Humanities desk
< June 5	<< May \| June \| Jul >>	June 7 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Humanities Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

June 6[edit]

Second largest Somali population in the US?[edit]

I am confused. The article "Somali-American" said that Columbus, Ohio has the largest Somali population of the nation while the article Kansas City, Missouri in its section Demographics say it has the second largest Somali population. Which one is true? Is it Columbus, Ohio or Kansas City, Missouri? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.154.253 (talk) 03:26, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

To add to the confusion, I lived for a short time in San Diego, CA in a neighborhood that was primarily Somali at the time. They still claim] to also have the second largest Somali population in the US.--William Thweatt ^Talk^Contribs 03:46, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Unless the OP omitted a word, Columbus is first, Kansas City second, where's the problem? —Tamfang (talk) 07:28, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

According to Somali American, the Minneapolis metro area has the largest Somali population. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:59, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry for the question, I mean to ask: Which city claims to have the "second largest Somali population"? Is it Columbus, Ohio or Kansas City, Missouri? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.92.154.253 (talk) 14:23, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe they both make that claim. —Tamfang (talk) 00:20, 8 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Is this a French military base?[edit]

This looks like a military base, and a pretty substantial one stretching a long way south. Can anyone shed any light on it? Even just the name would help in further research. Many thanks. Dalliance (talk) 13:03, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The settlement you see just to the north of your marker is Biscarrosse Plage (Biscarrosse Beach) which would be one of the settlements of the commune Biscarrosse (You can see the main settlement to the east of your marker. As noted in the article Biscarrosse, there's a military rocket testing facility named DGA Essais de missiles. That may be it. --Jayron32 13:17, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

(ec) The Google StreetView reveals three direction signs at the entrance. They appear to read

DGA (which is the French ministry of Defense)
Centre de secours (a first-response facility for fire or paramedics)
17 Régiment d'Artillerie

The last one presumably refers to fr:17e régiment d'artillerie, which became the fr:17e groupe d'artillerie (17th Artillery Group), and seems to be located in the correct place. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 13:18, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Great, thank you both very much. Dalliance (talk) 22:15, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Destruction of the city of Caen[edit]

Who commanded, and why, the bombing of the city of Caen, during WWII ? This is a question which I was asked once: but why did you destroy Caen ? This did not, and still does not, make any sense to me. Where there any airplanes of the USAAF engaged in that matter ? --Askedonty (talk) 13:42, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

There is a very detailed article on the Battle for Caen and on Operation Charnwood. Caen was a major strategic hub, controlling the Seine River and the route to Paris, and the German Army decided to make a stand there. So the allies told the population to get out and concentrated all means available on destroying the German forces hunkered in the city, including bombing it. Anthony Beevor has argued in the book D-Day: the Battle for Normandy that the bombing was unnecessary and akin to a war crime, but his view is a minority one (see this article if you can read French [1]). --Xuxl (talk) 14:05, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed: see Antony Beevor says D-Day bombing 'close to a war crime'. The use of saturation bombing as a means of supporting a ground offensive proved not to be as effective as the advocates of air power claimed. Another controversial event was the Bombing of Monte Cassino. Alansplodge (talk) 16:07, 6 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The point in the question I'd been asked did not seem to be that much the civilian casualties ( the turmoil extended to a much greater area than the city ) than the loss of the old city. But I remember indeed that the next consideration had been the Bombing of Monte Cassino. --Askedonty (talk) 07:58, 7 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Monte Cassino was slightly different in that, the Allies both not knowing and partly not caring, the Germans were not using the buildings for military purposes, nor intended to. Once the buildings were turned into rubble by the bombings, the Germans used the rubble for military purposes with some success. By contrast, at Caen the Germans were using the city as a defensive position from the outset. --Demiurge1000 (talk) 12:19, 7 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

The point of similarity is that in both case, the attacking Allies expected a devastating air bombardment to open up the defences for them, which didn't happen. Alansplodge (talk) 20:55, 7 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Compare the destruction of Louvain in WWI by the Germans, an act that turns my stomach when I think about it. μηδείς (talk) 17:15, 7 June 2014 (UTC)[reply]