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


 * 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.


 * Dudley Clarke (ErrantX) : Brigadier Dudley Wrangel Clarke (1899–1974) was a British Army officer, known as a pioneer of military deception operations during the Second World War. His ideas for combining fictional orders of battle, visual deception and double agents helped define Allied deception strategy during the war, for which he has been referred to as "the greatest British deceiver of WW2". He was instrumental in the founding of three famous military units, namely the British Commandos, the Special Air Service and the US Rangers. Born in Johannesburg during the Second Boer War and brought up in London, Clarke joined the Royal Artillery as an officer during the First World War, but was unable to fight in France due to an age limit. Remaining in the military after the war, he led a varied career in the Middle East. While on leave in 1922 he fed misinformation to Turkish rebels during the Chanak Crisis, the first example of the kind of work that would later define his career. In 1936, Clarke helped organise the British response to the Arab uprising in Palestine. He was placed in charge of strategic deception in the Middle East in 1940. As cover for this secret role he was also tasked with setting up a regional presence for MI9, a British escape and evasion department. The following year he established 'A' Force. Clarke implemented Operation Cascade, a grand order of battle deception which added a large number of fictional units to the Allied formations. Clarke spent the remainder of the war organising deception in North Africa and southern Europe. After the war ended he wrote the history of 'A' Force, and retired in 1947. He lived the remainder of his life in relative obscurity. As well as pursuing a literary career that produced two histories and a thriller, he worked for the Conservative Party and was a director of Securicor. He died in London in 1974.


 * John Adair (Acdixon) : John Adair (1757–1840) was an American pioneer, soldier and statesman. He was the eighth Governor of Kentucky and represented the state in both the U.S. House and Senate. A native of South Carolina, Adair enlisted in the state militia and served in the Revolutionary War, where he was held captive by the British for a period of time. Following the war, he was elected as a delegate to South Carolina's convention to ratify the United States Constitution. Adair moved to Kentucky in 1786 and participated in the Northwest Indian War, including a skirmish with the Miami chief Little Turtle near Fort St. Clair in 1792. Popular for his service in two wars, Adair entered politics in 1792. After Kentucky's separation from Virginia, he was elected to a total of eight terms in the state House of Representatives between 1793 and 1803. He served as Speaker of the Kentucky House in 1802 and 1803, and was a delegate to the state's second constitutional convention in 1799. Adair took part in the War of 1812, and subsequently defended Kentucky's soldiers against Andrew Jackson's charges that they showed cowardice at the Battle of New Orleans. In 1820, he was elected governor on a platform of financial relief for Kentuckians hit hard by the Panic of 1819. Following his term as governor, Adair served one undistinguished term in the United States House of Representatives, but did not run for re-election. He died May 19, 1840, at his farm in Harrodsburg. He is the namesake of Adair County, Kentucky, Adair County, Missouri, Adair County, Iowa, and the cities of Adairville, Kentucky and Adair, Iowa.


 * Harry S. Truman (PumpkinSky & Wehwalt): Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) was the 33rd President of the United States (1945–1953). Truman was born in Missouri, and spent most of his youth on his family's farm. During World War I, he served in combat in France as an artillery officer in his National Guard unit. After the war, he briefly owned a haberdashery and joined the Democratic Party. He was first elected to public office as a county official, and in 1934 became U.S. senator. He gained national prominence as head of the wartime Truman Committee, which exposed waste, fraud, and corruption in wartime contracts. The final running mate of President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, Truman succeeded to the presidency after Roosevelt's death on April 12, 1945. Under Truman, the U.S. successfully concluded World War II; in the aftermath of the conflict, tensions with the Soviet Union increased, marking the start of the Cold War. He oversaw the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and the creation of NATO in 1949. When communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, he immediately sent in U.S. troops and gained UN approval for the Korean War. After initial success, the UN forces were thrown back by Chinese intervention and the conflict was stalemated through the final years of Truman's presidency.


