Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/February 2013/Articles


 * Bert T. Combs (Acdixon) : The latest in Acdixon's series of high-quality articles on politicians from Kentucky, Combs was a senior judge who served as governor of the state from 1959 to 1963. He was a lawyer in the US Army during World War II and prosecuted Japanese war criminals after the conclusion of hostilities.


 * HMS Tiger (1913) (Sturmvogel 66) : HMS Tiger was the last British battlecruiser built before World War I and saw extensive fighting in that conflict. She was also the only prewar battlecruiser not to be scrapped in accordance with the terms of the Washington Naval Treaty, and finally left service in 1931.


 * John F. Bolt (Ed!) : John F. Bolt was a United States Marine Corps aviator, the only Marine to achieve flying ace status in two wars and the only Marine jet fighter ace. This article is one of many high-quality biographies Ed! has developed on veterans of the Korean War.


 * James Bryant Conant (Hawkeye7) : James Bryant Conant was a chemist who served in the US Army during World War I, became the president of Harvard University, chaired the National Defense Research Committee for much of World War II, and served as the American ambassador to West Germany. When starting this nomination, Hawkeye7 stated that no FA nomination for a chemist's biography had succeeded since November 2007.


 * Lady Saigō (Boneyard90) : Lady Saigō was the first consort and trusted confidante of Tokugawa Ieyasu, the samurai lord who unified Japan at the end of the sixteenth century and then ruled as Shogun. This article passed a GA nomination in April 2011 and was subsequently expanded and improved.


 * Fortress of Mimoyecques (Prioryman) : This is the third and last of a series of articles developed by Prioryman on the heavily fortified 'vengeance weapon' complexes built by German forces in northern France during World War II. Prioryman's goal was to develop these articles in time for the 70th anniversary of the start of construction work on these sites in March 1943.


 * List of hill forts and ancient settlements in Somerset (Rodw) : This article provides a comprehensive list of known hill forts and other early settlements in Somerset, South West England. It includes information on the location of these sites and the era in which they were constructed, as well as photographs or site plans where available.






 * Air Rhodesia Flight 825 (Cliftonian) : This article covers the events surrounding the attack on a Rhodesian civilian airliner during the Rhodesian Bush War. It's the latest in a series of high-quality articles developed by Cliftonian covering key events in the military history of Rhodesia.


 * Arthur W. Radford (Ed!) : Arthur William Radford was a United States Navy admiral and naval aviator who served in the military for 40 years, and became the second Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 1953. This is the most recent of in a long run of excellent biographies developed by Ed!


 * Battle of Lalakaon (Constantine) : Constantine did most of the work on this article in 2009 (when it reached GA status), and revisited it late last year and successfully brought it up to A-Class standard. The article covers a decisive Byzantine victory against invading Arab forces in 863.


 * Battle of Messines (1917) (Keith-264) : This article was also assessed as a GA in 2009, and significantly expanded late last year. It describes a successful British Empire offensive against German forces in Belgium during World War I that served as a prelude to the larger Third Battle of Ypres campaign.


 * Bessas (general) (Constantine) : Bessas is practically unknown today, but his life was colourful and exemplifies the 'cosmopolitan' character of military service in 6th-century Byzantium: a Thracian Goth who served in Mesopotamia, Italy and finally the Caucasus, of dubious moral character, unquestionably brave but also responsible for losing Rome to his cousins the Ostrogoths in 546. This article's development included passing a GA review last September.


 * British military intervention in the Sierra Leone Civil War ( HJ Mitchell ) : This article comprehensively covers a little-remembered British military operation that had an important impact on the history of Sierra Leone and the prime ministership of Tony Blair. HJ Mitchell developed this article with assistance from a small funding grant provided by Wikimedia UK to cover the cost of some of the references used.


 * Colin Hall Simpson (Hawkeye7) : Major General Colin Hall Simpson was an Australian Army officer who rose to the rank of major general as Signal Officer in Chief during World War II, and also helped found the major pharmacy chain Amcal. This article forms part of Hawkeye7's long-running series of articles on Australian generals of World War II.


 * Donald Wilson (general) (Hawkeye7) : In his nomination statement, Hawkeye described this article as "An unusual article on an American air general. Like Kenneth Walker, he was a key figure in the doctrine debates of the 1930s. World War II was not kind to these thinkers."


 * Fort Dobbs (North Carolina) (Cdtew) : Cdtew nominated this article on the grounds that it provides a comprehensive account of this fort in North Carolina without going into unnecessary detail, and because it highlights the critically under-recognized Anglo-Cherokee War. Unusually, the article passed a GA review the day after its A-Class nomination was closed as successful.


 * Howard Kippenberger (Zawed) : Howard Kippenberger was an officer in the New Zealand Army who saw action, and was seriously wounded, in both world wars. He was one of the country's leading generals during World War II, and subsequently edited the remarkably comprehensive official history of the war until his death in 1957.


 * Kosta Pećanac (PRODUCER and Peacemaker67) : An all-too-rare co nomination, this article covers the life of a Serbian Chetnik commander during World War II who collaborated with both the German military administration and their Serbian puppet government. The article passed through a successful GA nomination shortly before it was nominated for A-Class status.


 * List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients (L) (MisterBee1966) : Another article in MisterBee1966's comprehensive series on the winners of Nazi Germany's highest military award. In his nomination statement, MisterBee noted that the article incorporates suggestions provided as part of the A-Class reviews of earlier articles in the series.


 * Operation Trio (Peacemaker67) : This article covers the first large-scale joint German-Italian counter-insurgency operation of World War II conducted in the Independent State of Croatia. Unusually, the battle included three factions who fought one another.


 * SMS Oldenburg (Parsecboy) : In his nomination statement for this article Parsecboy noted that this is the final article on a German dreadnought-type battleship to be brought to A-Class status, which is a remarkable achievement. The article itself covers the career of the second vessel of the Helgoland-class battleship of battleships of the German Imperial Navy, which was operational from 1912 to 1919.


 * United States v. The Progressive (Hawkeye7) : In a somewhat unusual topic for a high-quality military history article, this piece discusses a lawsuit the US Government filed in 1979 against a magazine in order to prevent the publication of an article by activist Howard Morland that purported to reveal the "secret" of the hydrogen bomb. The article is part of Hawkeye7's series of articles on nuclear weapons-related subjects.


 * USS Saratoga (CV-3) (Sturmvogel 66) : USS Saratoga was one of the few pre-World War II United States Navy aircraft carriers to survive the war, seeing extensive service in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The article was assessed as a GA in December 2012 and passed an A-Class review less than a month later.


 * Zaian War (Dumelow) : This article covers a French colonial war in Morocco which is little-known in the English-speaking world. According to the nomination statement for this article, Dumelow has been gradually working on the article for three years, and the nomination was their first in four years.