Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/January 2018/Articles


 * British hydrogen bomb programme (Hawkeye7) : The latest in Hawkeye's series on the development of nuclear weapons covers the ultimately successful British effort to develop hydrogen bombs between 1952 and 1958. The British Government embarked on this technically challenging program in an attempt to keep up with American efforts. The first British hydrogen bomb test was a failure (though the British Government allowed the press to portray it as successful), but after a series of tests the British had a useable design. The article passed GAN and ACR before achieving FA status.


 * Rogožarski IK-3 : Continuing Peacemaker's series on Yugoslav aircraft of World War II, this article covers a Yugoslav-designed monoplane fighter. While the IK-3 was considered comparable in performance to the main German fighter type, the Me 109, only twelve had been completed by the time of the Axis invasion in April 1941. The aircraft and their pilots gave a good account of themselves during the fighting, but most were lost during the campaign. The Ikarus S-49 fighter was developed from the IK-3 after the war. PM  took the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * Lancashire Fusiliers War Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : This article covers one of a handful of war memorials Sir Edwin Lutyens designed for individual regiments wishing to commemorate their losses in the First World War. As the title suggests, it's for the Lancashire Fusiliers, who suffered terribly at Gallipoli and went on to distinguish themselves in France and Belgium. In his nomination statement Harry stated, "I initially doubted that this would be able to satisfy the comprehensiveness criteria, but after squeezing everything I can out of the sources, I think it's up to scratch for A-class and hopefully FAC" -- that it's indeed up to scratch is evident in the fact that the article achieved both those milestones last month.


 * Greek battleship Salamis ( & ) : Salamis was ordered by Greece from Germany during a naval arms race with the Ottomans in the 1910s. The ship couldn't be completed after World War I broke out, and was the subject of post-war litigation between the shipbuilder and the Greek Government. Proposals to finish the ship came to nothing, and the contract dispute finally ended in 1932, in favour of the builder. Parsecboy developed much of this article eight years ago, and recently overhauled it with The ed17. The article passed GAN and ACR on the way to FA, and is part of a Good Topic.


 * HMS Neptune (1909) (Sturmvogel 66) : Another in Sturm's series on British capital ships, Neptune was a Royal Navy dreadnought, the first to be built with superfiring guns. Part of the Grand Fleet, she served in the North Sea during World War I and fought at Jutland, before being scrapped after the end of the war due to obsolescence. Sturm took the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * List of protected cruisers of Italy (Parsecboy) : Parsec's second piece of featured content in this issue comprises all of the twenty protected cruisers built for the Italian Navy, from the early 1880s to the 1910s. Several of these cruisers included ground-breaking technologies. The ships served in many roles across the globe, including in Italy's colonies and with the country's main battle fleet, and many saw combat. The list passed ACR prior to FLC.


 * Waterloo Bay massacre (Peacemaker67) : The Waterloo Bay massacre was a fatal clash between settlers and Aboriginal Australians in late May 1849 on the cliffs of Waterloo Bay near Elliston, South Australia. Accounts of the incident vary considerably, and Peacemaker stated in the nomination statement that they "worked pretty hard to ensure that the article takes a NPOV view of both the findings of historians and of the oral history of the Aboriginal people of the region, which I hope is borne out by the article".


 * North-West Mounted Police (Hchc2009) : This article marks a change from Hchc2009's main (but by no means exclusive) focus on British castles. The North-West Mounted Police was a Canadian police force, established in 1873 to maintain order in the vast North-West Territories. The mounted police combined military, police and judicial functions, and were involved with deterring a feared United States invasion and suppressing the 1885 North-West Rebellion. Volunteers from the force fought in the Boer and First World Wars. The North-West Mounted Police were amalgamated with the Dominion Police in 1920 to form the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.


 * Russian battleship Petropavlovsk (1894) (Sturmvogel 66) : Petropavlovsk was one of the many ill-fated Russian battleships of the Russo-Japanese War era, and actually spent more time being built than in service. After being commissioned in 1899 the ship was dispatched to the Far East, where she formed part of the military response to the Boxer Revolution the next year. Petropavlovsk was retained as an element of the Russian Pacific Fleet and was involved in the Battle of Port Arthur in February 1904. Two months later she struck one or more mines and sank with the loss of most of her crew.


 * 390th Rifle Division (Kges1901) : The 390th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army in World War II. The designation was used twice: first for a unit destroyed in Crimea and second for a unit that fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria at the end of the war. The article is the first on a Soviet division to make A-class.


 * Civil Service Rifles War Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : The first of three new A-class articles for the month in HJ Mitchell's series on war memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens covers a monument near the Thames River in central London which was erected in memory of the Civil Service Rifles' casualties during World War I. This was a small but hard-fighting unit which suffered 1240 fatalities. Veterans from the regiment conducted annual services at the monument until the late 1980s.


 * SMS Braunschweig (Parsecboy) : Braunschweig was a pre-dreadnought battleship which served in two German navies over the course of her 22 year career. Commissioned in 1904, the ship was only part of the first-line German fleet until 1913. She was reactivated during World War I, and served in the North Sea and Baltic until late 1915. After a lengthy period in reserve, Braunschweig was returned to service as a result of the Treaty of Versailles before being decommissioned and scrapped.


