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


 * Persecution of homosexuals in Nazi Germany : In the first of three successful FA nominations last month, buidhe examines the Nazis' treatment of homosexuals, 100,000 of whom were arrested between 1933 and 1945, around half of those being sentenced to prison or worse. Public awareness of the the persecution became wider during the gay liberation movement of the 1970s, and a lasting legacy was the pink triangle being reappropriated as an LGBT symbol.


 * Black Prince's chevauchée of 1356 : Another of Gog's articles on the Hundred Years' War, this details one of the last campaigns of the Edwardian phase of the conflict, a large-scale mounted raid by an Anglo-Gascon force under Edward, the Black Prince, between August and October 1356. The campaign resulted in victory for the Anglo-Gascon army, and the capture of the French king, John II.


 * Robert de Umfraville : De Umfraville was an English knight who took part in the Hundred Years' War. According to SN's nomination statement, this was the kind of fellow "who wanted 'good rest and peace' in England while sending fire ships into Scotland—who may have plotted against Henry V but probably fought at Agincourt as well, who contemporaries saw as 'an ideal knight' yet whose biggest claim to fame was that he raided Peebles on market day, burnt the place and nicked all their gear. A piece of work, one way or another."


 * Operation Berlin (Atlantic) : Operation Berlin was a successful raid into the North Atlantic conducted by the two German Scharnhorst-class battleships in early 1941. It was, in Nick's own words, "everything the much better known raid attempted by the Bismarck was meant to be: the German ships ranged across the Atlantic, evaded powerful British forces that were searching for them, sank or captured 22 merchant vessels and returned to port unscathed." The success proved short-lived though, as the British badly damaged the two battleships in French ports, and German warships never achieved another victory against the trans-Atlantic convoys.


 * Röhm scandal : Buidhe introduced the second of her FAs last month thus: "First, there's the Nazi who became the world's first openly gay politician—in 1932. Then, there are the anti-Nazis stirring up a scandal against him, wielding every pre-existing homophobic canard and inventing a new one: that 'the heart of the Nazis’ militant nationalist politics lay in the sinister schemes of decadent homosexual criminals'. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of it is as a microhistory in Weimar-style competitive authoritarianism. When your elected representatives start beating each other up in parliament, that's when you know democracy is dead..."


 * Hundred Years' War, 1345–1347 : Gog's second appearance here is for his article on the most intense phase of the early part of the Hundred Years' War, a period of major incursions by the English under Edward III and heavy defeats for the French, particularly at Crécy, leaving significant portions of northern France, including the port of Calais, under England's control.


 * Marmaduke–Walker duel : Continuing HF's series of American Civil War articles, this unusual one describes a duel fought between generals John S. Marmaduke and Lucius M. Walker on September 6, 1863, near Little Rock, Arkansas. Tensions between the two men had been rising through several battles and came they day they agreed to shoot it out with Colt Navy revolvers. Walker was killed in the duel; Marmaduke survived, was briefly arrested, and went on to become the Governor of Missouri.


 * Armenian genocide : Buidhe's third appearance among the FA's last month is also third time lucky (so to speak) for this article at FAC, having been unsuccessfully nominated in 2008 and 2021. Although the Armenian Genocide refers to events in the Ottoman Empire during World War I, large-scale deportations and massacres of Armenians had occurred in the 1890s and in 1909, and continued after the end of the world war. The death toll is estimated at anywhere between 600,000 and 1,500,000. Although Turkey denies the deportations constituted genocide, 31 countries as of 2022 so recognise the events.


 * Tom Eastick (Peacemaker67) : Tom Eastick was a part-time Australian Militia officer in the interwar period who commanded an artillery regiment at the Battles of El Alamein in 1942 and later led the artillery of Australian divisions in New Guinea and then Borneo in 1943–1945. He took the Japanese surrender in Sarawak, and was military governor there after the war ended. He was prominent in ex-service organisations in South Australia, and was knighted in 1970 for his volunteer work.


 * Siege of Breteuil (Gog the Mild) : The siege of Breteuil was the investment of the Norman town of Breteuil, held by partisans of Charles II, King of Navarre, by French forces. It lasted from April to about 20 August 1356. It was interrupted on 5 July when a small English army commanded by Henry, Earl of Lancaster relieved and resupplied it. The French king, John II, attempted to bring Lancaster to battle with the much larger royal army, but Lancaster marched away and the attempt failed. The garrison eventually evacuated Breteuil after John II offered them free passage and a large bribe.


 * Léon Degrelle (Vami IV) : This article is about an infamous traitor, Nazi collaborator, and later apologist. Degrelle began his professional life as a student and journalist, quickly becoming the biggest name in Belgian far-right politics. Thereafter, he became a big name in European far-right politics. And after joining the Wehrmacht and the Waffen-SS, and escaping to Spain in the death throes of the Nazi empire, be became prominent in international far-right politics.


 * Donough MacCarty, 1st Earl of Clancarty (Johannes Schade) : Sir Donough MacCarty was an Irish magnate, soldier, and politician. He rebelled against the government, demanding religious freedom as a Catholic and defending the rights of the Gaelic nobility in the Irish Catholic Confederation. Later, he supported the King against his Parliamentarian enemies during the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, a part of the British Civil War. In 1653 during the Commonwealth he stood trial for war crimes but was acquitted. He recovered his lands at the restoration of the monarchy in 1660.


 * Eucherius (son of Stilicho) (Iazyges) : Eucherius was the son of Stilicho, the magister militum of the Western Roman Empire, and Serena, a Roman noblewoman who was the niece of Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius I. He was born in c. 388 in Rome. Eucherius did not rise farther than the modest rank of tribune of the notaries. Stilicho was accused by his political opponents of plotting to install Eucherius as a third emperor in Illyricum, and as a result of this Stilicho was arrested and executed on 22 August 408, and Eucherius soon after.


 * Michael Herrick (Zawed) : Michael Herrick was a New Zealand flying ace of World War II. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1938 and completed pilot training in 1940. He then saw combat in Europe, shooting down German bombers as a night fighter pilot before being sent to fly with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in the Pacific. He served for several months and destroyed Japanese fighters. He didn't survive the war, being killed on 16 June 1944 soon after returning to Europe.