RealTimeWWII

{{Short description|History Twitter account (2011–)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}

{{Infobox website

| name = @RealTimeWWII

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| url = {{URL|https://twitter.com/RealTimeWWII}}

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| type = Twitter account

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| language = English

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| owner = Alwyn Collinson

| author = Alwyn Collinson

| launch_date = {{start date and age|2011|8}}

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| current_status = Online

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@RealTimeWWII is a Twitter feed describing the events of World War II, created by British historian and Oxford graduate Alwyn Collinson (born 1987).Newspapers stated he was 24 when he began the project in August 2011

Collinson began the feed in late August 2011, to coincide with the start of World War II with the German Invasion of Poland in September 1939. He has tweeted the events of the war as they happened on each date and time exactly 72 years earlier. The feed has over 500,000 followers and has received worldwide media attention.{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Christopher |date=2011-11-09 |title=Six-year project to tweet the Second World War |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8877167/Six-year-project-to-tweet-the-Second-World-War.html |work=The Telegraph |access-date=2022-12-24}}"" {{cite news |date=2011-11-10 |title=Oxford grad tweets WWII in real time |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-15672597 |work=BBC News |access-date=2022-12-24}}{{cite news |last=Schuessler |first=Jennifer |date=2011-11-28 |title=The Tweets of War: What's Past Is Postable |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/28/arts/re-enacting-historical-events-on-twitter-with-realtimewwii.html |work=The New York Times |access-date=2022-12-24}}

Collinson has described his project as a method of helping people understand history in real terms, rather than statistics, once stating it's about "turning numbers back into people."The Lost Lectures: Alwyn Collinson 'Realtime WWII': https://lostlectures.com/talk/realtime-world-war-ii/ He has lectured and given interviews on the project.Daily Motion/Huff Post Live: History Re-Tweets Itself – Live-Tweeting The Past: A History Lesson? http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xuki7z_history-re-tweets-itself-live-tweeting-the-past-a-history-lesson_tech#.UMT3wpPjn9c The project runs without advertising https://www.patreon.com/RealTimeWWII

Collinson concluded the project in August 2017, but resumed tweeting again from 1939 on 1 September.