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


 * Andrew Jackson : Andrew Jackson was a lawyer, congressman, judge, successful military commander during the War of 1812, and one of the most polarising figures to serve as President of the United States. A populist who united farmers and workers against powerful elites, he was also a slaveholder who forcibly removed Native Americans from their land. His first biographer summed up his contradictions thus: "A democratic autocrat. An urbane savage. An atrocious saint."


 * South China Sea raid : The South China Sea raid was among the most successful aircraft carrier operations of World War II. In mid-January 1945 the US Navy's main strike force ran riot in the sea, sinking many Japanese cargo ships, tankers and warships. A raid on Hong Kong ended in failure though, and the US Government had to pay reparations to Portugal for attacking Macau. Nick took the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * Pioneer Helmet : According to nominator Usernameunique, "the boar-crested Pioneer helmet was made for battle. Utilitarian in design, it was discovered along with a pattern welded sword in the Anglo-Saxon grave of a man of about 25... The helmet’s 1997 discovery marked only the fourth time an Anglo-Saxon helmet had been unearthed, and the boar atop its crest evokes the world of the epic Beowulf, a tale that lies in the ephemeral haze between fiction and reality."


 * Royal Gloucestershire Hussars : The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars was a volunteer yeomanry regiment of the British Army, raised in 1830 for domestic security duties. From the mid-19th century it transitioned to expeditionary forces, and first saw combat during the Boer War in South Africa. It raised three regiments during both world wars, though only one was deployed outside the UK in each war. The Royal Gloucestershire Hussars was reduced in size from a regiment to a squadron in the 1960s, and it now forms part of the Royal Wessex Yeomanry. The article passed ACR before attaining FA status.


 * SMS Pommern : Another in Parsecboy's series on German capital ships, this article covers the short history of the only battleship to be lost during the Battle of Jutland. Her entire crew of 839 officers and enlisted men died, which amounted to around one-third of all German deaths in the battle. Parsecboy took the article through GAN and ACR some years ago, recently reworking it with the aid of newly available sources.


 * Equestrian statue of Edward Horner : 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. The article passed ACR prior to FAC.


 * HMS Vanguard (1909) : Other than becoming the only British dreadnought lost during World War I to non-combat causes (her magazines exploded in 1917), Vanguard had a typical career for a WWI-era British dreadnought. A few shells fired at the Battle of Jutland mid-way through the war and that was all the combat she experienced. Aside from a few other unsuccessful attempts to intercept German ships, her war consisted of monotonous training in the North Sea. Sturm took the article through GAN and ACR before negotiating FAC.


 * Henry Petre : Henry Petre (pronounced "peter") was one of the pioneers of Australian military aviation. Along with Eric Harrison (whom Ian hopes we will also see in Article News before long) Petre founded the Central Flying School at Point Cook, Victoria, in 1913–14. He saw extensive service in World War I and was highly decorated for his actions, but did not remain in Australian service afterwards, instead returning to his native England and his first profession, the law. He continued to fly privately until shortly before his death. Ian put the article through GAN and ACR before FAC.


 * Bill McCann : Bill McCann was a decorated South Australian soldier of World War I who became a barrister and went on to lead the Returned and Services League in South Australia for seven years during the interwar period. During this period he also commanded two militia infantry battalions. McCann was the state prices commissioner from 1938–1954, and nearly had his house burned down as a result of his anti-blackmarketeering work. The article passed GAN and ACR on the way to gaining FA status.


 * Operation PBHistory : This article is about a CIA covert operation in Guatemala, part of a series by nominator Vanamonde that relate to the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, which achieved FA status last year. This operation attempted to use documentation from the ousted government of President Jacobo Árbenz to discredit his regime and thereby help justify his removal.


 * Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo (Indy beetle) : Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo is a Burkinabé (that is, from Burkina Faso) physician who served as a doctor in the army and briefly led his country (when it was known as Upper Volta) as President from November 1982 until May 1983. His term was bookmarked by military coups, and during his reign he also held the ministerial portfolio for Defence and Veterans Affairs.


 * Germanicus (SpartaN) : Germanicus was a member of the Julio-Claudian dynasty and a prominent general of the Roman Empire, who was known for his campaigns in Germania. In 13 CE he was made proconsul of Germania Inferior, Germania Superior, and all of Gaul. From there he commanded eight legions, about one-third of the Roman Army, until 16 CE. From 17 to his death in 19 CE he was posted to Rome's eastern provinces. To the Roman people, Germanicus was the equivalent of Alexander the Great.


