History of WW2DB

My name is C. Peter Chen, I am the founder and editor of World War II Database, and I thank you for visiting this website. When this project started, it was no more than my personal notebook in which I kept notes and copies of photographs about WW2. With a relational database model, I was able to connect people, events, photographs, and other elements of history with ease, and the content of this database quickly grew. In Oct 2004, I began exploring the possibility of sharing my notes over the web, thus born the foundations of the website that eventually opened to the public on 28 Dec 2004.

It has only been several years since the site had been in existance, and the content is still far from complete. I continue to add notes to this website on a regular basis, hoping that visitors will find the information useful and interesting. Although I am proud of this continuously growing site, I do not recommend this site to be used for academic research; this site remains no more than the extension of my own personal history notebook, and it has not been reviewed by any subject matter expert. I urge you to periodically review the Terms of Use for this website for important details.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at this link.

The WW2DB Team

In addition my own notes, this site only contains contributions from the following people whose knowledge, inspiration, and support give me the drive to keep the project going.

Morgan Bell
Alan Chanter
Bryan Hiatt
Thomas Houlihan
Dan K.
Janice Kim
John Radzilowski

Beyond the colleagues named above, there are also many who had contributed to this website indirectly. My family must be mentioned first, for that they put up with me disappearing into the study sometimes as soon as I return home from work, emerging only after they had gone to bed. I also thank author and historian Jonathan Parshall for fostering my hobby in history into something greater; he had become a mentor and a friend even though we have yet to meet in person. Jonathan Wirch and Eric Tow, too, for they continuously help me perform useability testing and offered various technical and web design feedback. Last but not least, Jack Costantino, who I have only met recently but he had already shown me new perspectives on history that I had not been able to see before. There are so many to name, and I apologize I cannot name them all. As this site grows, I can only say that it is only because of their support.

Copyright of External Material

I make the best effort to ensure all external material such as photographs, documents, maps, etc. featured in World War II Database site are either in the public domain or I have already secured permission to display them. If you have any questions or concerns in regards to the copyrighted material found on this website, please feel free to contact me.

Advertise on WW2DB

Interested in advertising your business on WW2DB.com? Please click here for details.

My Other Sites

In addition to WW2DB, I also maintain other websites. Some of them include:

cpeterchen.org My personal website
dev-notes.com Database and application development
CougarDB.com 1999-2002 Mercury Cougar registry
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Random Photograph
Missouri
Missouri's 40mm quad anti-aircraft machine crew at battle stations atop turret number two during her shakedown, Aug 1944; Alaska in background
Current Site Statistics
  • » 444 biographies
  • » 205 events
  • » 445 ships in 170 classes
  • » 186 aircraft models
  • » 190 weapon models
  • » 21 historical documents
  • » 82 books reviewed
  • » 5109 photos, 641 in color

Famous WW2 Quote
"The raising of that flag on Suribachi means a Marine Corps for the next 500 years."

James Forrestal, Secretary of the Navy, 23 February 1945

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