Why doesn't Poland or Lithuania have that land? Is it because of the importance to Russia of having a port in the Baltic? But they already have the coastline around St. Petersburg.

Also, I'm wondering about the logistics of that part of the country. Does Russia have a deal with Lithuania/Belarus/Latvia to move goods and resources between there and the main part of the country, or do most goods travel by ship between there and St. Petersburg?

• Did they focus more on humanities or hard science?

• What was its stance on pre-revolution russian history?

• What about more controversial issues, like the Caucasus occupation and the Circassian genocide?

• How much did it change during its existence?

I was under the impression that the bayonet lost prominence over time, and specialty troops such as light infantry began to see more action. But other than that, I'm not very sure how one period differed from the other. There must have been some significant changes over the time of the Spanish Wars of Succession and what was the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars, even though in most media depictions, the warfare is portrayed as virtually identical.

How did the actual combat engagements change during this time period both technologically and tactically?

edit: Additional question. What would an engagement be like for an infantrymen/company in a standoff? How long until the other side broke and what factors went into victory?

We seem to know a lot about Greek contributions to philosophy, art and science but with the vast Persian empire existing concurrently, is there any mark they similarly left upon our culture?

The Mongols conquered vast swathes of land during the 13th century with enormous hordes. As the hordes were almost constantly warring and expanding, how did the Mongols maintain the lands they had taken militarily? Surely there must have been a lack of soldiers if they were on campaign far off, so how were the lands closer to their heartland defended? Were local men used? If so, were there any major rebellions? I cannot fathom how such a huge empire was successfully fortified and manned.

I was told recently that battles were in this time frame were organised prior to it actually happening and that they were only fought during the day and never at night.

Is there any truth to this or is it utter nonsense?

Tao te Ching

On occasions of festivity to be on the left hand is the prized position; on occasions of mourning, the right hand.

The Bible

A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.

??? ?

Most of them are about 10x10 and a lot of them have dates and other metadata printed on them that I can't understand. Some are taken top-down from high above and are before and after bombings. There are also a lot of low altitude lower-angle shots of bridges before and after being destroyed, along with shots of castles and beaches and fleets of planes in the air.

Mostly I'm curious as to the best way to digitize these and also preserve the originals. I have an Epson V600 scanner that can do a wide range of DPIs. The scanner bed isn't quite wide enough, but most of the pictures have a black border around them so very little image would be lost. Also wondering what image format to use. This might be a better question for a photography subreddit but the nature of these pictures seems very historically relevant (and possibly rare) and I'm hoping these are of interest to some of you who could also provide context for them once I post them online.

Here is some information I've pulled from the photographs so far:

April 1944:

• Chalgrove

• Namur m/y Belgium

• Cherbourg mapping mission

• Holland mapping mission - 6,000 sq miles in 45 minutes

• Gottingen Airfield

May 1944:

• A port coverage - Boulogne

• A french coast airfield destroyed by germans

• A low altitude BDA of Dieppe

June 1944:

• Moving film-compensating camera mission for paratroopers, Carentan Area

• Normandy Hedgerows, A-9 is born

July 1944:

• BOQ, Le Molay

• St. Lo - Above and Below

• First View of France

• Nevers m/y

• Tank Battle Grounds - St. Lo Area

• Enroute to France

August 1944:

• The Bar-le Molay

• Harbor at Brest

• Bridge Out - Loire River

• Isle of Cezembre

• BDA of tours Marshalling Yard

September 1944:

• Paris

• St. Malo

• Tousses - Le Noble

• Naptha-Jel-Bomb, Isle De Cezembre

October 1944:

• P-38 over Belgium - Happy Landing

• A Merton Gridded oblique for artillery - the Rhine Area

November 1944:

• Aachen

• Roer River Dam

• Kesternich

• The Dragons Teeth

December 1944

• St. Vith

• Giessen m/y

• Kassel/Rothweston

• Coal Piles at Chaleroi, Belgium

• Mertzhausen l/g

• Nidba

• Dicing shot Gossellies, Belgium - Local Brewery

• Kirch(g?)ons

• Dicing Shot - Crew cheifs

• Dicing shot of D/F

• Kassel/Rothweston

• Altenstrot

• Ettinghausen

January 1945:

