Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/April 2012/Articles


 * Battle of Arawe (Nick-D) : The Battle of Arawe was fought between Allied and Japanese forces during the New Britain Campaign of World War II. The battle formed part of the Allied Operation Cartwheel, and was intended to serve as a diversion before a larger landing at Cape Gloucester in late December 1943. The Japanese military was expecting an Allied offensive in western New Britain, and was reinforcing the region at the time of the Allied landing in the Arawe area on 15 December 1943. The Allies secured Arawe after about a month of intermittent fighting with the outnumbered Japanese force there. Initial Allied goals for the landing at Arawe included securing a base for American PT boats and diverting Japanese forces away from Cape Gloucester. The PT boat base was subsequently deemed unnecessary and was never built. The main Allied landing on 15 December was successful, despite a failed subsidiary landing and problems coordinating the landing craft. U.S. forces quickly secured a beachhead and dug in. Japanese air units made large-scale raids against the Arawe area in the days after the landing, and in late December Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) unsuccessfully counterattacked the American force. In mid-January 1944 the U.S. force, reinforced with additional infantry and tanks, launched a brief offensive that pushed the Japanese back, and they withdrew from the area towards the end of February as part of a general retreat from western New Britain. There is no consensus among historians on whether the Allied offensive at Arawe was necessary. While some have argued that the landing served as a useful diversion ahead of the Cape Gloucester operation, others believe that the entire campaign in western New Britain was unnecessary.


 * HMS Queen Mary (Sturmvogel 66) : HMS Queen Mary was the last battlecruiser built by the Royal Navy before World War I. The sole member of her class, Queen Mary shared many features with the Lion-class battlecruisers, including her eight 13.5 in guns. She was completed in 1913 and participated in the Battle of Heligoland Bight as part of the Grand Fleet in 1914. Like most of the modern British battlecruisers, she never left the North Sea during the war. As part of the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron, she attempted to intercept a German force that bombarded the North Sea coast of England in December 1914, but was unsuccessful. She was refitting in early 1915 and missed the Battle of Dogger Bank in January, but participated in the largest fleet action of the war, the Battle of Jutland in mid-1916. She was hit twice by the German battlecruiser SMS Derfflinger during the early part of the battle and her magazines exploded shortly afterwards, sinking the ship. Her wreck was discovered in 1991 and rests in pieces, some of which are upside down, on the floor of the North Sea. Queen Mary is designated as a protected place under the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 as it is the grave of 1,266 officers and men.


 * Pain fitzJohn (Ealdgyth) : Pain fitzJohn (sometimes Payn fitzJohn, Payn FitzJohn, or Pagan fitzJohn) was an Anglo-Norman nobleman and administrator, one of King Henry I of England's "new men", who owed their positions and wealth to the king. Pain's family originated in Normandy, but there is little to suggest that he had many ties there, and he appears to have spent most of his career in England and the Welsh Marches. A son of a minor nobleman, he rose through ability to become an important royal official during Henry's reign. In 1115 he was rewarded with marriage to an heiress, thereby gaining control of the town of Ludlow and its castle, which he augmented with further acquisitions. Although later medieval traditions described Pain as a chamberlain to King Henry, that position is not securely confirmed in contemporary records. He did hold other offices though, including that of sheriff in two counties near the border between England and Wales.  In his capacity as a royal justice Pain also heard legal cases for the king throughout much of western England. After King Henry's death in 1135 Pain supported Henry's nephew, King Stephen, and was with the new king throughout 1136.  In July 1137 Pain was ambushed by the Welsh and killed as he was leading a relief expedition to the garrison at Carmarthen.  His heirs were his daughters, Cecily and Agnes. Cecily married the son of one of Pain's close associates, Miles of Gloucester.  Pain was generous in his gifts of land to a number of monastic houses.


