wouldn't have put these brave men in danger if there was an easier way. At one point someone in the movie says something about tanks not having landed yet either. So what was the reason they didn't just bomb the crap out of Normany and then land or perhaps just land tanks?

Seeing the recent footage of various tornadoes got me to thinking that these will have been significant events for the Native Americans living in the mid west. I was wondering if there was any collated record of this, how the communities reacted, or whether there might be seasonal migration out of the area for example.

It depicted what would supposedly become of Europe following a German victory, showing Germany having taken great swaths of land from the surrounding countries, and having transformed Britain into a colony.

I'm fairly certain it was British, at least.

Hi, i'm doing a research project on Neil Armstrong and was wondering what you guys could tell me about his grandchildren.

It seems unusual that Russia would be interested in supporting Ethiopia, especially to the extent they did, and with what little (apparent) interest they had in Africa.

For example, why did modern civilization develop so quickly in Europe while North America didn't become "civilized" until outside influence became prominent.

Did they attempt to turn people in positions of power? Did they approach you, or did you approach them?

If he was what did he do?

I've seen a few fictional references to women fainting at what seems to be the slightest provocation in Victorian and Edwardian set pieces. Was this truly the case? And, if so, what made women so seemingly feeble?

I'm working on a project that requires knowledge of the workings of castles and the lives of lords, kings, knights, etc., and I was hoping one of you could point me in the direction of something I could read to get an idea.

I just ordered The Meaning of the 21st Century by James Martin and am looking to back it up with some history on colonialism. What are some concise histories of that period?

Secondly, out of all the WW2 movies, documentaries, and books I have read it seems the German Luftwaffe was never around in any major battles like Battle of the Bulge, DDay/Normandy, and same w some of the major battles in Italy to support their own troops...my question is did the Luftwaffe have any presence in any of these battles or was the main use of Luftwaffe just to shoot down our bombers during bombing missions and to bomb London during the battle for Britian? Please I would really enjoy some extensive info...hopefully Im at the right place, I dont ever really post on reddit haha

I looked over the FAQ and didn't see many books on the Old West or American Frontier, but would love to read something about those subjects if any one can offer some good books. I don't know much about those subjects at present, so something fairly introductory would be fine, but I'm also interested in something that might be a bit more specialised.

We know about Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose. Was there an allied version of that? I'm not talking about the BBC that spoke to the partisans, rather more targeted at propaganda.

Thanms

Is it at heart an old pagan legend interpreted through a later Christian lens, or was it mostly invented and written from a Christian POV?

I have read that Hawaii was found by Spanish but not colonized or explored. Why were other islands, for example the Philippines, taken over but Hawaii was left pretty much untouched?

This story seems to pop up in TIL pretty often. The short version is that a large number of Japanese soldiers (between 400 to 1000 depending on the "source") were eaten by saltwater crocodiles during the night of Feb 19th 1945 during the battle of Ramree island as part of the Burma campaign.

The story seems to hinge on the account of a naturalist called Bruce Stanley Wright as the only primary source. I recall a fairly thorough debunking of this tale on AskHistorians but I can't seem to find it.

Was the event corroborated by any other primary sources or likely urban legend?

I get it, on the face of it, and it seems to make some kind of intuitive sense. But I also hold a deep reservoir of skepticism for what looks more and more like some nearly-unquestioned truism that commentators all seem to confidently mention.

Is there scholarly work that weighs in on this?--did the Europeans' redrawing of borders really destabilize the region as horribly as everyone seems to think? (I understand that this is probably highly, highly political, in that it's part of a larger question of the extent to which a bunch of countries' problems can be blamed on European imperialism, etc.)