Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Operation Sportpalast/archive1

Operation Sportpalast

 * Nominator(s): Nick-D (talk) 01:11, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

This article covers the only occasion the famous German battleship Tirpitz was used to attack Allied shipping during World War II. On 6 March 1942 she was dispatched to attack two of the Allied Arctic Convoys off Norway. The British learned of her sailing through code breaking, leading to a cat and mouse chase in appalling weather. An attack against the battleship by British carrier aircraft failed on 9 March due to bad tactics, bad aircraft and a bit of bad luck, and she returned to her base on 13 March. Only one Allied merchant ship was sunk.

The article is the latest of a series I've brought to FAC on attacks against the Tirpitz. It was assessed as a GA in early August, and passed an A-class review a couple of weeks ago. I have since developed the article further, including by drawing on extra sources, with this burst of editing being aided by a COVID lockdown in my city which has left me with lots of spare time! I am now hopeful that the FA criteria are met. Thank you in advance for your comments. Nick-D (talk) 01:11, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

Image review
 * Suggest scaling up the maps. Nikkimaria (talk) 01:31, 17 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Done, and thank you for this review. Nick-D (talk) 02:50, 17 October 2021 (UTC)

Comments by Wehwalt

 * It might be good to state the general locality where the operation took place in the lead paragraph.
 * Done Nick-D (talk) 10:23, 18 October 2021 (UTC)
 * More soon.--Wehwalt (talk) 19:04, 17 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Sorry, am traveling and time not my own.
 * " Tromsö" This redirects to "Tromsø". Which is preferable? Note you use the latter on second use (with repeated link).
 * The latter - fixed Nick-D (talk) 09:19, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * "Admiral Commanding Battleships, Vice-Admiral Otto Ciliax, assumed command of this battle group" Is "Admiral Commanding Battleship" a formal title? If so, should "The" proceed it?
 * Yep, the German Navy had clunky-sounding titles like that. I've added a 'The'. Nick-D (talk) 09:19, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * " 12 pm on 5 March" would it be better to say "12 noon on 5 March"?
 * Yep, done Nick-D (talk) 09:19, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * "During the afternoon of 7 March the Admiralty warned PQ 12 that German ships may be operating in its vicinity." Should "may" be "might"? This may be engvar as I see you use similar usages elsewhere.
 * Probably more one of my quirks than any particular English variant (I work in an industry where emphatic language in written documents is actively discouraged). Tweaked to 'might' as I agree it's the better word. Nick-D (talk) 09:19, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Footnote 4: Should Bismarck be italicised?
 * It's not italicised in the source, so I don't think so. I've tweaked the presentation of this reference though. Nick-D (talk) 09:19, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * That's it.--Wehwalt (talk) 15:33, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Many thanks for these comments. Nick-D (talk) 09:19, 26 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Support--Wehwalt (talk) 14:23, 28 October 2021 (UTC)

Support from Iazyges

 * Reviewed at Milhist's ACR, happy to support as FA quality. Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  18:32, 18 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you Nick-D (talk) 09:46, 19 October 2021 (UTC)

Source review - pass
Taking this up for a source review also. Iazyges  Consermonor   Opus meum  16:32, 24 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Locations
 * Kennedy, Ludovic (1979) currently Boston, put into "Boston, Massachusetts (presumably).
 * Zetterling, Niklas; Tamelander, Michael (2009) change to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably)
 * I think that both those cities are well known as centres for publishing, and as the dominant cities of their names especially for publishing purposes. Nick-D (talk) 08:39, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * London and NYC are both good as mononyms, may wish to change Oxford to Oxford, Oxfordshire, but it and Cambridge are also generally accepted mononyms.


