Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/April 2021/Articles


 * Battle of Marais des Cygnes :  This action took place on October 25, 1864, during the American Civil War. Major General Sterling Price's Confederate Army of Missouri had been defeated at the Battle of Westport two days earlier; he fought three battles on October 25, and managed to lose all of them, Marais des Cygnes being the first.. By the end of the day, Price's army had been reduced to essentially an armed mob after further losses at Mine Creek and Marmiton River. Today the site of Marais des Cygnes is a wildlife refuge, commemorated by a few signs at a rest stop and forgotten by most.


 * Battle of Rethymno : Part of the Battle of Crete in World War II, this action took place between 20 and 29 May 1941. Australian and Greek forces defended the town of Rethymno and the nearby airstrip against a German paratrooper attack. While the Allied force defeated the parachute landing on 20 May, a breakdown in communications meant that it did not receive orders to join the evacuation from the island after the Germans gained the upper hand. As a result, the Allied troops were forced to surrender. In the words of nominator Gog, though, the battle was "so hard fought that both sides lost".


 * William Hardham : The latest in Zawed's series of featured articles on Victoria Cross recipients from New Zealand, William Hardham was awarded the VC for  action during the Second Boer War in January 1901, when he rescued a soldier while under fire. Hardham also served in World War I, and was badly wounded during the Gallipoli Campaign. Sent home to recuperate, he agitated for a return to active duty and was eventually posted to the Palestine front. He attempted to enlist in the military on a permanent basis after the war, but was rejected owing to poor health.


 * Temporary gentlemen : An unusual article in that it deals with a concept rather than an individual, a unit or a battle, 'temporary gentlemen' is a colloquial term referring to officers of the British Army who held temporary (or war-duration) commissions, particularly when such men came from outside the traditional 'officer class'. The article covers the role of these officers during the world wars and post-1945 national service, as well as the use of the concept in Portugal.


 * Sulayman ibn Abd al-Malik : Sulayman was the seventh Umayyad caliph, ruling from 715 until his death two years later. He governed Palestine for over ten years during the reigns of his father and brother, founding Ramla, the district's capital until the Crusades. He succeeded his brother as Caliph, and subsequently undertook the second siege of Constantinople, which ended in disaster for the Arabs. Before he died, he appointed his cousin Umar II as his successor, an unconventional choice over his brothers or sons.


 * United States war plans (1945–1950) (Hawkeye7) : This article covers the early American plans to fight the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Although most of the plans were discarded as impractical, they would have served as the basis for action had a conflict occurred. The plans were focused on the defence of Western Europe against a massive Soviet invasion and involved land forces making a fighting retreat from Germany to Spain while a strategic air campaign using nuclear weapons took place.

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


 * List of Victoria Cross recipients from the British 2nd Division : The 2nd Division was an infantry division of the British Army that was formed and disbanded several times over a 200-year period. It was raised in 1854, to take part in the Crimean War. Ten of its members were awarded VCs during that conflict, another eight during the Boer War, eighteen during World War I, and three more during World War II, after which the division saw no further action before being disbanded in 2012.


 * Battle of Little Blue River (Hog Farm) : The Battle of Little Blue River was fought on October 21, 1864, as part of Price's Raid into Missouri during the American Civil War. The Union forces attempted to make a stand in the face of a larger Confederate invasion force, and were defeated. The scale of the battle (around 8,000 personnel in total) and casualties were modest for the American Civil War.


 * London and North Western Railway War Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : This article covers a memorial prominently located outside Euston railway station in London. It commemorates the 3,719 employees of the London and North Western Railway who were killed in World War I, and was unveiled on 21 October 1921. The unveiling ceremony aimed to counter "revolutionary feeling" among the railway's employees, who were encouraged to follow the example of selflessness set by the dead. The railway union pointed out that many of its discontented members were themselves returned servicemen.