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


 * Guy Burgess : For a long time nominator Brianboulton held off expanding this article on the infamous Cold War spy in the hopes that up-to-date sources would become available. This wish was more than fulfilled with, as Brian put it, "something of a deluge: three biographies, another of Kim Philby, another of Maclean, a monumental new study of the Cambridge Five", as well as "a robust discussion on its talkpage with one of its source's authors". The article was extensively peer reviewed before its successful FAC.


 * Antiochus X Eusebes : Another in Attar-Aram's series on ancient Syrian history, this article features a Hellenistic Seleucid who ruled as King of Syria in the first century BC.  His reign was characterised by civil wars, interference by Ptolemaic Egypt, and incursions by the Parthians, against whom he is generally thought to have died in battle.


 * Australian Air Corps : Ian's latest FA on an Australian military aviation topic covers the interim force established between the disbandment of the World War I-era Australian Flying Corps and the formation of the Royal Australian Air Force. The AAC was raised in 1920 with the role of maintaining the AFC's assets. Its personnel also undertook several pioneering flights and, most importantly, laid the foundations for a permanent Australian air force; it was disbanded on 30 March 1921 and the RAAF was raised the next day. Ian took the article through GAN and ACR before FAC.


 * Royal Naval Division War Memorial : Yet another in a large series, in this case monuments designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the Royal Naval Division War Memorial is located in central London, and commemorates the service of an unusual Navy-Army unit of World War I. The memorial was dedicated in 1925, but placed in storage during World War II. It was relocated after the war as its original position was now occupied by the hulking Admiralty Citadel. The article went through ACR before attaining FA status.


 * Edward the Elder : Edward the Elder was the son and successor of Alfred the Great. He built on his father's achievements to defeat the Vikings in southern England, and united Mercia and East Anglia with Wessex into one southern kingdom. He has been described as perhaps the most neglected of English kings. Dudley took the article through ACR prior to nominating at FAC.


 * First Battle of Dernancourt : This article covers a battle fought during the German 1918 Spring Offensive between an Australian and British force, and German troops. The Germans attacked without adequate artillery preparation, and did not fare well against the fresh Australian troops and their depleted but resolute British comrades. Peacemaker67 developed this as his first attempt at an article on a battle of World War I, the prelude to a new article covering the more complex Second Battle of Dernancourt. The article passed GAN and ACR on the way to attaining FA status.


 * SMS Braunschweig : Braunschweig was a pre-dreadnought battleship that 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. Parsecboy sent the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC; it's also part of the Battleships of Germany good topic.


 * Mark XIV bomb sight : Maury's latest FA describes a bomb sight used by the Royal Air Force during World War II. While not as well remembered as the American Norden sight, the Mark XIV was RAF Bomber Command's primary bomb sight for much of the air war over Germany, equipping the thousands of heavy bombers that grew to dominate the UK's air fleet. It continued to be upgraded following the war, and remained in service until 1965. Maury took the article through ACR before attempting FAC.


 * John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk : Mowbray was a fifteenth-century English nobleman who played a major part in the early years of the Wars of the Roses, particularly the Battle of Towton. According to nominator Serial Number, he was "an interesting if not always pleasant man—but no less the product of his age than anyone else". This is Serial Number's first FA; the article underwent an informal peer review on its talk page prior to negotiating FAC.


 * History of the Manhattan Project : This mammoth effort by Hawkeye brings together 35 articles detailing the history of the Manhatten Project, the research-and-development program that produced the first atomic weapons, a program led by the United States with support from the United Kingdom and Canada, and involving production at over 30 sites across those countries.


 * Yugoslav torpedo boat T7 (Peacemaker67) : Peacemaker67 described this article as covering "another one of the dinky little Yugoslav torpedo boats that served under several flags over the best part of half a century". Commissioned into the Austro-Hungarian Navy in 1916, the ship saw action during World War I. She became part of the Royal Yugoslav Navy from 1921 to April 1941, when she was captured by Italian forces and pressed into service with their navy. T7 ended her career with the Navy of the Independent State of Croatia, and was destroyed by the British Royal Navy in 1944.


 * L 20e α-class battleship (Parsecboy) : Parsecboy developed this article to a GA in 2011, and described it as "Another ancient article I assumed would be stuck at GA level". However, some new sources permitted development to A-class. It covers the German Imperial Navy's post-Jutland battleship designs, which ultimately came to nothing as a result of the country's defeat in World War I.


 * Henry James Nicholas (Zawed) : This is latest article in Zawed's series on New Zealand Victoria Cross recipients of World War I. Nicholas joined up in 1916, and was shipped to Europe three months later. He received the VC for an actions during an attack on the Polderhoek Spur on 3 December 1917, during which he captured a German strong point single-handed. He was killed in October 1918 while performing guard duty.


 * Japanese battleship Hyūga (Sturmvogel 66) : Built during World War I, Hyūga didn't see any action during the war and had a pretty typical career for a Japanese battleship during the interwar period. Despite being rebuilt at great expense before World War II, the ship saw almost no combat before she was converted into a hybrid battleship/carrier in 1943. By the time the conversion was finished the Japanese were critically short of aircraft and pilots, so Hyūga's air group never flew off her in combat. The ship was used to decoy American carriers during the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944. She was sunk in port by American carrier aircraft in July 1945.


 * Helicopter 66 (Chetsford) : Helicopter 66 was a Sikorsky Sea King helicopter used during the late 1960s for the water recovery of astronauts during the Apollo program. It recovered the crews of five Apollo missions, including those which conducted the first three moon landings. As a sad loss to history, it was destroyed in a crash during a routine training exercise in 1975, its pilot dying as a result of injuries suffered in the incident.