 * Equestrian statue of Edward Horner (HJ Mitchell) : The Equestrian statue of Edward Horner is a memorial designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens located inside a church in the village of Mells (whose Mells War Memorial was brought to both A and FA class in October 2017). It commemorates the last-surviving son of a prominent local family, and incorporates the original wooden cross which was placed over Horner's grave in France following his death in 1917.


 * Gloucestershire Regiment (Factotem) : The Gloucestershire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army from 1881 until 1994. Its component units saw extensive combat in the Second Boer War, both world wars and the Korean War, and were also regularly deployed overseas as part of colonial garrisons. At the time of the regiment's disbandment, its colours carried more battle honours than those of any other regiment of the line.


 * British logistics in the Falklands War (Hawkeye7) : This article provides a detailed account of the complex logistical arrangements needed to transport forces from the UK to the Falklands during the 1982 war, sustain them there and supply the troops involved in unexpectedly intense combat. While initial logistical assessments judged that the operation was impossible, the commitment of much of the Royal Navy's support ships and a large fleet of chartered civilian vessels and some herculean efforts by logistics personnel on the islands proved sufficient. The article was not much more than stub for around 10 years until Hawkeye's recent expansion.


 * SMS Zähringen (Parsecboy) : Zähringen was a pre-dreadnought battleship which served in three German navies over the course of her 42 year career. Commissioned in 1902, the ship was only part of the first-line German fleet until 1910. She was reactivated during World War I, and served in the Baltic until late 1915. After a lengthy period in reserve, Zähringen was used as a target ship from 1928 to 1944, when she was sunk by an Allied air raid. Her hulk was later used as a block ship.


 * Sukhoi Su-37 (Sp33dyphil) : The Sukhoi Su-37 was a single-seat twin-engine aircraft designed by the Sukhoi Design Bureau that served as a technology demonstrator during the development of the Sukhoi Su-35. The sole Su-37 was originally built as an Su-35, and was fitted with thrust-vectoring nozzles as well as updated flight and weapons-control systems. Its maiden flight took place in 1996, and it conducted test flights and airshow performances until 19 December 2002 when was destroyed after its horizontal tail broke off during a high-g manoeuvre; the pilot survived. This article was first nominated for A-class status in 2011, and passed on its second attempt.


 * Momčilo Đujić (Peacemaker67) : Momčilo Đujić was a Orthodox priest that led a significant proportion of the Chetnik movement in the fascist puppet state the Independent State of Croatia during World War II. He openly collaborated with the Italian and then the German occupiers. He survived the war by surrendering to the western Allies, and was convicted in absentia by the Yugoslav authorities for war crimes which included the deaths of 1,500 people. He subsequently went into exile in the US and became a leader in the Serbian diaspora there. He died in 1999.


 * Project Emily (Hawkeye7) : Hawkeye7's latest article on the British nuclear weapons program covers the little-remembered use of American-built and funded Thor nuclear missiles by the Royal Air Force between 1959 and 1963. The RAF was equipped with 60 of the missiles, which were spread across 20 bases in the UK. Their crews were regularly sent to the US for training, where they launched 21 missiles from California. The RAF was never enthusiastic about the missiles, and they were withdrawn from service soon after the US Government advised the British that it intended to stop paying for their maintenance. Three of the British-operated missiles and two of their launch sites have been preserved.


 * German destroyer Z38 (Iazyges) : Z38 was a German destroyer which entered service in 1943. She spent much of her career escorting task forces, patrolling areas of sea, laying mines, and bombarding land forces. She served in the Baltic briefly in 1943, operated in the Arctic area around Norway from 1943 to 1945, and served in the Baltic again in 1945. Z38 was allocated to the British Royal Navy following the war, and under the name Nonsuch was used for trials purposes until 1948. She was severely damaged after being used as a target ship in 1949 and subsequently scrapped.


 * Junayd of Aydın (Cplakidas) : Junayd of Aydın was the last ruler of the Aydınid principality in what is now central western Turkey. His exact relationship with the Aydınid dynasty is unclear though. Junayd was involved in a series of wars and revolts during the early 1400s, which led to the loss of his principality. He regained it after further political manoeuvring, but was forced to flee in 1424. He was executed the next year.


 * Asheville-class gunboat (1917) (Iazyges) : The Asheville-class was a class of two gunboats which entered service with the US Navy in the early 1920s. Both both ships were employed to project US naval power across several different theaters, including Central America and the Pacific, during the interwar years. One of the ships was based in China, and the other mainly served in Central America. When war broke out with Japan in the Pacific, both ships were used to escort convoys. One of the ships was sunk in the Indian Ocean during 1942, and the other survived and was scrapped in the late 1940s.


 * Rhine Campaign of 1796 (Auntieruth55) : Auntieruth55's latest article on the battles of the French revolutionary wars during 1796 is last, but by no means least, in this month's list. It covers the last campaign of the War of the First Coalition, which ended with two armies under overall Austrian command outmanoeuvring and defeating a pair of French armies. Despite the Austrian success in pushing the French invaders back into France, the war ended in defeat due to losses in Italy. This article is the "parent" article covering this theatre of the war, which Auntieruth55 is well on the way to developing to a featured topic.


 * Lancashire Fusiliers War Memorial (HJ Mitchell)