Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/August 2018/Articles


 * Japanese battleship Hyūga (Sturmvogel 66) : Built during World War I, Hyūga saw no action during the conflict and had a pretty typical career for a Japanese battleship during the interwar period. Despite being rebuilt at great expense before World War II, the ship experienced very little combat before she was converted into a hybrid battleship/carrier in 1943. By the time the conversion was finished the Japanese were critically short of aircraft and pilots, so Hyūga's air group never flew off her in combat. The ship was used to decoy American carriers during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944. She was sunk in port by American carrier aircraft in July 1945.


 * Neil Armstrong ( & ) : As well as being an astronaut and aeronautical engineer who was the first person to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong was also a pilot with the US Navy and later a test pilot. He joined up in 1949 and served with the Navy until 1960, during which time he saw extensive combat over Korea in 1951 and 1952. Armstrong also flew many military aircraft while a test pilot.


 * Peter Drummond (RAF officer) : Drummond was a World War I fighter ace and one of the highest-ranking Australians to serve in the Royal Air Force. According to Ian, "Having created this ten years ago, my memory's a little hazy, but I think I became interested in him because for a while it looked like he might be the solution to the long-running conflict between George Jones and William Bostock over command of the Royal Australian Air Force in World War II. It wasn't to be, though -- the Jones–Bostock feud continued to simmer and Drummond ended up losing his life in a plane crash over the Azores in 1945."


 * Bougainville counterattack ( & ) : Launched in March 1944, the Bougainville counterattack was a large-scale assault by Japanese forces on the US lodgement that had been established around Cape Torokina on Bougainville. Aimed at destroying the Allied base, the attack was hampered by poor intelligence and a failure to concentrate forces in sufficient numbers to achieve break in. The Japanese attackers suffered heavy casualties before the counterattack was called off. The article was partially developed by Nick-D in draft space in 2012, and languished there until 2016 when AustralianRupert suggested that it be published and completed.


 * Yeomanry Cavalry (Factotem) : This article covers an interesting period in the history of the Yeomanry, from its formation during the French Revolutionary Wars in 1794 until it was absorbed into the Territorial Force in 1908 shortly before the First World War. During this period, this uniquely aristocratic institution was transformed from a key bastion against civil unrest to amateur cavalry of questionable military value, before finding a new purpose after the failure of the professional British military system in the Second Boer War.


 * Second Australian Imperial Force in the United Kingdom : While the UK was the main rear base for the First Australian Imperial Force during World War I, the Australian Army presence in the UK was limited to a small number of liaison officers for most of World War II. There were two exceptions to this: in 1940, 8,000 Australians formed part of the forces deployed to counter the feared German invasion, and after the German collapse over 5000 released AIF prisoners of war passed through the UK. Several engineer units were also located in the UK between 1940 and 1943.


 * St Donat's Castle : This article looks at a medieval castle west of Cardiff in Wales. Dating from the 12th century, the present castle fell into disrepair until restorations began in the late 1800s. William Randolph Hearst purchased St Donat's in 1925, his expansion provoking George Bernard Shaw's comment that it was "what God would have built if he had had the money". Today the castle houses international students, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied castles in Wales.


 * SMS Hessen (Parsecboy) : A German pre-dreadnought battleship, Hessen was commissioned in 1905, but rendered obsolete soon afterwards. She was slated to be withdrawn from service in August 1914, but the start of World War I interrupted that plan and she remained in service with the High Seas Fleet. Hessen was the oldest battleship at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and was withdrawn from service along with the other pre-dreadnoughts. She was one of the few capital ships Germany was allowed to retain after the war, and formed part of the fleet's combat forces until 1934. She spent the rest of her career as a target ship and icebreaker. The ship survived World War II, and was used by the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1960.


 * Helicopter 66 (Chetsford) : Helicopter 66 was a Sikorsky Sea King helicopter used during the late 1960s for the water recovery of astronauts during the Apollo program. It recovered the crews of five Apollo missions, including those which conducted the first three moon landings. In a sad loss to history, it was destroyed in a crash during a routine training exercise in 1975, its pilot dying as a result of injuries suffered in the accident.


 * 2nd Red Banner Army : The 2nd Red Banner Army was a Soviet field army that spent its entire existence in the Far East. Formed just before World War II, it spent most of the war as a garrison unit. The army saw ten days of combat against Japan during the Soviet invasion of Manchuria, and was disbanded shortly after the end of the war.


 * Note: Every Featured Article listed above passed a MilHist A-Class Review beforehand except St Donat's Castle, which underwent a Peer Review.


 * List of torpedo cruisers of Italy (Parsecboy) : This article provides a comprehensive listing of all of the torpedo cruisers operated by the Italian Navy. These included 18 vessels split across 6 classes. Several of these designs were failures, with the ships being let down by their slow speed. Parsecboy developed this article as the final stage of a good topic on these ships.


 * Tower Hill Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : HJ Mitchell's latest article on war memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens covers the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's only memorial located in London. The Tower Hill Memorial comprises a pair of memorials which commemorate civilian merchant sailors and fishermen who were killed as a result of enemy action and have no known grave. The first of these memorials was unveiled in 1928 and the second in 1955.


 * Trident (UK nuclear programme) (Hawkeye7) : Hawkeye managed to have articles on both the British ballistic missile submarine programs promoted to A-class in July: no small feat! This article covers all aspects of the current British nuclear deterrent, which is centred around the Vanguard-class submarines and the Trident missiles they carry.


 * Harry Laurent (Zawed) : The latest in Zawed's series on New Zealand recipients of the Victoria Cross during World War I covers the last-surviving such man. Laurent was a grocer's assistant who joined the NZ Expeditionary Force in 1915. He received the VC for an action in September 1918 during which his small patrol got lost, captured 112 prisoners and then fought its way back to friendly lines. Laurent served in the home guard during World War II and died in 1987 at the age of 92.


 * Polaris (UK nuclear programme) (Hawkeye7) : The Polaris programme developed and fielded the Royal Navy's first generation of nuclear missile submarines. The submarines and their missiles were developed during the 1960s in partnership with the US under a remarkably generous deal, and remained in service until 1996.


 * United States Marine Corps Women's Reserve (Pendright) : This article covers female branch of the United States Marine Corps during World War II. Formed in February 1943, it was the last of the four wartime U.S. women’s military services. Its objective was to free-up male Marines in the continental U.S. for duty overseas for the duration of WWII, plus six months. The WR did not have an official nickname; the commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps said they were real marines and didn’t need one. The peak strength of the WR was around 19,000 members.


 * Yugoslav coup d'état (Peacemaker67) : The latest article in Peacemaker's vast series on Yugoslavia in World War II covers one of the key events which affected the country. The coup d'état on 27 March 1941 resulted in a pro-Axis government being overthrown and replaced by one sympathetic to the Allies. This in turn lead to the Axis invasion and dismemberment of the country, and the internecine civil war and Axis counter-insurgency campaign that followed.