Talk:German bombing of Belgrade

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On 18 September 2024, it was proposed that this article be moved from Operation Retribution (1941) to German bombing of Belgrade. The result of the discussion was moved.

I have reversed the move to Bombing of Belgrade in World War II, as that is NOT the scope of the article. This article relates only to Operation Retribution, the bombing of Belgrade at the outset of the Axis invasion in April 1941, not the later bombing of Belgrade by the Allies that occurred between 1941 and 1945, covered by Allied bombing of Yugoslavia in World War II. When moving articles, please take into account the scope of the article, other articles that might cover the topic, and the class of the article, and use an RM if unsure. Thanks, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 10:10, 12 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Dear @Peacemaker67:, I have doubts on the Easter.

First of all, 6 april gregorian was saturday, so cannot be the Easter Sunday. This is sure.

Gilbert (Grande Storia della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, I have it in italian ...) states that Beograd was full of people collected there to celebrate the Palm Sunday (evidently the next day). The correctness of Gilbert is highly probable.

My computer program computes that the Orthodox Easter was on 7 april julian i.e. 20 april gregorian. Quite probably I have a bug ...

Suppongoche (talk) 19:25, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The dates of my program have been confirmed by a pair of INTERNET calculators. I may only guess that the serb church used a rule different from that implemented in the Gauss algorithm (e.g. a more accurate formula for the lunar motion) Suppongoche (talk) 20:29, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Although the source does indeed say this, it would appear the author (Zakić) is mistaken and you are correct. Easter Sunday in 1941 took place on 20 April (Gregorian). It would appear that it was the 1944 bombing that coincided with Easter Sunday, not the 1941 one. I will therefore remove this in accordance with WP:V. Good catch! Amanuensis Balkanicus (talk) 20:54, 17 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Seems legit. Thanks, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 01:33, 18 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

As a consequence, the Palm Sunday of Gilbert (claimed to be a main factor of the heavy life toll) is the catholic one. Suppongoche (talk) 03:53, 18 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The conversion of short/long tons of bombs dropped has been changed in this article to SI units (tonnes), so I reverted, but was myself reverted with the edit summary "It's standard practice to use SI units on wikipedia articles, especially those that relate to countries other than the US, per MOS:UNITS. Also it's less confusing for readers." In fact, there are thousands of articles on WP which use short and long tons, because the sources that were used to create them describe them in that way, and it is standard in the literature. It is entirely "standard practice" on articles about ships. For example, HMS Dreadnought (1906) (a GA), SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand (an FA), and many, many more. Every naval ship FA I have worked up (about 25 articles) uses them, and the same would apply to several highly prolific naval ship editors who have developed far more FAs than me. Among articles about bombing, Bombing of Tokyo (10 March 1945) also uses short tons. For an editor with 300 edits to suggest that they know "standard practice" on WP better than an editor with over 90,000 is also a bit rich. There is no reason whatsoever to insist on this reading of MOS:UNITS. Thanks, Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 04:31, 23 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Naval literature has its own traditions such as listing speed in knots, that is well established. But measuring the weight of bombs has no established tradition that would set it apart from other descriptions of weight. It is just that - a simple description of mass meant to be understandable to the average reader. Regarding the use of short tons on Tokyo's bombing, that bombing was done by USAAF and the MOS clearly states: “In non-scientific articles with strong ties to the United States, the main unit is generally a U.S. customary unit ”. The bombing of Belgrade was done by Germany on Yugoslavia (Serbia), both of which are metric countries and the article has no strong ties with the United States.

Regarding other articles pertinent countries the MOS states:

• In all other articles, the primary units chosen will be SI units, non-SI units officially accepted for use with the SI, or such other units as are conventional in reliable-source discussions of the article topic (such as revolutions per minute (rpm) for rotational speed, hands for heights of horses, etc.)

If you have 90 000 edits you should probably know this by now. Andro611 (talk) 01:18, 25 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]