 * IDs
 * Dimbleby, Jonathan (2015) I only see the 978-0-241-97210-6 ISBN listed for one of the 10 listed WorldCat entries for the 2015 edition, double-check (if you own the book) that this ISBN is correct, most of the 2015 editions use 9780241186602 per WorldCat.
 * Checked, that that's the ISBN in the book Nick-D (talk) 08:39, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Roskill, Stephen W. (1956) per WorldCat it looks like the listed OCLC of 258695345 is for a 1957 edition; all of the 1956 editions have different OCLC's, but the one with the most coherent WorldCat page is 633635983; I'm unable to find the 258695345 OCLC in the link, so suggest changing the OCLC to 633635983. If you have a paper copy of the 258695345 check the date, and if it is 1956, disregard this as a failure of WorldCat.
 * Changed to 633635983, thanks. Nick-D (talk) 08:39, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Comments
 * Dimbleby, Jonathan (2015) is also published by the Oxford University Press, although this starts in 2016; if you can confirm page numbers are the same I'd suggest switching dates and publishers. Entirely depends on if you view the effort as worth your while though.
 * I'll stick with the only edition I have access to here ;) Nick-D (talk) 08:39, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * That is all. Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  17:05, 24 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks a lot for these comments. Nick-D (talk) 08:39, 25 October 2021 (UTC)
 * Article passes source review. Iazyges   Consermonor   Opus meum  13:48, 25 October 2021 (UTC)

Support from TRM
That takes me to "Battle". More to come. The Rambling Man (Keep wearing the mask...) 10:57, 4 November 2021 (UTC)
 * File:Fairey Albacore aircraft taking off from HMS Victorious to attack the German battleship Tirpitz on 9 March 1942.jpg, not seeing in the links on that image page where the date of 9 March 1942 (or even the "morning" take-off) is referenced?
 * Please see the IWM's caption - "A torpedo-carrying Fairey Albacore aircraft taking off from the flight deck. It is dawn and the TIRPITZ had been spotted so a force of 12 Fairey Albacores fitted with torpedoes take off from HMS VICTORIOUS". The image title at the IWM site notes it's of the Home Fleet's operations between 2-9 March 1942. As this is the only torpedo strike mentioned in any of the sources during this period (with multiple sources noting that the attack on 9 March was the only such attack made during the operation), it is clearly of the 9 March torpedo strike against Tirpitz. Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "It was conducted by..." infobox also mentions 8 submarines, why aren't they included?
 * Added Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "against Tirpitz' made" spare apostrophe here.
 * Fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "during early 1941. Between January and March 1941 " repetitive.
 * Fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "Sportpalast" is given in italics as part of the operation name, but the similarly German language "Rheinübung" is not, what's the overall approach to operation names and italics?
 * Fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "German submarines" were these U-Boats? Wouldn't that be a more precise link?
 * Same thing. The U-boat article is a summary of various German submarine types, so isn't very useful here. Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "This was done ... something ..." this doesn't feel like encyclopedic high quality writing.
 * Fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "The Royal Air Force dispatched " -> "The Royal Air Force (RAF) dispatched "
 * Done Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * File:HMS King George V viewed from HMS Victorious between 2 and 9 March 1942.jpg again, not seeing in the links on that image page where "viewed from HMS Victorious" is noted or referenced?
 * The rather wordy file title on the IWM site states that the photo was taken "ON BOARD HMS VICTORIOUS". The Commons caption expresses this better! Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "17 merchant ships ... two destroyers" MOSNUM, no mixing of words/numerals for comparable figures.
 * Done Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "Norwegian whalers. [20][22][23] " no space before refs.
 * Fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "comprised 15 merchant ... of two " MOSNUM again.
 * Fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "with the Fairey Albacore.[32] 817 Squadron had " I would merge these short sentences, with a semi-colon perhaps, and avoid starting that second, short sentence with a numeral.
 * Done Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "These obsolescent biplanes were slow and unmanoeuvrable.[34] Each could be armed with a single torpedo." again, two short sentences, makes the reading slightly clunky.
 * Good catch - fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "Fulmar fighters.[33] The Fulmar" repetitive.
 * Fixed Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * You previous linked "photo reconnaissance" but not "maritime patrol aircraft"?
 * Linked Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * "around 12 noon" is 12 needed here? Is there any other kind of noon?
 * Not even in the Arctic - fixed. Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Thanks for these comments. Please note that I'm going to be out of town for part of the weekend. Nick-D (talk) 08:55, 5 November 2021 (UTC)
 * No problem, happy to support in light of your responses. The Rambling Man (Keep wearing the mask...) 22:23, 6 November 2021 (UTC)
 * Thank you Nick-D (talk) 03:30, 7 November 2021 (UTC)

Hog Farm Talk 15:41, 15 November 2021 (UTC)