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


 * 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) (Peacemaker67) : The 13th Waffen Mountain Division of the SS Handschar (1st Croatian) was a German mountain infantry division of the Waffen-SS that fought a counter-insurgency campaign against communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance forces in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. Nominator Peacemaker67 put the article through GA and A-class review prior to its FAC nomination, noting that the subject was "a little known but very interesting Waffen-SS division in which most of the rank and file were Bosnian Muslims".


 * Blockhaus d'Éperlecques (Prioryman) : The Blockhaus d'Éperlecques (also referred to as "the Watten bunker" or simply "Watten") is a Second World War bunker, now part of a museum, near Saint-Omer in the Pas-de-Calais region of northeastern France. Built by Nazi Germany under the codename Kraftwerk Nord West (Powerplant Northwest), it was originally intended to be a launching facility for the V-2 (A-4) ballistic missile. This is the second of three related articles (the others being Fortress of Mimoyecques and La Coupole) that Prioryman is nominating for FA, his goal being a triple Today's Featured Article in March 2013 to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of construction of the three sites.


 * McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II in Australian service (Nick-D) : The Royal Australian Air Force operated 24 McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II fighter-bomber aircraft in the ground attack role between 1970 and 1973 due to delays to the delivery of its General Dynamics F-111C aircraft. This is the second featured article on the service of an individual aircraft type with the RAAF to have been developed by Nick-D, and is much shorter and less complicated than the preceding article which covered the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet in Australian service.


 * Operation Barras (HJ Mitchell) : Operation Barras was a successful British Army operation that took place in Sierra Leone on 10 September 2000 in which elite troops rescued several soldiers which had been captured by a militia group. HJ Mitchell successfully nominated the article for A-class status before taking it to FAC, and noted that this little-remembered operation had profound impact on the British Government's foreign policy.


 * SMS Kaiserin (Parsecboy) : SMS Kaiserin ("His Majesty's Ship Empress") was the third vessel of the Kaiser-class battleship of battleships of the German Imperial Navy and participated in all of the major fleet operations of World War I. This was the latest of the many featured articles on warships Parsecboy has developed, and was placed through successful good article, good topic and A-class reviews before being nominated for FA status.


 * List of battlecruisers (Parsecboy) : A comprehensive list of every battlecruiser completed, cancelled, or planned, by all of the world's navies. Parsecboy took the lead role in developing this article, and it underwent a successful A-class nomination prior to being nominated for featured list status.


 * List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients (G) (MisterBee1966) : A list of all the recipients of the German Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross whose last names begin with "G". This article was developed by MisterBee1966 as part of a long-running series, and follows the same layout and citation style of the other A-class Knight's Cross recipients lists.


 * Dobroslav Jevđević (PRODUCER and Peacemaker67) : This article was jointly nominated by PRODUCER and Peacemaker67 and covers the life of a Bosnian Serb politician and self-appointed Chetnik commander in the Herzegovina region of Yugoslavia during the Second World War. The article was assessed as being GA standard before being taken to an A-class nomination.


 * Hugh John Casey (Hawkeye7) : Hugh John Casey was a United States Army engineer who helped designed The Pentagon and later served as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur's chief engineer during the Pacific War. This article was developed by Hawkeye7 as part of his series of articles on generals in the South West Pacific Area of World War II, and passed a GA nomination in 2010.


 * Operation Sandstone (Hawkeye7) : Operation Sandstone was the third series of American nuclear weapon tests, and was conducted in the central Pacific during April and May 1948. When nominating the article for A-class status, Hawkeye7 noted that while the article is relatively small, the tests it describes were among the most significant to have been conducted.


 * HMS Tiger (1913) (Sturmvogel 66) : HMS Tiger was a battlecruiser of the Royal Navy which saw combat against German forces during World War I. The article was developed by Sturmvogel 66, and passed through GA and good topic assessments before being nominated for A-class status.


 * SMS Thüringen (Parsecboy) : SMS Thüringen was the third vessel of the Helgoland-class battleship of battleships of the German Imperial Navy and saw combat against British and Russian forces during World War I. Parsecboy played the lead role in developing the article, and noted in the A-class review that it's the second to last of the WWI-era German World War I-era dreadnoughts to be nominated for this status; it had previously passed a GA review and two good topic reviews.


 * Battle of the Defile (Constantine) : The Battle of the Defile was and engagement fought over three days in the Tashtakaracha Pass (in modern Uzbekistan) between a large Arab army of the Umayyad Caliphate and the Turkic Turgesh khaganate in July 731. Nominator Constantine noted that it is one of the most dramatic and best-described battles of the 8th century, and one of the major battles that brought the Muslim conquests to an end. The article passed a GA review before being nominated for A-class status.


 * Siege of Constantinople (674–678) (Constantine) : The First Arab Siege of Constantinople in 674–678 was a major conflict of the Arab–Byzantine Wars, and the first culmination of the Umayyad Caliphate's expansionist strategy towards the Byzantine Empire. This article was also developed by Constantine, who stated in the A-class nomination that it's one of the most important events in the early Middle Ages. As with the above article, this also passed a GA assessment before its A-class nomination.