 * 61st Infantry Division (United Kingdom) (EnigmaMcmxc) : The first of two new A-class articles on British Army divisions of World War II developed by EnigmaMcmxc covers a second-line unit raised from reservists in 1939. The division's headquarters fought in the 1940 Norwegian Campaign, and the full formation was stationed in Northern Ireland from 1940 to 1943 to defend against a feared German invasion of the island and undertake internal security duties. It returned to England in February 1943, and became a training unit late that year. In August 1945 the division began preparations to deploy to South-East Asia; this did not occur and it was instead disbanded.


 * German destroyer Z4 Richard Beitzen (Iazyges and Sturmvogel 66) : Iazyges and Sturmvogel's latest collaboration describes the features and service history of one of four Type 1934 destroyers built for the German Navy in the mid-1930s. Z4 operated from Germany and France during the early years of World War II. She spent most of the time between 1941 and early 1945 in Norway where she escorted convoys and major warships. Z4 was under repair at the end of the war, and was scrapped in 1949.


 * British logistics in the Normandy Campaign (Hawkeye7) : While the British Army's combat performance during the Normandy Campaign will probably be debated forever, its logistical services were highly successful. The British learned from experiences earlier in the war, and dedicated a vast amount of resources to supporting the combat troops. This article provides an overview of these efforts, covering everything from how the assault troops were supplied on D-Day to the rapid adjustment which took place as the army broke out of Normandy and rapidly advanced into Belgium.


 * Royal Naval Division War Memorial (HJ Mitchell) : 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. This article forms part of series on war memorials designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens HJ Mitchell has been working on.


 * Brilliant Pebbles (Maury Markowitz) : Maury's latest article on American anti-missile system covers a project to place a huge number of small satellites called 'brilliant pebbles' in orbit. If the Soviet Union launched its Intercontinental ballistic missile fleet, the pebbles would detect their rocket motors using infrared seekers and collide with them. Initially considered "outlandish", by 1990 the proposal was the main element of the US Strategic Defense Initiative. The end of the Cold War and the rapidly rising cost of the project led to its cancellation three years later.


 * SMS Wettin (Parsecboy) : The first of two articles on German pre-dreadnought battleships promoted to A-class last month covers a ship which entered service in 1902. Wettin had a short career as a front line unit, and was relegated to a training ship by the start of World War I. She was mobilised during the early period of the war, and was used in the Baltic Sea. She was reduced to a training and depot ship in early 1916, and was scrapped in 1921.


 * SMS Elsass (Parsecboy) : Elsass had a similar career to Wettin. The ship saw limited combat in the Baltic Sea during World War I, and was also used as a training vessel from 1916. She was one of a handful of battleships Germany was allowed to retain under the Versailles Treaty, and continued to be used to train sailors. She was decommissioned in 1930 and scrapped in 1936.


 * Battle of Halmyros (Cplakidas) : The Battle of Halmyros was one of the most crucial battles in the history of Greece during the Middle Ages. It was fought in 1311 between the heavy Frankish cavalry of the Duchy of Athens and the mercenary infantry of the Catalan Company. The battle was sparked by the Duke's refusal to pay the mercenaries after they captured much of the region for him. The mercenaries scored a crushing victory, killing the duke and most of his knights and claiming the duchy for themselves.


 * Landings at Cape Torokina (AustralianRupert and Hawkeye7) : AustralianRupert has expanded his series covering the fighting on Bougainville island during World War II with this article which was jointly developed with Hawkeye7. It covers the first engagement in this lengthy campaign, which involved a US marine division seizing the lightly-defended centre of the island. It proved to be one of the key Allied victories of the Pacific War, as this territory was used to host airfields which made an important contribution to the neutralisation of the massive Japanese base at Rabaul.


 * 18th Infantry Division (United Kingdom) (EnigmaMcmxc) : The 18th Infantry Division was among the most luckless formations of World War II. Raised in 1939, it undertook home defence duties in the UK until departing for the Middle East in October 1941. Following the Japanese offensive across the Pacific in early December 1941 it was re-routed to Singapore, arriving there after two months at sea. By the time the division arrived, the campaign was lost and over a third of its personnel died in Japanese captivity.


 * German destroyer Z32 (Iazyges and Nigel Ish) : Z32 was a German Type 1936A (Mob) destroyer, which was completed in 1942 and served with the Kriegsmarine during the Second World War. She mainly operated from German-occupied French Atlantic ports, escorting blockade runners and U-boats. Z32 survived the German defeat in the Battle of the Bay of Biscay in December 1943, but was sunk during the Battle of Ushant on 9 June 1944.


 * German destroyer Z51 (Iazyges) : The third and final article on a German destroyer for the month covers a ship that was never completed. Z51 was the only ship of the Type 1942 destroyer class, and the first destroyer designed or built by the Kriegsmarine to use diesel fuel. Z51 was launched on 2 October 1944, far before being finished, likely to clear her slipway for U-boat construction. She was left floating outside Bremen and was sunk in an air raid on 21 March 1945.