World War II Database

In the past nine years, WW2DB has grown from a crude amateur history enthusiast website to a slightly less crude one. I am very proud of its growth over the past few years, fueled by the support and encouragement of visitors and the small team of contributors. As I have done in the past anniversary dates, I will take a moment to review the snapshot of WW2DB site statistics; the numbers in parenthesis show the growth since one year ago on 29 Dec 2012.

• 760 biographies (+59)
• 307 events (+20)
• 28,815 timeline entries (+3,203)
• 685 ships (+39)
• 306 aircraft models (+7)
• 163 vehicle models (+11)
• 255 weapon models (+2)
• 19 facilities (new section)
• 73 historical documents (+10)
• 312 books reviewed (+47)
• 219 maps (+25)
• 17,613 photos (+2,765), 1,538 in color (+145)
• 11,707 visitor comments (+1,609)

Continuing with statistics, over at Facebook, WW2DB has 119,590 fans (+108,074); the 100,000 fans milestone was just recently crossed on 21 Nov 2013. Meanwhile, 4,332 Twitter followers keep up with the site (+1,855). WW2DB has launched a presence on Google+ this year; at only 63 followers, it is indeed still in its infancy stages.

Did you catch the mention of "facilities" a few lines above? If so, you probably have just realized that WW2DB has just launched a new facilities section! It will slowly be filled with more military bases, command headquarters, important manufacturing centers, and other facilities of importance in the WW2 era. Like the rest of the site, the facilities section will be an ongoing team effort, but special thanks must go to David Stubblebine for the initial push to start this section earlier this year.

I have also released something else new: In the Timeline section of the site, the site is now allowing visitors to query the database by date range, location, and keywords. It is among the first steps for us to open up WW2DB's data to the visitors to help answer specific questions such as "what happened in Berlin in the month of May 1943" or "show me all the entries in which the name 'Churchill' was mentioned". Similar functionality elsewhere on the website is being planned as well.

As WW2DB moves into the milestone 10th year, I cannot help but to look back at the past nine years, hoping that you have enjoyed the information that WW2DB had published, and hoping that you will continue to find the website meaningful and enjoyable.

C. Peter Chen
Founder and Managing Editor
World War II Database

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