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


 * Rhine Campaign of 1796 : Auntieruth's latest featured article on the battles of the French revolutionary wars during 1796 covers the last campaign of the War of the First Coalition, which ended with two armies under overall Austrian command outmanoeuvring and defeating a pair of French armies. Despite the Austrian success in pushing the invaders back to France, the war ended in defeat due to losses in Italy.  Auntieruth took the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.


 * Buckton Castle : According to nominator Richard Nevell, "Buckton Castle isn't the kind of historic site that interests most people as there are no ruins to explore or inspire the imagination", but it is "one of the earliest stone castles in the region, and one of the few that have been excavated". Aside from the intrinsic interest of the subject, what makes this FA particularly unusual is that the author has himself spent quite some time excavating the site, and co-wrote one of the most recent books on the castle.


 * Borodino-class battlecruiser : The Borodino-class was commissioned by the Imperial Russian Navy prior to World War I. It was planned to include four ships but, though all were launched, none were completed; the 1917 revolution saw to that. The Soviets toyed with the idea of converting one of the hulls to an aircraft carrier but this too was abandoned, and all the ships were eventually scrapped. The article passed GAN and ACR way back in 2010, and is part of the Battlecruisers of the World featured topic.


 * Shorwell helmet : Another of Usernameunique's articles on Anglo-Saxon helmets, the subject of this one is, in the nominator's words, "built for fighting. It is strong, exhibits hardly any decoration, and is so plain that it was at first thought to be a broken pot and was purchased for only £3,800. Yet it is one of only six helmets known to exist from Anglo-Saxon England, a scarcity that—along with other rare objects found with the helmet, such as a pattern-welded sword and hanging bowl—suggests its owner was a high-status warrior."


 * Boeing CH-47 Chinook in Australian service :  Another in Nick's series on aircraft in Australian service, this article covers the lengthy and complex history of the CH-47 Chinook helicopters. They were originally operated by the Royal Australian Air Force, but were transferred to the Army after a short and ill-advised period during which they were retired from service. The Chinooks have been used for a wide variety of tasks, from assisting with civilian construction projects to combat in Afghanistan. Nick took the article through GAN and ACR prior to its successful FAC.


 * Allied logistics in the Kokoda Track campaign : This is a wide-ranging article covering the extensive logistical effort needed to sustain the Allied forces during the 1942 Kokoda Track campaign. This ranged from rapidly constructing an extensive port and airfield complex to transporting supplies to forward troops through the use of carrier parties. Surprisingly for one of Hawkeye's articles, no nuclear weapons research was involved. The article passed GAN and ACR on the way to achieving FA status.


 * Design A-150 battleship ( & ) : Another abandoned ship class (again involving Sturm as a nominator!), the Design A-150s, also known as the "Super" Yamato class, were planned by the Japanese on the eve of World War II. According to co-nominator Ed, "much information about the A-150s has been lost, thanks to the deliberate destruction of documents towards the end of the war. The loss of these primary sources has severely limited what can be gleaned from reliable secondary sources... That said, we do know that the ships would have mounted 51 cm guns, a size that would have made them the largest naval gun ever deployed". The article passed GAN and ACR back in 2009.


 * Quebec Agreement (Hawkeye7) : The latest A-class article in Hawkeye's huge series on the development of atomic weapons covers the agreement between the British and United States governments to merge their nuclear programs. This agreement was negotiated over early 1943, and signed by Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Quebec Conference on 19 August 1943.


 * Neil Armstrong (Hawkeye7 and Kees08) : As well as being and astronaut and aeronautical engineer who was the first person to walk on the Moon, Neil Armstrong was also a pilot with the US Navy and later a test pilot. He joined up in 1949 and served with the Navy until 1960, during which time he saw extensive combat over Korea during 1951 and 1952. Armstrong also flew many military aircraft while a test pilot.


