Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/January 2017/Articles


 * Devon County War Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : This article forms part of a series on war memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens that Harry Mitchell has developed recently. One of 15 memorials designed by Lutyens to a similar specification, it was unveiled in 1921 to commemorate the approximately 11,600 men and women from Devon killed in the First World War. The memorial has been a listed building since 2009, though this came too late to prevent it from being surrounded by an "unfortunate" set of metal railings. Harry took the article through GAN and ACR before achieving FA status with it.


 * Dick Cresswell (Ian Rose) : The subject of Ian's latest biography of a senior RAAF officer to reach FA is the only airman to command one of the force's flying squadrons during wartime on three occasions. Cresswell did this leading No. 77 Squadron, earning himself the apt if rather unimaginative nick-name "Mr Double Seven" in the process. His remarkable career included air combat against Japanese forces from 1942 to 1945, and an eventful tour of duty in the Korean War. The article achieved GA and A-Class status prior to FA.


 * Gottlob Berger (Peacemaker67) : Peacemaker's latest biography to achieve FA status concerns a senior German official responsible for Waffen-SS recruiting during World War II. A veteran of World War I, Berger was an early Nazi Party member and became one of Himmler's most trusted lieutenants. During World War II he was able to circumvent Wehrmacht controls over conscription and extend SS recruiting to include foreigners and non-Germans. Tried and convicted for war crimes, he served six-and-a-half years of a 25-year sentence before returning to civilian life.


 * Montreal Laboratory (Hawkeye7) : Hawkeye7's latest successful FA nomination related to the Manhattan Project focuses on the Canadian part of this massive undertaking. The Montreal Lab was established for nuclear research in concert with the United Kingdom, and to absorb some of the scientists and work of the Tube Alloys project in Britain. Hawkeye shepherded the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * Operation Infinite Reach (GeneralizationsAreBad) : GAB's first FA, this article concerns the US's first attack on al-Qaeda, before 9/11 -- the August 1998 cruise missile strikes against Osama bin Laden's Afghan training camps and a Sudanese pharmaceutical plant suspected of manufacturing chemical weapons for militants. According the GAB, it "incorporates international journalism, academic and popular literature, and government reports". The article went through GAN and a Peer Review before its FA nomination.


 * SMS Kaiser Friedrich III (Parsecboy) : SMS Kaiser Friedrich III was commissioned in 1898 and was badly damaged when she ran aground in 1901. Despite a major upgrade, rapid improvements in technology soon left her obsolete and from 1910 she formed part of the German Navy's reserve force. The battleship served as a coastal defence vessel during the first year of World War I, but was decommissioned in 1915 and subsequently used as a prison ship and later as a barracks ship. This is the first article on a German battleship to be promoted to A-class for some time; the other ships of this class are currently featured articles.


 * HMS Levant (1758) (Euryalus) : Continuing the nautical theme, this article describes the busy career of a sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy that saw active service in both the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. Essentially a privateer hunter, Levant secured a creditable 24 victories in 21 years at sea. The frigate undertook several other tasks during her career, which began in 1758 and ended in 1780.


 * Operation Mincemeat (The Bounder) : The Bounder's first A-class article covers one of the best-known, and most successful, deception operations of World War II. Intended to cover the 1943 invasion of Sicily, British intelligence obtained the body of Glyndwr Michael, a tramp who died from eating rat poison, dressed him as an officer of the Royal Marines, and placed personal items on him identifying him as Captain (Acting Major) William Martin as well as papers relating to fictional invasions of Greece and Sardinia. The body was then released from a submarine off the coast of Spain in the hope that the German intelligence services would receive copies of the papers. This duly occurred, and contributed to the German decision to not reinforce Sicily. In their nomination statement, The Bounder noted that they had been fascinated by this operation for more than 30 years.


 * North Eastern Railway War Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : Continuing his work on war memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, Harry's first entry in this month's list concerns a memorial located in York. It was one of two war memorials designed by Lutyens in York, and led to considerable controversy when it was given ten times the budget of the city's memorial and was built in a much more prominent location.


 * 2/7th Battalion (Australia) (AustralianRupert) : The 2/7th Battalion was an Australian infantry unit of World War II. Raised in the state of Victoria, it took part in the initial battles that the Australians fought in the North African campaign, as well as the subsequent fighting in Greece and then Crete. The battalion's most significant action probably came at 42nd Street on Crete, after which the majority of the units were captured. After being rebuilt, the battalion undertook garrison duties in Ceylon before fighting several campaigns against the Japanese in New Guinea.


 * Spalding War Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : Harry's other article on a war memorial for the month covers one which was considerably different from Lutyens' normal style. The Spalding War Memorial was initiated by a family who had lost a son during World War I and is centred around a reflecting pool. While the memorial fell into relative obscurity, it is now a heritage-listed site like all of Lutyens' other memorials.


 * Æthelflæd (Dudley Miles) : Æthelflæd was the daughter of Alfred the Great and the chief - perhaps only - female military leader in Anglo-Saxon England. She ruled Mercia in the English Midlands from 911 until her death in 918, during which time she improved the kingdom's defences and led several successful campaigns against Viking forces. She has attracted a lot of coverage by historians, and is regarded as a great ruler who played an important part in the reconquest of the Danelaw.


 * Alan Rawlinson (Ian Rose) : Ian's latest A-class biography of a RAAF officer covers a fighter ace of World War II. Rawlinson shot down at least eight aircraft while serving in North Africa and the Middle East during 1940 and 1941. He returned to Australia in early 1942, and was eventually appointed to command a Spitfire-equipped squadron that ultimately saw little combat, before serving in senior operational roles. Following the war he resigned from the RAAF and enlisted in the RAF, from which he retired in 1961 as a group captain. In the nomination statement Ian noted that he'd wanted to work on this article for some time, but had been constrained in doing so until recently due to a surprising lack of sources on Rawlinson's post-war career.


 * Velites (Iazyges) : Velites were a class of infantry in the Roman army of the mid-Republic from 211 to 107 BC. They were light infantry and skirmishers who were armed with darts and a small sword. As they were typically the poorest soldiers in their legion, they did not wear armour, but carried a small shield. Velites were typically used as a screening force, driving off enemy skirmishers and disrupting enemy formations with javelin throws before retiring behind the lines to allow the heavier-armed infantry to attack. Iazyges developed this article to A-class status after it had been a GA for eight years.