Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/August 2017/Articles


 * Donald Hardman : Another in Ian's long-running series on Royal Australian Air Force chiefs, this article covers the second and last British officer to command the service. Hardman had a distinguished career in the Royal Air Force, and while his appointment as head of the RAAF in 1952 was controversial, it proved successful. Ironically, his major accomplishment and legacy to the RAAF was replacing the "area command" system put in place a decade earlier by the first British officer to command the service, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett. Ian took the article through ACR before nominating for FA status.


 * 6th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Militia : Part of another series, this time on Massachusetts volunteer regiments, this article looks at the first Union Army formation to lose casualties in action during the American Civil War. This occurred during the Baltimore riot of 1861, and prompted world-wide newspaper coverage. Nominator Historical Perspective finds the regiment's experiences "a key piece of American Civil War history".


 * Beograd-class destroyer : Part of still another series (and Good Topic), this article covers the Royal Yugoslav Navy's only class of destroyers. The three vessels entered service just before World War II and had the complex service history that seems common to Yugoslav warships of this era. One was scuttled during the April 1941 Axis invasion, and the other two saw service with the Italians as war prize ships; one survived to see service with the Germans after the Italian capitulation before it was lost in the final weeks of the war. Peacemaker took the article though GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * Jacob Gens ( and ) : A welcome return to FA nominations by Ealdgyth, this time in collaboration with Renata3, this article is about the head of the Jewish ghetto in Vilnius, Lithuania, during World War II. Put in place by the Germans, Gens apparently hoped to save some of his fellow Jews by cooperating with his masters. This proved forlorn: "In the end", as Ealdgyth relates in her nomination statement, "he was shot and the ghetto was liquidated".


 * Yugoslav torpedo boat T5 : Another entry in Peacemaker's Royal Yugoslav Navy series, this vessel served in the Austro-Hungarian navy during World War I, and was then transferred to the fledgling Navy of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later the Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in 1921. She was captured by the Italians in April 1941 during the Axis invasion, and then saw service with them. Handed back to the Yugoslavs in 1943, she went on to serve with the post-war Yugoslav Navy until 1962. The article passed GAN and ACR before achieving FA status.


 * Metallurgical Laboratory : The last entry in our series of series from last month, this one being part of Hawkeye's Manhattan Project group; the Metallurgical Laboratory was the Chicago-based element of the massive enterprise. It developed the world's first nuclear reactor in 1942, and went on to design several further reactors that played a key role in the development of the atomic bomb. The laboratory also undertook research into the chemistry and metallurgy of plutonium; it became the Argonne National Laboratory in 1946. Hawkeye took the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * Rochdale Cenotaph (HJ Mitchell) : The latest in HJ Mitchell's series on war memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens covers a memorial in the small city of Rochdale. As was noted in the A-class nomination, "the good people of Rochdale raised a handsome budget and the project proceeded smoothly compared to some of his others, so they were rewarded with one of Lutyens' grander and more elegant designs".


 * Army of the Rhine and Moselle (Auntieruth55) : While the name of this formation suggests that it was some kind of holiday tour group (both rivers are spectacular in parts), nothing could be further from the truth. Instead, the Army of the Rhine and Moselle was one of the field units of the French Revolutionary Army. Hindered by "excruciating command problems in its early operations", the Army fought two campaigns during 1795 and 1796. These ended in failure, but gave experience to some of France's most successful commanders of the subsequent Napoleonic Wars. This article forms part of series on the French Revolutionary Wars in 1796 Auntieruth55 has been working on.


 * Operation Hurricane (Hawkeye7) : The first of two articles by Hawkeye7 on the British nuclear weapons program this month covers the test of the first of the country's atomic bombs. Operation Hurricane was conducted in remote islands off the west coast of Australia and, somewhat unusually, the bomb was exploded in a frigate to also test what would happen if an atomic bomb was smuggled into a British port. Despite hosting the test, the Australian Government was not provided with technical information about the bomb or its effectiveness due to American concerns over the extent of Soviet espionage in the country.


 * SMS Brandenburg (Parsecboy) : SMS Brandenburg was the first ocean-going battleship built by the German Empire. Commissioned in 1893, the battleship rarely ventured far from home waters. The highlight of her career was a deployment to China during 1900 and 1901 as part of the response to the Boxer Rebellion. Brandenburg was obsolete by 1914, and was used mainly as a coastal defence vessel until being reduced to a barracks ship the next year. This article also forms part of a series Parsecboy has been working on, and he brought it to GA class way back in 2010 before recently further improving it.


 * Yugoslav destroyer Beograd (Peacemaker67) : This article covers the lead ship in the class of destroyers whose article Peacemaker67 also brought to FA status in July. Beograd was commissioned shortly before the outbreak of World War II in Europe, then captured by the Italians in April 1941 and used by them as an escort on the North Africa run before being captured from them by the Germans in September 1943. She was then employed by them in the Adriatic until almost the last week of the war when she was either sunk or scuttled at Trieste.


 * Ernest Titterton (Hawkeye7) : Sir Ernest Titterton was a British nuclear physicist who played a significant role in both the Manhattan Project during World War II and the subsequent British nuclear weapons program. He took up an academic role in Australia in 1950, and also served on various science, defence and nuclear-related committees, institutes and councils. This included a leading role in a committee responsible for safety standards concerning British nuclear weapons tests in Australia, for which he was the subject of adverse findings by a royal commission during the 1980s.


 * Kaiman-class torpedo boat (Peacemaker67) : Also forming part of Peacemaker67's work on ships of the Royal Yugoslav Navy, this article covers a class of 24 torpedo boats built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1904 and 1910. They proved a very successful type, and saw extensive service in the Adriatic during World War I, in which they engaged in shore bombardments, anti-submarine work and many other tasks. Most were scrapped after the war, but four saw service with the Royal Yugoslav Navy into the late 1920s.


 * Battle of Leuthen (Auntieruth55) : The Battle of Leuthen was an engagement of the Seven Years' War in which Frederick the Great's Prussian army used maneuver and terrain to decisively defeat a much larger Austrian force. This victory reversed the Austrian successes earlier in 1757, and established beyond doubt Frederick's military reputation in European circles. The article is the third of a four-part series on Frederick the Great's battles Auntieruth55 is developing.


 * 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry (Exemplo347) : This article covers a locally recruited regiment of the East India Company's Bengal Army. Raised in 1797, the 3rd Bengal Light Cavalry took part in campaigns throughout British India. However, it is most commonly remembered for the revolt within its ranks which triggered the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Following the events of the mutiny, all the Bengal Light Cavalry regiments were disbanded. Exemplo347 started and developed this article "after spotting an annoying red-link" in articles related to the rebellion, and follows on from their success in developing the Siege of Arrah article to A-class status in January.