World War II Database

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, a year after I founded the consulting firm Lava Development, LLC., I began building the WW2DB as a public website for Lava to achieve two goals simultaneously: To share my notes with fellow military history enthusiasts and to showcase the technical capabilities of my consulting firm. From this initiative 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 existence, 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. At the same time, with WW2DB being the showcase of Lava Development, LLC., the website continues to receive regular technical enhancements so that the presentation of the historical information is always being enhanced. Although I am proud of this continuously growing site, I do not recommend this site to be used for academic research; the historical information of this site remains no more than the the work of a hobbyist not 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.

The WW2DB Team

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

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, co-founder of Lava Development, LLC., for his technical expertise. There are too many others to name, and I apologize I cannot list 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.

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