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


 * Battle of Hayes Pond : A tale that could've been tragic but turned out rather comical, the Battle of Hayes Pond took place in January 1958 in Robeson County, North Carolina, when Lumbee Native Americans clashed with a band of Ku Klux Klan members. The KKK decided to burn crosses to intimidate the 30,000-strong Native American community in triracial Robeson and then to hold a night-time rally to denounce race mixing. About 50 Klansmen were confronted by several hundred armed Lumbees, who eventually opened fire, wounding some KKK and pinching their regalia, after which they went into town to celebrate.


 * Operation Sportpalast : Another of Nick's articles involving the battleship  Tirpitz, this operation was an unsuccessful German attack on two Allied Arctic convoys in March 1942. Tirpitz sailed from Norway with three destroyers, but was unable to locate either convoy. The British Home Fleet attempted to locate the German ships but was unable to make contact with them until they had almost reached the shelter of a Norwegian port. A strike from the British aircraft carrier failed due to the inadequacy of the aircraft and poor tactics on the part of their commander.


 * Capture of Sedalia : Hog Farm continues his Civil War series with this account of a Confederate raid on the Union garrison of Sedalia, Missouri, on October 15, 1864. The Confederates outnumbered the Union force, and quickly defeated them. The Union prisoners were paroled, and the town may have been looted.


 * British logistics in the Siegfried Line campaign : Still another article in a series, this describes the logistics that supported the 21st Army Group in North-West Europe from September 1944 to January 1945. During this period the army group fought several major campaigns and established huge logistical bases in Belgium that later supported the invasion of Germany.


 * Truce of Calais : This is, in nominator Gog's words, "Another in my occasional series of treaties and truces. The Truce of Calais was agreed between France and England eight years into the Hundred Years' War. It was intended to last nine months but eventually ran, not quite continuously, for eight years. It never halted all conflict, but it did punctuate two periods of major campaigning by the two royal armies."


 * American transportation in the Siegfried Line campaign (Hawkeye7) : This article is a continuation from that Hawkeye developed on American logistics in the Northern France campaign, and covers the period from September 1944 to January 1945. As the volume of material was considerable, he split the article into two parts; one about transportation, and one about supply. For much of the Siegfried campaign problems transporting supplies to the troops were a significant constraint on American operations.


 * Operation Berlin (Atlantic) (Nick-D) : Operation Berlin was a successful raid into the North Atlantic conducted by the two German Scharnhorst-class battleships in early 1941. It was everything the much better-known raid by the Bismarck was supposed to be. The two battleships sank or captured 22 Allied merchant vessels, but had to abandon two attacks on convoys that were escorted by British battleships. Despite a massive effort the British failed to bring the Germans to battle. This success proved illusory, as the British badly damaged the battleships in French ports and Bismarck had worse luck and was sunk.


 * Jadran (training ship) (Peacemaker67) : This article covers the long and complex history of a sail training ship. Jadran was commissioned in the early 1930s for the Yugoslav Royal Navy, served with the Italians in a training role after she was captured by them in World War II, and was restored to socialist Yugoslavia following the war. She remained in Yugoslav hands until the wars in the 1990s, and is now part of the Montenegrin Navy. Her ownership remains disputed between Croatia and Montenegro.


 * Battle of St. Charles (Hog Farm) : In the nomination statement, Hog Farm noted that this battle included "the deadliest single shot of the American Civil War". A Union army operating in Arkansas got stuck in the middle of nowhere with a bad supply situation and had to be resupplied by river. The river resupply fleet ran into a couple Confederate shore batteries near St. Charles, and a sharp little skirmish ensued. A stray Confederate cannon shot hit the boiler of the lead Union ship, and scalding steam killed or horribly wounded almost everyone on board. The resupply mission continued upriver, but was stopped by low water levels; the army that was the cause of the mission wound up extracting itself on its own anyway, in the first instance of the war of an army operating with no supply line.


 * Siege of Tunis (Mercenary War) (Gog the Mild) : This article covers a brutal siege fought between Carthaginian and rebel forces during the Mercenary War in October 238 BC. Tunis was the strongest remaining stronghold of the rebel forces. Both sides committed atrocities, including crucifixion. While the rebels won the battle, they were wiped out in another battle later that year.