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Questions tagged [1940s]

Referring to the time period between 1940 A.D. and 1949 A.D. by the Gregorian calendar.

1 vote
1 answer
250 views

How much oil was Germany able to secure after invasion of France?

How much oil was Germany able to secure after its invasion of France in 1940 from the French oil stockpiles? Was this a significant amount that allowed for further Operations, e.g. during Barbarossa ...
Dominik Bucher's user avatar
23 votes
3 answers
10k views

Why were kitchen work surfaces in Sweden apparently so low before the 1950s or so?

Watching old "newsreel"-like films from the 1950s and 1960s, and seeing this in old comics and from other Swedish sources, I have formed the perception that many/most/all kitchens in Sweden, ...
Avanti D.'s user avatar
  • 231
11 votes
1 answer
1k views

How did German racial laws affect people who weren't Jewish but one of their parents wasn't German?

It's a bit strange question but I can't find anything in this topic. So currently I'm working on a book that is set in the 1940's in Germany, and one of the characters in it was born to a British ...
AnnaBonyhády's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
117 views

How difficult would it have been for a European to obtain access to US scientific journals in 1945?

On May 1, 1945, volume 158 of the Journal of Biologic Chemistry was published. I'd like to establish to what degree –and how soon thereafter– its content may have been accessible in continental Europe ...
m.a.a.'s user avatar
  • 111
15 votes
1 answer
4k views

Was FDR right that a garden hose was really $15 in 1940 (c.a. $300 today)?

As FDR stated in a White House Press conference on December 17, 1940: "What I am trying to do is eliminate the dollar sign. All right! Well let me give you an illustration: Suppose my neighbor's ...
bvargo's user avatar
  • 279
6 votes
1 answer
525 views

What percentage of people were acquitted in "Stalin's trials"

What proportion of those accused under Article 58 and other political articles were acquitted in 1930-1953 in the USSR?
user31264's user avatar
  • 185
3 votes
1 answer
675 views

Where can I find more information about destruction of a castle in Merlas, France?

On approximately the 21st of June 1944, some German troops burned a "castle" (not an historical one, built just before 1900) in the commune of Merlas (Isère), in the south-east of France. ...
F. C.'s user avatar
  • 135
-1 votes
1 answer
142 views

Which operation came last in World War 2? [closed]

Which operation came last in World War 2? I know that the Kwantung Army was defeated on the 2nd of September 1945 during the Soviet Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation (9th of August - 2nd of ...
Zhiltsoff Igor's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
212 views

When did blackouts occur in Cairo during WW2?

In what date was Cairo blackout lifted in WW2? Was the date celebrated in the following years? And, not less important: what notable events were in December 21st 1944? A little background: Someone I ...
Meymann's user avatar
  • 185
55 votes
4 answers
9k views

What do the phone number suffixes J, M, R, W in 1940 New York phone book mean?

Browsing through the Staten Island, NY telephone directory of January 1940, I found that certain phone numbers were printed with a suffix J, M, R or W. What do these mean? I've marked a few of them in ...
MTA's user avatar
  • 603
3 votes
2 answers
451 views

What relation do the early sexual experiences of Lolita and her classmates bear to the real experience of children in New England in 1947?

In the last pages of part 1 of Nabokov's Lolita the title character's abuser Humbert relates 12 year old Dolores's (Lolita is H's nickname for her) description of her own previous sexual experiences, ...
CIR's user avatar
  • 71
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

How long did men have to serve in the US army until they were promoted to sergeants during WW2?

During the Second World War men rose through ranks much quicker than they do today due to heavy losses and they went from private to corporal and corporal to sergeant after serving only a small amount ...
Katerina's user avatar
  • 355
9 votes
1 answer
265 views

How serious was the initiative to create "One World Airline"?

I came across this in the provenance of a map of airmail routes in 1940: Lloyd Welch Pogue (October 21, 1899 – May 10, 2003) American aviation lawyer and chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board. ...
pokep's user avatar
  • 1,815
17 votes
4 answers
4k views

Why did the Japanese attack the Aleutians at the same time as Midway?

Here's where I am starting from: Aleutians, Battle of Dutch Harbor - June 3–4, 1942. 2 smaller aircraft carriers. Main Midway battle. June 4-7. 4 big carriers, with 2 smaller that weren't right ...
Italian Philosophers 4 Monica's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
816 views

Were prisons in Maine mixed race in 1947?

In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, white Andy Dufresne (played by Tim Robbins) and black Ellis "Red" Redding (played by Morgan Freeman) are in the same prison. I don't remember if it was said ...
Armin's user avatar
  • 535

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