Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/June 2022/Articles


 * Zufar ibn al-Harith al-Kilabi : Zufar (died c. 694–695) was an Arab chieftain who fought in the First and Second Muslim Wars. He supported a challenge to the Umayyad Caliphate but lost many troops, and thereafter led his remaining tribesmen in raids and rebellion until he came to favourable terms with the Umayyads, securing prestigious positions for himself and his descendants.


 * Siege of Guînes (1352) : Another in Gog's series on the Hundred Years War, this siege took place in mid-1352, when a French army unsuccessfully attempted to recapture the castle at Guînes that had been seized by the English the previous January.  After two months of heavy fighting, a major English night attack on the French camp forced the French to withdraw. After two more unsuccessful attempts to take the castle, the French recaptured it in 1558.


 * Eadred : The latest addition to Dudley's series on Anglo-Saxon kings, Eadred was King of the English from May 946 until his death in November 955. The younger son of Edward the Elder, Eadred became king when his elder brother, Edmund I, was killed and Edmund's two sons, Eadwig and Edgar, were too young to rule. An early supporter of English Benedictine Reform, Eadred died childless aged thirty, and was succeeded by Eadwig and, later, Edgar.


 * Second War of Scottish Independence : The Second War of Scottish Independence began in 1332 when Edward Balliol, son of a former Scottish king, led an English-backed invasion of Scotland against forces loyal to the throne's occupant, eight-year-old David II. Eventually this drew in the French, allied to the Scots, and before you knew it they had the Hundred Years War (trust Gog to work that in somewhere)...!


 * Charles Richardson (Royal Navy officer) : Charles Richardson (1769–1850) served in the Royal Navy throughout the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, interestingly not only at sea but in several land campaigns. His long career came to an end shortly after a major diplomatic incident with the Chinese in 1821 that caused him sufficient mental anguish to see his being invalided home the following year.  His retirement didn't stop him being knighted in 1841 and promoted vice admiral in 1847.


 * Battle of Trapani : The Battle of Trapani took place in June 1266 off Trapani, Sicily, where the fleets of the Republic of Genoa and the Republic of Venice met as part of the War of Saint Sabas. The Venetians had generally held the upper hand in naval confrontations, forcing the Genoese to resort to commerce raiding and avoid fleet battles. At Trapani, the Genoese commander took up a defensive position; the Venetians attacked the next day, and captured the entire Genoese fleet.


 * List of commanders of the British 3rd Division : Another in EnigmaMcmxc's series on lists of British commanders, this features those of the 3rd Division, which was raised in 1809 and disbanded and re-established several times since. Its current commander was appointed in 2021.

(It's not that there aren't others doing featured pictures, it's more I'm the one with a MILHIST bent. Do nominate some, eh, old chaps? - Adam)


 * Battle of the Blacks (Cplakidas) : The so-called 'Battle of the Blacks' in August 1169 was an event that marked the end of the Fatimid army as a fighting force, effectively ended the Fatimid Caliphate by removing its last source of armed support, and established Saladin as the ruler of Egypt. It was effectively the first major test of him as a ruler, and shows a ruthless side of him much at odds with the romanticized version current in popular culture.


 * CSS Baltic (Hog Farm) : CSS Baltic was a casemate ironclad that served in the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. She was purchased by Alabama in December 1861 for conversion into an ironclad, and transferred to the Confederate Navy in May 1862. Baltic served on Mobile Bay off the Gulf of Mexico, and deteriorated over the next two years and became rotten. Her armor was removed in 1864 and she was decommissioned in August that year. Baltic was captured by Union forces on May 10, 1865, who assessed her as unsafe. The ship was likely broken up in 1866.


 * USS Johnston (DD-557) (Vami IV) : USS Johnston was a Fletcher-class destroyer built for the United States Navy during World War II. She was commissioned in October 1943 and assigned to the Pacific Fleet. Johnston provided naval gunfire support for American ground forces and undertook patrol and escort duties. From July 1944 Johnston escorted escort carriers during the Mariana and Palau Islands campaign and the Liberation of the Philippines. During the Battle off Samar on 25 October 1944 Johnston and several other escort ships valiantly attacked a far superior Japanese force to protect the carriers. She was sunk during this action with the loss of 187 men from her crew of 327.


 * Battle of Utica (Gog the Mild) : The Battle of Utica took place early in 240 BC between a Carthaginian army and a force of rebellious mutineers. It was the first major engagement of the Mercenary War between Carthage and the combined forces of mutinous ex-Carthaginian troops and rebellious African cities which broke out in the wake of the First Punic War. Both sides were routed during the course of the battle, which ended with the rebels occupying the field but was strategically inconclusive.


 * Kirk–Holden war (Indy beetle) : Indy beetle described the subject of this article as being "one of the least-known but most important events in my home state of North Carolina, and sealed the sad fate of Reconstruction in wake of the American Civil War within it". After a serious bout of violence from the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan organization in 1870 (including two Klan murders of public officials that took place on courthouse grounds), Governor William Woods Holden called up a militia under Colonel George Washington Kirk to arrested those suspected of causing trouble in two counties with token support from the federal government. Klan activity was dampened, but some laws were broken and prisoners' rights denied, and Holden's opponents in the legislature used the affair to lodge eight articles of impeachment against him, thus causing him to be the first governor in the United States to be removed from office by such a mechanism.


 * The Holocaust in Bohemia and Moravia (Buidhe) : This article covers the mass murder of Jews in the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia between 1939 and 1945. There were 118,310 Jews in this area at the start of German rule, of whom around 30,000 fled and approximately 80,000 were killed. After the war, surviving Jews—especially those who had identified as Germans before the war—faced obstacles in regaining their property and pressure to assimilate into the Czech majority and the Communist government discouraged memorisation of the Holocaust.


 * Siege of Dundee (Gog the Mild) : The siege of Dundee took place from 23 August to 1 September 1651 as part of the Anglo-Scottish war of 1650–1652 after an English force under George Monck confronted the town of Dundee in Scotland and its garrison commanded by the town's governor, Robert Lumsden. Monck was upset at needing to storm the town after its governor refused to surrender, and gave permission for it to be sacked. On 1 September, after a two-day artillery bombardment, the English stormed the town, captured it and sacked it for 24 hours. Between 100 and 1,000 Scots were killed, including many women and children, and a large amount of loot was seized.