 * HMS Argus (I49) (Sturmvogel 66): HMS Argus was a British aircraft carrier that served in the Royal Navy from 1918 to 1944. She was converted from an ocean liner that was under construction when the First World War began, and became the world's first example of what is now the standard pattern of aircraft carrier, with a full-length flight deck that allowed wheeled aircraft to take off and land. Argus was too top-heavy as originally built and had to be modified to improve her stability in the mid-1920s. She spent one brief deployment on the China Station in the late 1920s before being placed in reserve for budgetary reasons. The ship was recommissioned and partially modernised shortly before the Second World War and served as a training ship for deck-landing practice until June 1940. The following month she made the first of her many ferry trips to the Western Mediterranean to fly-off fighters to Malta; she was largely occupied in this task for the next two years. The ship also delivered aircraft to Murmansk in Russia, Takoradi on the Gold Coast, and Reykjavik in Iceland. By 1942, the Royal Navy was very short of aircraft carriers and Argus was pressed into front-line service despite her lack of speed and armament. In June, she participated in Operation Harpoon, providing air cover for the Malta-bound convoy. In November, the ship provided air cover during Operation Torch, the invasion of French North Africa, and was lightly damaged by a bomb. After returning to the UK for repairs, Argus was used again for deck-landing practice until late September 1944. In December, she became an accommodation ship and was listed for disposal in mid-1946. Argus was sold in late 1946 and scrapped the following year.


 * Siege of Constantinople (717–718) (Constantine) : The Second Arab Siege of Constantinople in 717–718 was a combined land and sea effort by the Arabs of the Umayyad Caliphate to take the capital city of the Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. The campaign marked the culmination of twenty years of attacks and gradual Arab encroachment on the Byzantine borderlands, aided by internal Byzantine turmoil. The Arabs, led by Maslamah ibn Abd al-Malik, invaded Byzantine Asia Minor in 716. After wintering in the western coastlands of Asia Minor, the Arab army crossed into Thrace in early summer 717 and built siege lines to blockade the city. In spring 718, two Arab fleets that were sent as reinforcements were destroyed by the Byzantines after their Christian crews defected, and an additional army sent overland through Asia Minor was defeated. Coupled with attacks by the Bulgars on their rear, the Arabs were forced to raise the siege on 15 August 718. The rescue of Constantinople ensured the continued survival of Byzantium, while the Caliphate's strategic outlook was altered: although regular attacks on Byzantine territories continued, the goal of outright conquest was abandoned. The siege is also credited with having halted the Muslim advance into Europe, and is hence often considered one of the most decisive battles in history.


 * Stanley Savige (Hawkeye7): Lieutenant General Sir Stanley George Savige, (1890–1954), was an Australian Army soldier and officer who served in the First World War and Second World War. Savige enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force during the First World War and served in the ranks during the Gallipoli Campaign. He subsequently received a commission and later served on the Western Front. In 1918 he joined Dunsterforce and served in the Caucasus Campaign, during which he was instrumental in protecting thousands of Assyrian refugees. After the war he played a key role in the establishment of Legacy Australia. During the early years of the Second World War, Savige commanded the 17th Infantry Brigade. He returned to Australia after the Battle of Greece, but later commanded the 3rd Division in the Salamaua-Lae campaign. He ultimately rose to the rank of lieutenant general, commanding the II Corps in the Bougainville campaign. In later life he was a director of Olympic Tyre & Rubber Ltd and chairman of Moran & Cato Ltd from 1950 to 1951. He was also chairman of the Central War Gratuity Board from 1946 to 1951, and a commissioner of the State Savings Bank of Victoria.