• A target of opportunity - this was an ammo train

• Neuweid Road Bridge - before and after bombings

• St. Vith - Before and after bombings, and another

• Practice Mission - Sed-n

• R/R Fla- Wagons

• Fortification

• Neuweid Road Bridge

• Train hit by F/B near Euskirchen

• Bridge at M-082351

• Kassel/Rothweston

• Ettinghausen

• Dicing shot of A/F

• (6) Hamm

• A/F at Kirchgons

• Ta- to take off position

February 1945:

• "Table top" model of Remagen

• An attempt to hide the Engers Rail Bridge with smoke

• B-26's out to hit targer

• (3)Duren - bomb craters

• A BDA, one day after bombing and strip repaired - Ettinghausen

• Cologne Rail & Road bridges

• Roer River Dam

• Neweid Bridge

• Cologne Rail & Road Bridges

• The I.G. Farben industry at Leverkusen

• Oil Fire B-17's & 24's Leveurkirsken - North of Koln

March 1945:

• Gosselies-Charleroi

• Highway bridge at Koblenz

• Remagen Bridgehead

• Koln - bombed - shelled - Stormed - Captured

• Ordensburg Vogelsang (Hitler?)

• Roe(r/v) River showing fortifications

• Koln Cathedral - R/R Bridge - Rhine River

• This was Dur(--)

• Flooded Roer River after blowing the dams by german forces

• Bridge south of Cologne

• Cathedral at Cologne

• Remagen's Ludendorff and ponton bridges

• Airborne invasion across Rhine

• Ruined German Village

April 1945:

• Gotha prisoner of war camp

• Mt. Brochen

• Snooper over Germany

• Restricted document: Locality: osterode N.W. (R.R. siding)

• Castle Apelstadt

• Langensalza

• Gottingen

• Gotha

• Remagen's Ludendorff and ponton

• Castle at Erfurt

• Nordhausen

• Autobahn convoy

• Gottingen

• Snooper over Windenhausen, Germany

• Cologne

• Langensalza

• Limburg

• Gotha

• Base at Eschwege

• Gottingen

May 1945:

• Kassel

• Bismark Tower - Es(c/o?)hwege, Germany

• Autobaun - East of Kassel

• World's largest jamming station, German - Near Weisbaden

• Weisbaden, Germany, Red Cross Club

• Autobaun, East of Hassel over We--- River

• J(u?)-88 SHot down over our field, last day of war

June 1945

• Eschwege a/f r-11

• Brussels, Belgium

• Wei(m?)ar a/f r-7

These are just the ones that are labeled - I have many more, including what appear to be the beaches at Normandy along with many shots of Paris.

My grandfather left these to my Uncle who is now the rightful owner. Should I suggest that he donate them to a museum after I digitize them? I don't know how rare these are or if other copies even exist.

I know this post is a tease as I haven't included any actual pictures, but I certainly will once I know the best method for digitizing them and if there is a real interest.

Thanks!

By "comprehensive" I mean a text that's both thorough and expansive, covering all ~250 years of American history. I've got no clue where to begin, and was hoping some historians here could point me in the right direction. Thanks!

Every so often there is a scandal where a mother publicly announces that her child's father is a celebrity. Last year a woman claimed, apparently falsefully, that Justin Bieber got her pregnant. Is this an entirely modern phenomenon, or are their cases of women doing this in centuries past for wealth and renown?

Pretty much just as the title says. What king of numbers worked on an average, medium size, fully staffed ship? Was their a different between pirates/privateers/buccaneers and ships of the crown eg Spain and England? What was considered understaffed? Is there any book or resource that gives a rundown of this sort of info for different ships and of ship classes?

I'm referring to the Munich Pact of 1938, and I'm mostly interested in what the regular people, the politicians, and perhaps the military commanders (on all sides) thought of it at at time, i.e. before and shortly after the agreement was signed and prior to the outbreak of WWII. Thank you!

I'm wanting to read up on the topic but I don't know where to start