 * Spanish conquest of Guatemala (Simon Burchell) : The Spanish conquest of Guatemala was a conflict that formed a part of the Spanish colonization of the Americas within the territory of what became the modern country of Guatemala. Before the conquest, this territory contained a number of competing Mesoamerican kingdoms, the majority of which were Maya. Many conquistadors viewed the Maya as "infidels" who needed to be forcefully converted and pacified, disregarding the achievements of their civilization. The first contact between the Maya and European explorers came in the early 16th century when a Spanish ship sailing from Panama to Santo Domingo was wrecked on the east coast of the Yucatán Peninsula in 1511. Several Spanish expeditions followed in 1517 and 1519, making landfall on various parts of the Yucatán coast. The Spanish conquest of the Maya was a prolonged affair; the Maya kingdoms resisted integration into the Spanish Empire with such tenacity that their defeat took almost two centuries. Pedro de Alvarado arrived in Guatemala from the newly-conquered Mexico in early 1524, commanding a mixed force of Spanish conquistadors and native allies, mostly from Tlaxcala and Cholula. The Kaqchikel Maya initially allied themselves with the Spanish, but soon rebelled against excessive demands for tribute and did not finally surrender until 1530. In the meantime the other major highland Maya kingdoms had each been defeated in turn by the Spanish and allied warriors from Mexico and already subjugated Maya kingdoms in Guatemala. The Itza Maya and other lowland groups in the Petén Basin were first contacted by Hernán Cortés in 1525, but remained independent and hostile to the encroaching Spanish until 1697, when a concerted Spanish assault finally defeated the last independent Maya kingdom.


 * James Garrard (Acdixon) : James Garrard (1749–1822) was a farmer and Baptist minister who served as the second governor of Kentucky from 1796 to 1804. Due to term limits imposed by the state constitution adopted in 1799, he was the last Kentucky governor elected to two consecutive terms until the restriction was eased by a 1992 amendment. After serving in the Revolutionary War, Garrard held several local political offices and a seat in the Virginia House of Delegates. He was chosen as a delegate to five of the ten statehood conventions that secured Kentucky's separation from Virginia and helped write the state's first constitution. Garrard was among the delegates who unsuccessfully tried to exclude guarantees of the continuance of slavery from the document. In 1795, he sought to succeed Isaac Shelby as governor. In a three-way race, Benjamin Logan received a plurality, but not a majority, of the electoral votes cast. Although the state constitution did not specify whether a plurality or a majority was required, the electors held another vote between the top two candidates – Logan and Garrard – and on this vote, Garrard received a majority. A Democratic-Republican, Garrard opposed the Alien and Sedition Acts and favored passage of the Kentucky Resolutions. He lobbied for public education, militia and prison reforms, business subsidies, and legislation favorable to the state's large debtor class. He was re-elected in 1799. Late in his second term, he adopted some doctrines of Unitarianism, and he was expelled from the Baptist church, ending his ministry. He also clashed with the legislature over the appointment of a registrar for the state land office, leaving him embittered and unwilling to continue in politics after the conclusion of his term. He retired to his estate, Mount Lebanon, and engaged in agricultural and commercial pursuits until his death. Garrard County, Kentucky, created during his first term, was named in his honor.


 * Jesse L. Brown (Ed!): Jesse LeRoy Brown (1926–1950) was the first African-American naval aviator in the United States Navy, and the first naval officer killed in the Korean War. Born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to an impoverished family, Brown gained an avid interest in aircraft from a young age. In spite of encountering deep-seated institutionalized racism, Brown was able to graduate as salutatorian of his high school. Brown enlisted in the US Navy in 1946 and became a midshipman one year later. Brown earned his pilot wings on 21 October 1948, to great press coverage. He was subsequently assigned to Fighter Squadron 32 aboard the USS Leyte. Upon the outset of the Korean War, the Leyte was ordered to the Korean Peninsula, arriving in October 1950. Brown, an ensign, flew 20 combat missions until 4 December 1950, when during a mission supporting ground troops at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, Brown's F4U Corsair aircraft was shot down on a remote mountaintop, pinning him inside. In spite of efforts by wingman Thomas J. Hudner, Jr., who intentionally crashed his aircraft to try and rescue Brown, the latter died of his wounds. Hudner was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions. Brown's efforts to overcome segregation in the US military and his death served as an inspiration for other African Americans. His life was later memorialized in several books, and the USS Jesse L. Brown (DE-1089) was named in his honor.


