Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/February 2019/Articles




 * Battle of Auberoche : A decisive but little-known episode of the Hundred Years' War, the Battle of Auberoche was fought on 21 October 1345 between an Anglo-Gascon force of 1,200 men under Henry, Earl of Derby, and a French army of 7,000 commanded by Louis of Poitiers. The result was a decisive English victory, with heavy French casualties, including Louis of Poitiers.


 * North-Eastern Area Command (RAAF) : North-Eastern Area was very active in the early part of the Pacific War. Responsible for the defence of Australian territories in New Guinea as well as north Queensland, the command oversaw the attempts by RAAF forces to hold off the Japanese thrust into the area during 1942. While most operations in New Guinea were transferred to a separate command in 1943, North-Eastern Area retained responsibility for protecting Allied lines of communication. It survived in a much-reduced form for about a decade after the war, disbanding in 1956.


 * French battleship Courbet (1911) : Courbet had a typical career for a French dreadnought of her generation. Her part in World War I mainly consisted of swinging around a mooring buoy as she was tasked to prevent a breakout into the Mediterranean by the Austro-Hungarian fleet. During World War II she bombarded Rommel's 7th Panzer Division as it approached Cherbourg, then sailed to the UK, where she was seized by the British a few weeks later. They used her as a target ship before she was sunk as a breakwater off the Normandy beaches in 1944.


 * Al-Mu'tasim : One of the Abbasid "warrior-caliphs", al-Mu'tasim may have not had the intellectual calibre of his predecessor al-Ma'mun but, as the founder of a new capital and of a new, militarized, regime that formed the prototype of Islamic governance for centuries, he had a disproportionate impact on history. His reign between 833 and 842 was marked by continuous warfare, with generals leading campaigns against internal revolts and al-Mu'tasim personally commanding a successful campaign against the Byzantine Empire.


 * SMS Schlesien : Another in Parsecboy's series of German capital ships, Schlesien was a Deutschland-class pre-dreadnought battleship that served in both world wars, taking part in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and during the invasions of Poland in 1939 and Denmark and Norway in 1940.


 * WAVES : On 30 July 1942, the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) became the Women’s reserve branch of the United States Naval Reserve. The idea of women serving in the Navy during the War was not widely supported in Congress, or by the Navy itself, but with manpower shortages, women were needed to replace men for sea duty. Several notable women, including Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the president, laid the groundwork for the passage of a law authorising the WAVES, and it eventually reached a strength of over 86,000 members.


 * Siege of Berwick (1333) : The siege of Berwick lasted for four months, and ended in victory for the English attackers who also defeated a Scottish attempt to lift the siege. The Scottish king, Edward Balliol, deposed in a popular uprising before the siege, was reinstalled and ceded much of his territory to the English king, Edward III.


 * Apollo 11 ( & ) : The first manned moon landing had strong military links. All three astronauts had been pilots in the US military, and the effort to recover them when they returned to earth was a significant military operation. Hawkeye's and Kees' goal was to have the article at FA in time for 50th anniversary of the mission in July 2019.


 * Rwandan Civil War : The civil war was fought between the Rwandan Armed Forces and the rebel Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) between 1990 to 1994, the result of long-running conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi groups in Rwanda. The RPF emerged victorious but, as Amakuru relates in their nomination statement, "ultimately, this war was the precursor to one of the worst mass genocides of the 20th century".


 * Arch of Remembrance : Harry's latest article on the memorials of Edwin Lutyens passed both MilHist ACR and FAC last month -- read more about it in the A-class section below.

Note: Every one of the above articles underwent a MilHist A-class review or, in a couple of cases, a formal peer review before achieving featured status.


 * Battle of Azaz (1030) (Cplakidas and Al Ameer son) : The nomination statement described this battle as "not as well known as the big Arab–Byzantine conflicts of earlier centuries, but is nevertheless a typical specimen of border warfare, and a parade example on the dangers of having an armchair general as commander-in-chief; even though not decisive on any wider scale, it was a major humiliation for the Byzantines and personally for Emperor Romanos III". The reasons for this humiliation are easy to see: during the Battle of Azaz, the Byzantine army of around 20,000 men was defeated by a force of between 700 and 2,000 Arab soldiers. This is Al Ameer son's first A-class article - congratulations.


 * Soviet destroyer Nezamozhnik (Kges1901 and Sturmvogel 66) : Nezamozhnik (Russian for "poor peasant") was a destroyer originally built for the Imperial Russian Navy during World War I which had a very active career in Soviet service. Uncompleted at the time of the Russian Revolution, her hull was wrecked in 1920 but refloated and completed following the Russian Civil War. Nezamozhnik formed part of the Black Sea Fleet for her entire career, and during World War II helped to evacuate Odessa, supply besieged Soviet forces in Sevastopol, and supported several amphibious operations. She was converted into a target ship at the end of the 1940s and sunk during the early 1950s.


 * Buzz Aldrin (Hawkeye7 and Kees08) : The nomination statement rather succinctly states that "Buzz Aldrin was a fighter pilot who shot down two MiG-15s in the Korean War. Later walked on the Moon". Aldrin's schooling had a focus on preparing him for the Navy, but as he suffered from sea sickness and was more interested in flying he managed to enter West Point instead. Graduating in 1951, he entered the United States Air Force and made a year-long deployment to Korea between late 1952 and 1953. Aldrin's extensive experience flying jet fighters was a key part of his success in joining NASA as an astronaut in 1963. As the Apollo Program wound up, Aldrin rejoined the USAF in 1971 but retired the next year.


