Talk:The March (1945)

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I am moving this article from the title "The March" to "Lamsdorf Death March". At writing, none of the links to the title "The March" actually refers to this event, so I think the title "The March" is better made into a disambiguation. -- Infrogmation 02:20, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

I tend to disagree - Lamsdorf was only one of the many PoW camps involved. Most survivors I have spoken with have called it "The March" or "The Trek". -- Regards Oldfarm 21:58, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

I am completely open to other titles, but as "The March" has often been used to refer to other notable things as well, I think we need some way to disambiguate this one. Suggestions? -- Infrogmation 01:21, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

I repeat -- I have spoken to many survivors (including my father), and they always referred to the event as "The March". I take exception to the "Lamsdorf Death March" since this is pov from only one PoW camp (Stalag VIII-B). The problem is that "The March" involved: PoWs from many camps; many nationalities (Britain, Poland, France, Holland, United States, etc); civillians from the concentration camps; as well as German civillian refugees. The only book I have seen that describes the event in detail is "The Last Escape" by Nichol and Rennell (ISBN 0670032123), and there is no overall descriptive name used. In Sam Kydds book, "For You The War Is Over" (ISBN 0859740056), he calls the event "The Great Trek". Suggestions: "The Winter Retreat From the Russian Advance 1945" is a bit of a mouthfull. How about "The Death March of 1945" or "The Great Trek West of 1945". Oldfarm 15:26, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

Either of those seem reasonable. As far as I'm concerned, feel free to move the article to whichever of those you think better, perhaps "The Death March of 1945" seems more evocative. If I can be of assistance in the move just ask on my user talk page. I moved the article to "Lamsdorf Death March" as the article said that was alternative name for the event and I thought "The March" should be a disambiguation page. I don't doubt that most involved simply called it "The March"-- the problem with entitling the article that way is that other things have also been called "The March". I think this is the type of eventuality for which disambiguation pages are intended. Cheers, -- Infrogmation 19:06, 30 December 2005 (UTC)

I also note we presently have no article on Lamsdorf. Should we? Wondering simply, -- 02:30, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

There is a tag for Stalag VIII-B Lamsdorf at List of German WWII POW camps (under Military District VIII) -- Regards Oldfarm 21:58, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Move to new name

I am moving this article from the title "Lamsdorf Death March" to "The Forced March from the Eastern Front", since Lamsdorf was only one of scores of PoW camps involved. Oldfarm 00:24, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Since most POWs call it "The March" then it should be called "The March", anything else is original research. How about simply The March (1945). This is how things are normally done when an event has the same name across multiple dates. See for example Siege of Jerusalem which contains 7 separate sieges and articles under the same name. --Stbalbach 06:10, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Sounds good to me, answers all my reservations regarding other names Oldfarm 13:07, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

Fine by me. -- Infrogmation 14:58, 31 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] –25 ... well below zero

The text says:

"January and February 1945 were among the coldest winter months of the twentieth century, with blizzards and temperatures as low as -25, even until the middle of March temperatures were well below zero."

Is that Celsius or Fahrenheit? Whichever it is, it would be nice to provide a "translation" into the other system, since Wikipedia is read by people familiar with both. So please either "–25°C (–13°F) ... well below freezing" or "–25°F (–32°C) ... well below 0°F (–18°C)". Thanks! Angr/talk 19:09, 3 February 2006 (UTC)