 * Roy Dowling (Ian Rose): Vice Admiral Sir Roy Russell Dowling KCVO, KBE, CB, DSO (1901–1969) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). He served as Chief of Naval Staff (CNS), the RAN's highest-ranking position, from 1955 until 1959, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1959 until 1961. Graduating from the Royal Australian Naval College in 1919, Dowling went to sea aboard various Royal Navy and RAN vessels, and later specialised in gunnery. In 1937 he was given command of the sloop HMAS Swan. Following the outbreak of World War II, he saw action in the Mediterranean as executive officer of the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Naiad, and survived her sinking by a German U-boat in March 1942. Returning to Australia, he served as Director of Plans and later Deputy Chief of Naval Staff before being appointed captain of the light cruiser HMAS Hobart in November 1944. Dowling took command of the RAN's first aircraft carrier, HMAS Sydney, in 1948. He became Chief of Naval Personnel in 1950, and Flag Officer Commanding HM Australian Fleet in 1953. As CNS from February 1955, he had to deal with shortages of money, manpower and equipment, and with the increasing role of the United States in Australia's defence planning, at the expense of traditional ties with Britain. Knighted in 1957, Dowling was Chairman of COSC from March 1959 until May 1961, when he retired from the military. In 1963 became Australian Secretary to HM Queen Elizabeth II, serving until his death in 1969.


 * Thomas Blamey (Hawkeye7) : Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey (1884–1951) was a general of the First and Second World Wars, the only Australian to date to attain the rank of field marshal. He joined the Australian Army as a regular soldier in 1906. During the First World War he participated in the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and served as a staff officer in the Gallipoli Campaign and the Western Front. After the war Blamey was Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and was involved in the creation of the Royal Australian Air Force. He resigned from the regular Army in 1925 to become Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police, but remained in the Militia. He resigned from the police in 1936 following two scandals. During the first years of the Second World War he commanded the Second Australian Imperial Force and I Corps in the Middle East. In 1942, Blamey returned to Australia as Commander in Chief of the Australian Military Forces and Commander of Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific Area. He oversaw several successful campaigns, including a series of controversial offensives in the last months of the war. Blamey signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of Australia at Japan's ceremonial surrender in Tokyo Bay on 3 September 1945, and later personally accepted the Japanese surrender at Morotai. He was promoted to field marshal in June 1950.


 * William McKinley (Coemgenus and Wehwalt) : William McKinley (1843–1901) was the 25th President of the United States, serving from 1897 until his death. He led the nation to victory in the Spanish-American War, raised protective tariffs to promote American industry, and maintained the nation on the gold standard in a rejection of inflationary proposals.  He was assassinated by an anarchist in September 1901, but his presidency began a period of over a third of a century dominated by the Republican Party. McKinley served in the Civil War and rose from private to brevet major.  In 1876, he was elected to Congress, where he became the Republican Party's expert on the protective tariff, which he promised would bring prosperity.  His 1890 McKinley Tariff was highly controversial. He was elected Ohio's governor in 1891 and 1893, steering a moderate course between capital and labor interests.  McKinley secured the Republican nomination for president in 1896, amid a deep economic depression, and defeated his Democratic rival, William Jennings Bryan. Rapid economic growth marked McKinley's presidency. He promoted the 1897 Dingley Tariff to protect manufacturers and factory workers from foreign competition, and in 1900, he secured the passage of the Gold Standard Act.  McKinley led the nation in the Spanish-American War of 1898; the U.S. victory was quick and decisive.  As part of the peace settlement Spain was required to turn over its main overseas colonies of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines; Cuba remained under the control of the U.S. Army. The independent Republic of Hawaii joined the U.S. in 1898 as a territory. McKinley defeated Bryan again in the 1900 presidential election. He was succeeded after his death by Vice President by Theodore Roosevelt.


