Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/April 2020/Articles


 * INTERFET logistics : This article covers the effort required to deploy and sustain the Australian-led INTERFET peacekeeping force in East Timor during 1999 and 2000. It was the first large-scale operation led by Australia since World War II, and revealed serious shortcomings in the Australian Defence Force's logistical capabilities. The troops from Australia and several other countries nevertheless enjoyed generally good support and the operation was a success.


 * SMS Roon : An armoured cruiser built for the German Imperial Navy in the early 1900s, Roon was made obsolete by the development of battlecruisers soon after she entered service, and placed into reserve in 1911. The ship was mobilized following the outbreak of World War I and initially assigned to the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. She transferred to the Baltic in 1915 and took part in operations against Russian forces. The threat of British submarines led to the withdrawal of old vessels like Roon by early 1916, and she was decommissioned and used as a training ship. Plans to convert her into a seaplane tender in 1918 came to nothing, and she was broken up in 1921.


 * Æthelred I, King of Wessex : This article is about Alfred the Great's elder brother, who led the resistance to the Viking attempt to conquer Wessex until his early death allowed Alfred to become king. Æthelred's reign is also important numismatically, his reign being described as "a critical point in the development of the English coinage".


 * Battle of Drepana : This naval battle, which took place near Drepana (modern Trapani) in western Sicily during the First Punic War, pitted a Carthaginian fleet under Adherbal against a Roman force commanded by Publius Claudius Pulcher.  Having attempted a surprise attack on the Carthaginians during the night, the Roman fleet scattered and was pushed against the shore by the more manoeuvrable Carthaginian ships. Carthage won a great victory and effectively ruled the sea for the next seven years.


 * Bill Kibby : One of two South Australians awarded the Victoria Cross in World War II (the other being Tom Derrick, subject of another FA), Kibby joined the Second Australian Imperial Force in 1940, and was posted to the 2/48th Battalion. He initially saw combat in July 1942 during the First Battle of El Alamein. In October, his battalion was committed to the Second Battle of El Alamein, during which he earned the VC for undertaking a series of courageous and inspirational actions from 23 to 31 October. He was killed in the last of these actions, making the award posthumous.


 * 1974 White House helicopter incident : This article is about an unusual incident in which a US Army helicopter mechanic, Robert Preston, stole a helicopter to show his skills as a pilot after he failed his training course and was denied the opportunity to try again. He flew around Washington D.C. then back to Maryland, pursued by police in helicopters and cars. He turned back towards D.C. and actually landed on the south lawn of the White House while under fire from the Secret Service. Preston was arrested and imprisoned after being convicted at a court martial. After his release, he received a general discharge from the Army and lived quietly until his death in 2009.


 * Battle of Marshall's Elm : The Battle of Marshall's Elm was a skirmish that took place in Somerset, South West England, on 4 August 1642, during the build-up to the First English Civil War. Sometimes described as the first battle of the war, it involved 60-80 Royalist cavalry and dragoons and 500-600 and Parliamentarian recruits. The Royalist force ambushed and defeated the Parliamentary troops, but the engagement had no long-term consequences.


 * Battle of the Defile : The Battle of the Defile was an engagement fought over three days in the Tashtakaracha Pass (in modern Uzbekistan) between a large Arab army of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Turgesh khaganate in July 731. Nominator  noted that it is one of the best-described battles of the 8th century, so "we can reconstruct events with more detail than usual for the period".


 * Second Silesian War : Part of the Prussian-Austrian conflict during the 18th century War of the Austrian Succession, Second Silesian War was fought over control of the crucial region of Silesia, and included Frederick the Great's famous victory at Hohenfriedberg. Thanks to the latter and further Prussian victories, the war ended with Prussia retaining control of Silesia, though a third war would be fought over the region barely decade later.


 * 1st Cavalry Division (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) : This article focuses on a horse-mounted unit of the Yugoslav Army. Most of its combat units were detached to other formations following the Axis invasion of the country in April 1941, but the divisional headquarters was assigned an ad-hoc collection of other units and stragglers. It was unable to deploy into its intended defensive zone and was disarmed by fifth columnists and German troops.


 * Donald Forrester Brown : Brown was the first New Zealander to receive the Victoria Cross for an action on the Western Front of World War I. A farmer before the war, he joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in October 1915 and received the VC posthumously for his actions on 15 September 1916, when he destroyed two machine gun positions. Brown was killed the next month.

Note: All but two of the above articles underwent a MilHist A-class review before achieving featured status.


 * Operation Black Buck (Hawkeye7) : This article covers a series of seven long-range air raids conducted by British bombers during the Falklands War. The objective of the missions was to attack Port Stanley Airport and its associated defences. The raids, at almost 6,600 nautical miles (12,200 km) and 16 hours for the return journey, were the longest-ranged bombing raids in history at that time. The attacks produced modest results, the airport being only partially closed.


 * Charles Duke (Hawkeye7) : Hawkeye's second A-class article last month is about Charles Duke, who in April 1972 became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon, and the only one with an identical twin brother, distinctions he holds to this day. A 1957 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he was a fighter pilot and test pilot before becoming an astronaut. After retiring from NASA he successfully combined high-achieving roles in the USAF reserve and the corporate sector.


 * James Allen Ward (Zawed) : James Ward was a New Zealand recipient of the Victoria Cross during World War II. From mid-1941 he was posted to No. 75 Squadron RAF, which operated Vickers Wellington bombers. He participated in his first few bombing missions as a co-pilot, during the last of which, on 7 July 1941, he earned the VC for climbing out onto the wing of his Wellington to extinguish an engine fire started by a night fighter attack. Ward was the first of three New Zealand airmen to be awarded the VC during the war. He was killed two months later commanding a Wellington on a bombing mission to Germany.


 * Yugoslav destroyer Zagreb (Peacemaker67) : Zagreb was the second of three Beograd-class destroyers built for the Royal Yugoslav Navy in the late 1930s and the first warship built in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. She was commissioned in August 1939. During the invasion of Yugoslavia, two of her officers scuttled her at the Bay of Kotor on 17 April 1941 to prevent her capture by approaching Italian forces. The ship was destroyed, but both officers were killed.


 * Johnny Checketts (Zawed) : Zawed's second new A-class article for the month covers a New Zealand fighter ace credited with downing 141⁄2 enemy aircraft during World War II. A Royal New Zealand Air Force member, Checketts was assigned to RNZAF and RAF units operating from the UK. He was shot down while commanding a RNZAF fighter squadron over France, but escaped capture and led a fighter wing during mid-1944. Checketts remained in the RNZAF after the war, commanding air bases in New Zealand and Fiji. Returning to civilian life in 1954, he set up an aerial topdressing company and later undertook conservation work.