 * Sudirman (Crisco 1492) : General of the Army Raden Soedirman (Perfected Spelling: Sudirman; 1916–1950) was a high-ranking Indonesian military officer during the Indonesian National Revolution. The first commander-in-chief of the Indonesian Armed Forces, he continues to be highly respected in Indonesia. He was a teacher when the Japanese occupied the Indies in 1942. In 1944, he joined the Japanese-sponsored Defenders of the Homeland as a battalion commander in Banyumas. In this position he put down a rebellion by his fellow soldiers, but was later interned in Bogor. After Indonesia proclaimed its independence on 17 August 1945, Sudirman led a break-out from the detention centre. He was then tasked with overseeing the surrender of Japanese soldiers in Banyumas. His command was made part of the Fifth Division on 20 October by interim commander-in-chief Oerip Soemohardjo, with Sudirman in charge of the division. On 12 November 1945, at an election to decide the military's commander-in-chief in Yogyakarta, Sudirman was chosen over Oerip in a close vote. While waiting to be confirmed, Sudirman ordered an assault on British and Dutch forces stationed in Ambarawa. The ensuing battle and British withdrawal strengthened Sudirman's popular support, and he was confirmed on 18 December. During the following three years Sudirman saw negotiations with the returning Dutch colonial forces fail, first after the Linggadjati Agreement – which Sudirman participated in drafting – and then the Renville Agreement – which led to Indonesia granting land taken during Operation Product to the Dutch forces and the withdrawal of 35,000 Indonesian troops. He was also faced with internal dissent, including a 1948 coup d'état attempt. On 19 December 1948 the Dutch launched Operation Kraai, an attempt to capture Yogyakarta. While the political leadership took shelter at the sultan's palace, Sudirman, a small group of soldiers, and his personal doctor went south and began a seven-month guerrilla campaign. Initially followed by Dutch forces, Sudirman escaped and made his headquarters at Sobo, near Mount Lawu, where he was able to command military activities in Java; this included a show of force in Yogyakarta on 1 March 1949, led by Lieutenant Colonel Suharto. When the Dutch began withdrawing, in July 1949 Sudirman was called back to Yogyakarta. Although he wanted to continue fighting the Dutch troops, he was forbidden by Sukarno. Sudirman had a relapse of tuberculosis; this led to him retiring to Magelang. He died shortly after the Dutch recognised Indonesia's independence.


 * Lisbon Appointment (Cliftonian): The Lisbon Appointment was the decision in 1965 by Britain's self-governing colony in Rhodesia to open its own diplomatic mission in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon, with Harry Reedman at its head as an accredited representative. Rhodesia intended for this mission to operate independently from Britain's embassy in Lisbon. Whitehall refused to endorse this when asked on 9 June, but Rhodesia continued nonetheless, officially confirming Reedman's appointment 17 days later. The British government attempted to block this unilateral  months afterwards, but these efforts proved fruitless. Portugal's Foreign Ministry accepted Reedman's letter of accreditation in September, officially recognising him as "Chief of the Rhodesian Mission". The affair came amidst the larger dispute between Whitehall and Salisbury regarding the terms under which Rhodesia could be granted sovereign independence, and was a precursor to Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence on 11 November 1965.


 * Bert T. Combs (Acdixon) : Bertram Thomas Combs (1911–1991) was a jurist and politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. After serving on the Kentucky Court of Appeals, he was elected the 50th Governor of Kentucky in 1959 on his second run for the office. Following his gubernatorial term, he was appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Lyndon B. Johnson, serving from 1967 to 1970. Combs rose from poverty in his native Clay County, Kentucky, to attain a law degree from the University of Kentucky and open a law practice in Prestonsburg. He was decorated for his service under General Douglas MacArthur during World War II, then returned to Kentucky and his law practice. In 1951, Governor Lawrence Wetherby appointed him to fill a vacancy on the Kentucky Court of Appeals. Combs was elected governor in 1959. Early in his term, he secured passage of a three percent sales tax to pay a bonus to the state's military veterans. Knowing a tax of one percent would have been sufficient, he used the excess revenue to enact a system of reforms including expansion of the state's highway and state park systems. He also devoted much of the surplus to education, and was called the "education governor" in some circles. Following his term in office, Combs was appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals by President Johnson. He ran for governor again in 1971, losing the Democratic primary to Wendell H. Ford, his former executive secretary. In 1984, Combs agreed to represent sixty-six of the state's poor school districts in a lawsuit challenging the state's system of financing public education. The suit, Rose v. Council for Better Education, resulted in the Kentucky Supreme Court declaring the state's entire system of public schools unconstitutional. In response, the Kentucky General Assembly drafted a sweeping education measure known as the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1991. On December 3, 1991, Combs was caught in a flash flood as he returned home from his law office. His body was found in the Red River near Rosslyn, in Powell County, the following morning.


