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


 * Norwich War Memorial : This is the latest in Harry's series on war memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens. The Norwich memorial was constructed during 1927 after several previous attempts had failed. The structure has been moved several times and was allowed to decay into a poor state in the early 2000s, but was restored about a decade ago and now occupies a prominent position. The article passed GAN and ACR before reaching FA.


 * No. 1 Aircraft Depot RAAF : As indicated by its name (which Ian admits "might sound like a cure for insomnia"), No. 1 Aircraft Depot was one of the first units of the Royal Australian Air Force to be established. The depot's roles between and 1921 and 1994 included assembling and maintaining aircraft and equipment, training ground staff, organising survey flights, and development work on various aircraft types. At the time of its disbandment it was believed to be the oldest continuously operating maintenance depot of any air force. Ian took the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * Kragujevac massacre ( and ) : The Kragujevac massacre was one of the worst German reprisal killings carried out in the occupied territory of Serbia during World War II. Like others of its type, it involved killing 100 hostages for every German soldier killed by insurgents, and 50 hostages for every wounded German. The 2,800 victims were rounded up in Kragujevac and surrounding districts, and included 144 school students and their teachers. Some of the senior German officers who ordered the reprisals were tried at the end of the war, one committing suicide in custody. The article passed GAN and ACR before reaching FA.


 * Tube Alloys : Tube Alloys was a codename of the clandestine research and development programme, authorised by the United Kingdom with participation from Canada, to develop nuclear weapons during World War II. It commenced before the Manhattan Project but was ultimately subsumed by the American-led program. The British re-started an independent nuclear weapons programme following the war. Hawkeye took this through GAN and ACR before FAC.


 * Hawker Hurricane in Yugoslav service : The Royal Yugoslav Air Force acquired 48 Hurricane fighters before the German invasion in April 1941, but all of the aircraft in service at that time were destroyed or captured. Unusually, the Yugoslav Partisans formed two Hurricane-equipped squadrons in mid-1944 that operated under overall British command for the remainder of the war. One squadron's worth of aircraft remained in Yugoslav service after the war, finally being retired in the early 1950s. Peacemaker successfully nominated the article for GA and A-class prior to it achieving FA status.


 * Battle of Hochkirch : The Battle of Hochkirch was an engagement of the Seven Years' War. Historians usually consider the battle as among Frederick the Great's worst blunders as he allowed his army of 30,000-36,000 men to be attacked by an Austrian force more than twice its size. While the battle was a success for the Austrians, their failure to follow up on it nullified the Prussian loss. As has been the case with all this month's FAs, the article passed GAN and ACR first.


 * Battle of Kunersdorf (Auntieruth55) : The first of two entries by Auntieruth55 on this month's list is also the second in a planned series of four articles she's aiming to develop to A-class status. The Battle of Kunersdorf was fought between Prussia and an alliance of Austria and Russia in 1759, and was probably the worst defeat suffered by Prussian King Frederick the Great. The Austrian and Russian forces failed to exploit their victory, however.


 * SMS Weissenburg (Parsecboy) : Parsecboy's latest article on a German battleship covers one of the first such vessels in the Imperial German Navy. Weissenburg was operated by the German Navy from 1894 until 1910, when she was sold to the Ottoman Navy. The battleship had a lengthy career in Ottoman and later Turkish service, seeing combat in three wars and remaining in commission until 1933. The old battleship was used as an accommodation ship until 1950.


 * Crusades (Norfolkbigfish) : Wikipedia's article on one of the longest running and most important series of military campaigns in human history has had a long and varied history. It was a GA from 2006 until 2007, and dropped to C-class in 2016. Efforts led by Norfolkbigfish returned it to GA status earlier this year, and its promotion to A-class is an impressive achievement.


 * Names inscribed on the Equestrian statue of Frederick the Great (Auntieruth55) : As Auntieruth55 noted in the nomination statement, the name of this article "says it all". This statue in central Berlin features lists of the leading figures in Prussia's rise to prominence in the 18th century. However, as Fredrick the Great had difficulty staffing positions the list includes "a few men with absolutely no talent for leadership or military science".


 * Project E (Hawkeye7) : This article was nominated for deletion as a hoax shortly after being created in 2008, but fortunately it survived. It covers a joint project between the United States and the United Kingdom during the Cold War to provide nuclear weapons to the Royal Air Force prior to Britain's own nuclear weapons becoming available. The project was subsequently expanded to facilitate similar arrangements for the British Army of the Rhine, with the American-provided weapons remaining in service until 1992.


 * Project SAINT (Iazyges) : Project SAINT was undertaken by the United States during the Cold War to develop a means of intercepting, inspecting and destroying Soviet spacecraft. Developed during the late 1950s and early 1960s, the project was heavily over budget by the time it was cancelled in late 1962 and no longer practical due to advances in countermeasures for Soviet satellites and development of cheaper anti-satellite methods. Despite this, many details relating to the project are still classified.