 * List of heavy cruisers of Germany (Parsecboy) : The German navies of the 1920s through 1945&mdash;the Reichsmarine and later Kriegsmarine&mdash;built or planned a series of heavy cruisers starting in the late 1920s, initially classified as Panzerschiffe (armored ships). Four different designs&mdash;the Deutschland-class cruiser, D, P, and Admiral Hipper-class cruiseres, comprising twenty-two ships in total&mdash;were prepared in the period, though only the three Deutschland-class ships and three of the five Admiral Hipper-class cruisers were ever built. All these heavy cruisers saw extensive service with the fleet. The three Deutschland class ships served on several non-intervention patrols during the Spanish Civil War in 1936–1938. Most of the heavy cruisers were used as commerce raiders during World War II, of which Admiral Scheer was the most successful; Admiral Graf Spee was scuttled after the Battle of the River Plate. Blücher was sunk by Norwegian coastal batteries during Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway, just four days after the ship joined the fleet. Seydlitz, one of the two incomplete Admiral Hipper class ships, was intended to be converted into an aircraft carrier, though the work was never completed. Lützow, the second unfinished ship, was sold to the Soviet Union, and subsequently shelled German soldiers advancing on Leningrad until German bombers sank her. Deutschland&mdash;by now renamed Lützow&mdash;Admiral Scheer, and Admiral Hipper were all destroyed by British bombers at the end of the war; only Prinz Eugen survived the conflict. She was ceded to the US Navy as a war prize and used in nuclear testing in the Bikini Atoll.


 * List of Ohio-class submarines (Sp33dyphil): Named after its lead boat, the Ohio-class submarine of nuclear-powered submarines is currently serving with the United States Navy. Fourteen of the eighteen boats are ballistic missile submarines (SSBN), which, along with U.S. Air Force strategic bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles, constitute the nuclear-deterrent triad of the U.S. The remaining four have been converted from their initial roles as SSBNs to cruise-missile carriers (SSGN). The Ohio-class boats, each displacing 18,750 tons submerged, are the third largest submarines in the world, behind the 48,000-ton Typhoon class and 24,000-ton Borei class of the Russian Navy. The Ohio class was designed in the 1970s concurrently with, and to carry, the Trident submarine-launched ballistic missile. The first of the class, USS Ohio (SSGN-726), was laid down in 1976. Due to an unspecified "series of unfortunate problems in Washington D.C." and manufacturing issues, Ohio did not initiate sea trials until June 1981, setting back the boat's commissioning date to November that year, three years behind schedule. Originally, it was decided that 20 boats were to be built, but due to the 1991 START I agreement between the U.S. and Soviet Union, the U.S. agreed to reduce its order to 18 boats. The last of the class, USS Louisiana (SSBN-743), was commissioned in September 1997, nearly 16 years after the first boat. With the first retirement of an Ohio-class boat scheduled for 2029, the U.S. Navy is currently undertaking a program tentatively named SSBN-X to study the prospective replacement of the class.


 * 1740 Batavia massacre (Crisco 1492) : The 1740 Batavia massacre was a pogrom against ethnic Chinese that took place in the port city of Batavia in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Jakarta). Unrest amongst the Chinese population had been triggered by government repression and reduced income from falling sugar prices. In response, at a meeting of the Council of the Indies (the governing body of the Dutch East Indies Company), Governor-General Adriaan Valckenier declared that any uprising was to be dealt with using deadly force. His resolution took effect on 7 October after hundreds of ethnic Chinese killed 50 Dutch soldiers. The Dutch dispatched troops, who stripped the Chinese populace of all weapons and put them under a curfew. The council met again two days later after an assault by ethnic Chinese on the city walls; the same day, other Batavian ethnic groups began burning Chinese houses after hearing rumours of Chinese atrocities, and Dutch soldiers assaulted Chinese homes with cannon. The violence soon spread throughout Batavia and more Chinese men, women and children were killed. Despite an amnesty declared by Valckenier on 11 October, gangs of irregulars continued to hunt and kill fugitive Chinese until 22 October, when Valckenier called more forcefully for a cessation of hostilities. Outside the walls of the city, Dutch troops fought to contain rioting sugar millers and after several weeks of minor skirmishes, Dutch-led troops assaulted Chinese strongholds in sugar mills throughout the area, driving the survivors east towards Bekasi. Historians have estimated that at least 10,000 ethnic Chinese were massacred and that only 600 to about 3,000 survived. The following year, ethnic Chinese throughout Java were attacked, sparking a two-year war which pitted ethnic Chinese and Javanese against Dutch troops. Valckenier was later recalled to the Netherlands and charged with crimes related to the massacre; Gustaaf Willem van Imhoff replaced him as governor-general.