 * Leslie Morshead (Hawkeye7): Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead KCB, KBE, CMG, DSO, ED (1889–1959) was an Australian soldier, teacher, businessman, and farmer, with a distinguished military career that spanned both world wars. A teacher before the First World War, he resigned his position and his commission in the Cadet Corps, and travelled to Sydney to enlist as a private in the First Australian Imperial Force. Commissioned as an officer, he fought at Gallipoli and on the Western Front at Messines, Passchendaele, First Battle of Villers-Bretonneux and Amiens. Between the wars he made a successful career with the Orient Line, and remained active in the part-time Militia, commanding battalions and brigades. In the Second World War, he commanded Austrialian troops in the Siege of Tobruk in 1941 and the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942, before being transferred to South-East Asia, where he held corps commands in the New Guinea and Borneo campaigns. A strict and demanding officer, he came to be referred to by his soldiers humorously as "Ming the Merciless," and later simply as "Ming," after the villain in Flash Gordon comics.


 * Robert Eichelberger (Hawkeye7) : Robert Lawrence Eichelberger (1886–1961) was a general officer in the United States Army, who commanded the Eighth United States Army in the Southwest Pacific Area during World War II. A 1909 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, he saw service in Panama and on the Mexican border before joining the American Expeditionary Force Siberia in 1918. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for repeated acts of bravery in Siberia. After the war, he transferred to the Adjutant General's Corps. He attended the Command and General Staff College and the Army War College, and was Secretary of the War Department General Staff, working for the Chief of Staff of the United States Army, General Douglas MacArthur. In 1940, Eichelberger became the Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point. He instituted a number of reforms, cutting back activities such as horseback riding and close order drill, and substituting modern combat training, in which cadets participated in military exercises alongside National Guard units. He acquired Stewart Field as a training facility, which gave cadets a chance to qualify as pilots while still at West Point. He became commander of the 77th Infantry Division in March 1942, and I Corps in June. In August 1942, Eichelberger was abruptly sent to the Southwest Pacific Area, where he led American and Australian troops in the bloody Battle of Buna–Gona. In 1944, he had notable victories at Hollandia and the Battle of Biak. As Commanding General of the newly formed Eighth Army, Eichelberger led the invasion of the Southern Philippines clearing the islands of Mindoro, Marinduque, Panay, Negros, Cebu and Bohol. By July 1945, his forces had defeated the Japanese on Mindanao.  In August 1945, Eichelberger's Eighth Army began a three-year stint as part of the Occupation of Japan. He retired from the Army at the end of 1948.


 * Walter Krueger (Hawkeye7) : Walter Krueger (1881–1967) was an American soldier and general officer in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his command of the Sixth United States Army in the South West Pacific Area during World War II. He rose from the rank of private to general in the United States Army. Born in Flatow, West Prussia, Krueger migrated to the United States as a boy. He enlisted for service in the Spanish-American War and served in Cuba, and then re-enlisted for service in the Philippine-American War. On 1 July 1901, he was commissioned. In 1914 he was posted to the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. His regiment was mobilized on 23 June 1916 and served along the Mexican border. After the United States commenced hostilities with Germany in April 1917, Krueger was assigned to the 84th Infantry Division as its Assistant Chief of Staff G-3 (Operations), and then its chief of staff. In October 1918, he became Chief of Staff of the Tank Corps. Between the wars, Krueger served in a number of command and staff positions, and attended the Naval War College at his own request. In 1941, he assumed command of the Third Army, which he led in the Louisiana Maneuvers. He expected, in view of his age, to spend the war at home training troops, but in 1943 he was sent to General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area as commander of the Sixth Army and Alamo Force, which he led in a series of victorious campaigns against the Japanese. As an army commander, Krueger had to grapple with the problems imposed by vast distances, inhospitable terrain, unfavorable climate, and an indefatigable and dangerous enemy. He had to balance MacArthur's need to speed up the tempo of operations in order to win campaigns with the more cautious approach of subordinates who often found themselves confronted by unexpectedly large numbers of Japanese troops. The Battle of Luzon was his largest, longest and last battle. Krueger retired to San Antonio, Texas, where he bought a house and wrote From Down Under to Nippon, an account of his campaigns in the Southwest Pacific. His retirement was marred by family tragedies. His son James was dismissed from the Army in 1947 for conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman. His wife's health deteriorated, and she died of cancer in 1956. His daughter  Dorothy stabbed her husband to death in 1952. She was sentenced to life imprisonment by a court-martial, but was freed by the US Supreme Court in 1957.