 * Japanese cruiser Ibuki (1943) (Sturmvogel 66) : Ibuki was ordered as the lead ship of a class of heavy cruisers for the Imperial Japanese Navy. While still under construction, she began conversion into a light carrier after the losses during the Battle of Midway eviscerated the IJN's carrier force. But that was stopped in early 1945 so that the shipyard could build small submarines for the defense of Japan. The unfinished ship was scrapped after the war.


 * Mary Bell (aviator) (Ian Rose) : Mary Bell was one of the first women to hold a pilot's license in Australia, and the first to quality as a ground engineer. During the early years of World War II she led two volunteer organisations of female ground technicians: the aviation branch of the Women's National Emergency Legion and the Women's Air Training Corps, which she was the founding commander of. She later helped establish the government-run Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force and served as its initial temporary commander. Bell was passed over for the role of the WAAF's director, but served in the organisation as a junior officer (at her request) until late in the war.


 * Battle of Entebbe (Indy beetle) : The April 1979 Battle of Entebbe was one of the more significant moments of the Uganda-Tanzania War, in which Tanzanian forces routed Libyan troops at the Entebbe international airport in Uganda. The defeat was large enough to trigger the withdrawal of Libyan forces in Uganda and end their support of Idi Amin. The battle was followed shortly afterwards by the fall of Kampala (see below).


 * Soviet cruiser Marshal Voroshilov (Kges1901) : The latest article in Kges1901's series on Soviet Kresta-II class guided missile cruisers covers a vessel "which served a fairly uneventful twenty years with the Pacific Fleet".  Marshal Voroshilov was commissioned in 1973, and often operated in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union the cruiser was transferred to the Russian Navy, though her career in it was brief, as she was decommissioned in October 1992.


 * Battle of Hulao (Cplakidas) : The Battle of Hulao was one of the most pivotal battles in Chinese history, as it cemented the Tang dynasty as rulers of China. It was fought in May 621, and was the main and final battles between the rival Tang, Zheng and Xia regimes. Despite being outnumbered ten to one, it ended with a decisive victory for the Tang.


 * History of the Office of The Inspector General of the United States Army (Eddie891) : Eddie891's first A-class article covers pretty much what it says on the tin: the history of an important, but low profile, element of the US Army since it was established in 1777 to the present day. Over this period the office has been reorganized many times, varied in size dramatically, and nearly abolished on several occasions.


 * Siege of Aiguillon (Gog the Mild) : In their nomination statement, Gog described this siege as "a turning point in the Hundred Years' War which has been almost completely ignored by historians". The siege took place between April and August 1346, with French forces besieging an Anglo-Gascon army. The English commander adroitly avoided battle, harassed the French communications, and repeatedly ran supplies through to the besieged town. The French abandoned the siege in an attempt to reinforce the army which was defeated at the Battle of Crécy before they could arrive.


 * Gascon campaign of 1345 (Gog the Mild) : The Gascon campaign has been described as "the first successful land campaign of... the Hundred Year's War". It took place between August and November 1345, and ended in victory for the English. During the campaign the English forces defeated two French armies and captured several castles.


 * German torpedo boat Albatros (L293D and Sturmvogel_66) : Albatros was the fourth of six Type 23 torpedo boats, and was laid down in 1925 and launched in 1927. The ship participated in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Albatros fired the first shot of the German invasion of Norway in 1940, but ran aground and was destroyed two days later while attempting to avoid Norwegian costal artillery. Congratulations to L293D for their first A-class article.


 * Arch of Remembrance (HJ Mitchell) : The latest in Harry Mitchell's series on war memorials designed by Edwin Lutyens covers a large memorial in Leicester. In the nomination statement, Harry noted that it "is Lutyens' largest and arguably most impressive in the UK, and yet it could have could have been even more impressive had it not been for poor management in the early stages of the project". Harry has visited the memorial, and describes it as "an awe-inspiring and deeply moving piece of architecture so I hope this article does it justice".


 * Samuel Frickleton (Zawed) : As the latest instalment in another large series, this article covers a Scottish-born New Zealand recipient of the Victoria Cross. Frickleton first joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in 1915, but was repatriated from Egypt to New Zealand and discharged on medical grounds that year. He re-enlisted in 1916, and received the Victoria Cross for destroying two German machine gun posts during the Battle of Messines in June 1917. He was badly wounded in this action, and did not return to France until 1918; he was soon invalided home again. Frickleton served in an administrative role during World War II, and died in 1971.


 * Fall of Kampala (Indy beetle) : The Fall of Kampala in April 1979 was a critical but oft forgotten moment in the history of the African continent. It was the first time an African state seized the capital of another African country, and it resulted in the overthrow of the brutal dictatorship of Idi Amin. The actual fighting was nothing to write home about, as the bulk of the Ugandan Army crumbled and fled in the face of a three-pronged Tanzanian assault.


 * Battle of Vrbanja Bridge (Peacemaker67) : The Battle of Vrbanja Bridge was an armed confrontation which occurred during the Bosnian War on 27 May 1995 between United Nations peacekeepers from the French Army and elements of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska. After French troops were taken hostage by Bosnian Serb forces, a platoon of French soldiers successfully counter-attacked and freed their comrades in an action which involved the first French Army bayonet charge since the Korean War. The junior officer who led the charge is now the head of the French armed forces. In the nomination statement, Peacemaker noted that "this skirmish happened while I was in Bosnia on a recce for my later deployment, and had a significant impact on the training my troops underwent".