 * Australian contribution to the Battle of Normandy (Nick-D) : The Australian contribution to the Battle of Normandy involved hundreds of military personnel operating under British command. Most were members of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), though smaller numbers of Australians serving with the Royal Navy and British Army also participated in the battle. While all the RAAF units based in the United Kingdom were involved in the battle, Australians made up only a small portion of the Allied force. It has been estimated that as many as 3,000 Australian military personnel supported the Allied landings on 6 June 1944, including between 2,000 and 2,500 RAAF airmen in Australian squadrons and Royal Air Force units, approximately 500 members of the Royal Australian Navy serving in Royal Navy vessels and about a dozen Australian Army officers. Australians also took part in the subsequent Battle of Normandy during the northern summer of 1944, including a RAAF fighter squadron operating from airfields in Normandy throughout much of the campaign. Australia's contribution to the fighting is commemorated as part of memorials in London and Normandy.


 * Bardanes Tourkos (Cplakidas): Bardanes, nicknamed Tourkos, "the Turk" (Βαρδάνης ὁ Τοῦρκος, fl. 795–803), was a Byzantine general of Armenian origin who launched an unsuccessful rebellion against Emperor Nikephoros I (r. 802–811) in 803. Although a major supporter of Byzantine empress Irene of Athens (r. 797–802), soon after her overthrow he was appointed by Nikephoros as commander-in-chief of the Anatolian armies. From this position, he launched a revolt in July 803, probably in opposition to Nikephoros's economic and religious policies. His troops marched towards Constantinople, but failed to win popular support. At this point, some of his major supporters deserted him and, reluctant to engage the loyalist forces in battle, Bardanes gave up and chose to surrender himself. He retired as a monk to a monastery he had founded. There he was blinded, possibly on Nikephoros's orders.


 * Battle of Milne Bay (AustralianRupert, Haweye7) : The Battle of Milne Bay (25 August – 7 September 1942) took place during the Pacific campaign of World War II, when Japanese naval troops attacked the Allied airfields at Milne Bay, New Guinea. The Japanese miscalculated the size of the predominately Australian garrison and, believing that the airfields were lightly defended, initially landed only a battalion-sized force. Meanwhile the Allies, with intelligence from Ultra, had heavily reinforced the garrison. Despite a significant setback at the outset, when part of the invasion force had its landing craft destroyed by Allied aircraft as they attempted to land on the coast behind the Australian defenders, the Japanese quickly pushed inland and began advancing towards the airfields. Heavy fighting followed as they came up against the Australian Militia troops that formed the first line of defence. These troops were steadily pushed back, but the Australians brought forward veteran 2nd AIF units that the Japanese had not expected. Allied air superiority helped tip the balance, providing close support to troops in combat and targeting Japanese logistics. Outnumbered, lacking supplies and suffering heavy casualties, the Japanese were compelled to withdraw, and the fighting ended on 7 September. The battle is considered the first in the Pacific campaign in which Allied troops decisively defeated Japanese land forces, forcing them to withdraw and completely abandon their strategic objective.


 * Charles Scott (governor) (Acdixon): Charles Scott (1739–1813) was an American soldier who was elected the fourth governor of Kentucky in 1808. Orphaned at an early age, Scott enlisted in the Virginia Regiment in 1755 and served as a scout and escort during the French and Indian War. He returned to active military service in 1775 during the American Revolution. In August 1776, he was promoted to colonel and given command of the 5th Virginia Regiment, which served with George Washington for the duration of the Philadelphia campaign. Scott commanded Washington's light infantry, and by late 1778 was also serving as his chief of intelligence. In 1779, Scott was ordered to South Carolina to assist General Benjamin Lincoln in the southern theater. He arrived in Charleston, South Carolina, just as the siege of the city began. Scott was taken as a prisoner of war when Charleston surrendered. He was freed in July 1782. After the war, Scott settled near present-day Versailles, Kentucky. Confronted by the dangers of Indian raids, Scott raised a company of volunteers in 1790 and led a successful raid against Ouiatenon. His division cooperated with "Mad" Anthony Wayne's Legion of the United States for the rest of the Northwest Indian War, including the decisive victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers. Having previously served in the Virginia House of Delegates and as a presidential elector, the aging Scott was elected governor in 1808. The primary concern of his administration was increased tension between the United States and Great Britain that eventually led to the War of 1812. After his term expired, Scott returned to his Canewood estate and died in October 1813.