 * Lisbon Appointment (Cliftonian): See above


 * Wilfred Arthur (Ian Rose): Wilfred Stanley (Wilf) Arthur DSO, DFC (1919–2000) was a fighter ace and senior officer of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. He was officially credited with ten aerial victories. As a commander, he led combat formations at squadron and wing level, becoming at 24 the youngest group captain in the history of the RAAF. Arthur joined the Air Force the day after Australia declared war in September 1939. He first saw action with No. 3 Squadron in North Africa, where he had the distinction of shooting down four aircraft in a single sortie. Posted to the South West Pacific, he commanded first No. 75 Squadron, and later Nos. 81 and 78 Wings. Arthur also played a leading part in—and gave name to—the "Morotai Mutiny" of April 1945. Pursuing various interests in Australia and Vietnam following his discharge from the Air Force after the war, he died in 2000 at the age of 81.


 * Hippolyte De La Rue (Ian Rose): Air Commodore Hippolyte Ferdinand (Frank) De La Rue CBE, DFC (1891–1977) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Joining the Mercantile Marine as a youth, he became a pilot in Britain's Royal Naval Air Service during World War I. In 1918, he was given command of No. 223 Squadron in the newly formed Royal Air Force and later commanded No. 270 Squadron RAF in Egypt. Returning to Australia, De La Rue became a founding member of the RAAF in March 1921. Specialising in maritime aviation, he led seaplane formations based at Point Cook, Victoria, during the 1920s and early 1930s. De La Rue was appointed commanding officer of No. 1 Flying Training School at Point Cook in 1933. He was promoted to group captain in 1937 and took command of RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, the following year. At the outbreak of World War II, De La Rue was slated to lead an air expeditionary force to Great Britain, but this plan was abandoned. Promoted to temporary air commodore, he served as Air Officer Commanding Western Area from 1941 to 1943, and finished the war as Inspector of Administration at RAAF Headquarters, Melbourne. Nicknamed "Kanga", De La Rue retired from the Air Force in 1946.


 * George Kenney (Hawkeye7): George Churchill Kenney (1889–1977) was a United States Army Air Forces general during World War II. Kenney enlisted as a flying cadet in the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps in 1917, and served on the Western Front in World War I. After hostilities ended he participated in the Occupation of the Rhineland. Returning to the United States, he flew reconnaissance missions along the border between the US and Mexico during the Mexican Revolution. Commissioned into the Regular Army in 1920, he attended the Air Corps Tactical School, and later became an instructor there. In early 1940, Kenney became Assistant Military Attaché for Air in France. As a result of his observations of German and Allied air operations during the early stages of World War II, he recommended significant changes to Air Corps equipment and tactics. In July 1942, he assumed command of the Allied Air Forces and Fifth Air Force in General Douglas MacArthur's Southwest Pacific Area. Under Kenney's command, the Allied Air Forces developed innovative command structures, weapons, and tactics that reflected Kenney's orientation towards attack aviation. In June 1944 he was appointed commander of the Far East Air Forces (FEAF), which came to include the Fifth, Thirteenth, and Seventh Air Forces. In April 1946, Kenney became the first commander of the newly formed Strategic Air Command (SAC), but his performance in the role was criticized, and he was shifted to become commander of the Air University, a position he held from October 1948 until his retirement from the Air Force in September 1951.