 * Frederick E. Morgan (Hawkeye7): Lieutenant General Sir Frederick Edgeworth Morgan KCB (1894–1967) was a British Army officer who fought in both world wars. He is best known as the Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (COSSAC), the original planner of Operation Overlord. A graduate of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, Morgan served on the Western Front as an artillery subaltern and staff officer during the First World War. Afterwards he served two long tours with the British Army in India. Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, Morgan was promoted to brigadier and assumed command of the 1st Support Group of the 1st Armoured Division, which he led during the Battle of France. He became a lieutenant general and given command of the I Corps in May 1942. In March 1943 he was appointed Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander (Designate), or COSSAC. As COSSAC he directed the planning for Operation Overlord. When General Dwight Eisenhower became Supreme Allied Commander, Major General Bedell Smith became Chief of Staff at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), while Morgan became Deputy Chief of Staff. After the war, Morgan served as Chief of Operations for the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Germany until his position was eliminated following publication of "off the record" comments concerning incompetence and corruption within UNRRA. In 1951, Morgan became Controller of Atomic Energy, and was present for Operation Hurricane, the first British atomic weapons tests at the Montebello Islands in 1952. His position was abolished in 1954 but he remained as Controller of Nuclear Weapons until 1956.


 * John Sherman Cooper (Acdixon): John Sherman Cooper (1901–1991) was a politician, jurist, and diplomat from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He served three non-consecutive, partial terms in the United States Senate before being elected to two full terms in 1960 and 1966. He also served as U.S. Ambassador to India from 1955 to 1956 and U.S. Ambassador to East Germany from 1974 to 1976. He was the first Republican to be popularly elected to more than one term as a senator from Kentucky, and in both 1960 and 1966, he set records for the largest victory margin for a Kentucky senatorial candidate from either party. As a senator, he became an outspoken opponent of President Lyndon B. Johnson's decision to escalate U.S. military involvement in the Vietnam War. After re-election in 1966, Cooper worked on a series of amendments designed to de-fund further U.S. military operations in the region. These amendments were hailed as the first serious attempt by Congress to curb presidential authority over military operations during an ongoing war. After his ambassadorship to East Germany he served as an alternate delegate to the United Nations in 1981. He died in Washington, D.C. in 1991, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.


 * Kenneth Nichols (Hawkeye7) : Major General Kenneth David "Nick" Nichols (1907–2000) was a United States Army officer and an engineer. He worked on the Manhattan Project that developed the Atomic Bomb during World War II, firstly as Deputy District Engineer and then as District Engineer of the Manhattan Engineer District. He was responsible for both the uranium production facility at the Clinton Engineer Works at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and the plutonium production facility at Hanford Engineer Works. Nichols was the military liaison officer with the Atomic Energy Commission from 1946 to 1947. After briefly teaching at the United States Military Academy at West Point, he was promoted to major general and became chief of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project, responsible for the logistics, handling and training aspects of atomic weaponry. He was Deputy Director for the Atomic Energy Matters, Plans and Operations Division of the Army's general staff, and was the senior Army member of the military liaison committee that worked with the Atomic Energy Commission. In 1950, Nichols became Deputy Director of the Guided Missiles Division of the Department of Defense. He was appointed chief of research and development when it was reorganized in 1952. In 1953, he became the general manager of the Atomic Energy Commission, where he promoted the construction of nuclear power plants. He played a key role in the proceedings brought against J. Robert Oppenheimer, which resulted in Oppenheimer's security clearance being revoked. In later life, Nichols became an engineering consultant on private nuclear power plants.


 * List of battleships of Greece (Parsecboy): In the early 20th century, the Greek Navy embarked on an expansion program to counter a strengthening of Greece's traditional rival, the Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans ordered a new dreadnought battleship, Reshadieh; in response, Greece ordered the dreadnought Salamis from a German shipyard. The Ottomans acquired the ex-Brazilian Rio de Janeiro and renamed her Sultan Osman I. Greece responded with a second battleship ordered in France, Vasilefs Konstantinos, built to the same design as the French Bretagne-class battleship. The Greek Navy purchased two old American pre-dreadnoughts&mdash;USS Mississippi (BB-23) and USS Idaho (BB-24)&mdash;as a stop-gap measure in June 1914, which were renamed Kilkis and Lemnos, respectively. Greek naval plans were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, and work halted on Vasilefs Konstantinos in August and on Salamis in December 1914. As a result, Kilkis and Lemnos were the only battleships delivered to Greece. They continued to serve with the fleet until the early 1930s, when they were reduced to secondary roles. Lemnos became a barracks ship while Kilkis became a training ship. During the German invasion of Greece in April 1940, both ships were attacked and sunk in Salamis by Ju-87 Stuka dive-bombers. The two old battleships were scrapped after the end of the war.


 * Priscus (general) (Constantine): Priscus or Priskos (Πρίσκος; died 613) was a leading East Roman (Byzantine) general during the reigns of the Byzantine emperors Maurice (reigned 582–602), Phocas (r. 602–610) and Heraclius (r. 610–641). Although the contemporary sources are markedly biased in his favour, Priscus comes across as an effective and capable military leader. Under Emperor Maurice, he distinguished himself in the campaigns against the Avars and their Slavic allies in the Balkans. Absent from the capital at the time of Emperor Maurice's overthrow and murder by Phocas, he was one of the few of Maurice's senior aides who were able to survive unharmed into the new regime, remaining in high office and even marrying the Byzantine emperor's daughter. Priscus, however, also negotiated with and assisted Heraclius in the overthrow of Emperor Phocas, and was entrusted with command against the Persians in 611–612. After the failure of this campaign, he was dismissed and tonsured. He died shortly after.


 * Reginald Pinney (Shmigray): Major-General Sir Reginald John Pinney, KCB (1863–1943) was a British Army officer who served as a divisional commander during the First World War. While commanding a division at the Battle of Arras in 1917, he was immortalised as the "cheery old card" of Siegfried Sassoon's poem "The General". Pinney served in South Africa during the Boer War with the Royal Fusiliers, and at the outbreak of the First World War was given command of a brigade sent to reinforce the Western Front in November 1914. He led it in the early part of 1915, taking heavy losses at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. That September he was given command of the 35th Division, a New Army division of "bantam" soldiers, which first saw action at the Battle of the Somme; after three months in action, he was exchanged with the commander of the 33rd Division. He commanded the 33rd at Arras in 1917, with mixed results, and through the Spring Offensive in 1918, where the division helped stabilise the defensive line after the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps was routed. After the war, he retired to rural Dorset, where he served as a local justice of the peace, as High Sheriff for the county, and as a Deputy Lieutenant; he was also the ceremonial colonel of his old regiment, the Royal Fusiliers.


 * SMS König Albert (Parsecboy): SMS König Albert was the fourth vessel of the Kaiser-class battleship of battleships of the German Imperial Navy. Her keel was laid on 17 July 1910 at the Schichau-Werke dockyard in Danzig. She was launched on 27 April  1912 and was commissioned into the fleet on 31 July 1913. The ship was equipped with ten 30.5 cm guns in five twin turrets, and had a top speed of 22.1 kn. König Albert was assigned to the III Battle Squadron and later the IV Battle Squadron of the High Seas Fleet for the majority of her career, including World War I. Along with her four sister ships, SMS Kaiser (1911), SMS Friedrich der Grosse (1911), SMS Kaiserin, and SMS Prinzregent Luitpold, König Albert participated in most of the major fleet operations of World War I, though she was in drydock for maintenance during the Battle of Jutland between 31 May and 1 June 1916. As a result, she was the only battleship actively serving with the fleet that missed the largest naval battle of the war. The ship was also involved in Operation Albion, an amphibious assault on the Russian-held islands in the Gulf of Riga, in late 1917. After Germany's defeat in the war and the signing of the Armistice in November 1918, König Albert and most of the capital ships of the High Seas Fleet were interned by the Royal Navy in Scapa Flow. The ships were disarmed and reduced to skeleton crews while the Allied powers negotiated the final version of the Treaty of Versailles. On 21 June 1919, days before the treaty was signed, the commander of the interned fleet, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, ordered the fleet to be scuttled to ensure that the British would not be able to seize the ships. König Albert was raised in July 1935 and subsequently broken up for scrap in 1936