 * John Glenn (Kees08 and Hawkeye7) : The second collaboration bewtween Kees08 and Hawkeye7 for the month also covers a famous astronaut. To say that Glenn had a distinguished career is to put things mildly: as well as being the first American to orbit the Earth, he was a United States Marine Corps aviator, an engineer, and a United States Senator. As a fighter pilot, he saw combat during World War II and the Korean War.


 * Thomas White (Australian politician) (Ian Rose) : Also the latest in a huge series, this article is a biography of an Australian airman. Tommy White was one of the first military pilots trained in Australia and saw action in World War I in the Mesopotamian campaign, during which he was captured but escaped. He then became a Federal parliamentarian, resigned on the eve of World War II, and served in the RAAF before getting his second bite of the political cherry as Minister for Air between 1949 and 1951. He ended his career as the Australian High Commissioner to the UK.


 * Leslie Andrew (Zawed) : This is the third article on a New Zealand recipient of the Victoria Cross that Zawed has developed to A-class status. Andrew received the medal for an action in July 1917 during which he captured two machine gun positions. He commanded an infantry battalion in combat between 1940 and 1942, but after the war was criticised for his actions during a crucial period of the Battle for Crete. He returned to New Zealand in 1942 as part of efforts to strengthen the country's home defences and retired from the military in 1952.


 * Commissioner Government (Peacemaker67) : The Commissioner Government was a short-lived Serbian puppet regime that was formed by the German authorities in the occupied territory of Serbia following the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia during World War II. Its members were pro-Axis, anti-Semitic and anti-communist. It proved unable to cope with the communist-led insurgency that broke out after the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941 and was replaced in August that year. The article notes that "there is no evidence that the collaboration of the Commissioner Government moderated German occupation policies in any way".


 * Donald Forrester Brown (Zawed) : Brown was the first New Zealander to receive the Victoria Cross for an action on the Western Front of World War I. A farmer before the war, Brown joined the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in October 1915. He received the Victoria Cross posthumously for actions on 15 September 1916, which included destroying two machine gun positions. He was killed on 1 October that year.


 * WAVES (Pendright) : This article looks at the plight of women seeking to enter the US Navy in World War II; the difficulties they encountered along the way, and the challenges they faced once in the service of their country. On 30 July 1942, the WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) became the Women’s reserve branch of the United States Naval Reserve. The idea of women serving in the Navy during the War was not widely supported in Congress, or by the Navy itself. But with the manpower shortages, women were needed to replace men for sea duty. Several notable women, including Eleanor Roosevelt, wife of the president, laid the groundwork for the passage of a law authorising the WAVES, and it eventually reached a peak strength of 86,291 members.


 * Western Australian emergency of March 1944 (Nick-D) : This article covers a little remembered incident on the Australian home front during World War II. In March 1944 the Allied leadership became concerned that a powerful force of Japanese warships had departed Singapore to attack the Western Australian city of Perth and its port of Fremantle. In response, a large chunk of the Royal Australian Air Force was dispatched to Western Australia, and the anti-aircraft and coastal defences there were placed on high alert. This led to considerable public concern, especially when Perth's air raid sirens were briefly sounded. In reality, only a few Japanese warships were active in the Indian Ocean, and they withdrew after an ineffective raid.


 * Gordian dynasty (Iazyges) : The Gordian dynasty was a short-lived dynasty which ruled the Roman Empire in 238–244 AD. The dynasty first achieved the throne in 238 AD, after Gordian I and his son Gordian II rose up against Emperor Maximinus Thrax, and were proclaimed co-emperors by the Roman Senate. Gordian II was killed by the governor of Numidia, Capillianus, later that year and Gordian I killed himself shortly after. The 13 year-old Gordian III became one of three co-emperors in May 238, and became the sole emperor from July that year after his colleagues were killed by the Praetorian Guard. He only survived to 244, with the manner of his death being unclear but possibly sinister. Overall, the article demonstrates that the actual events which shaped the Roman Empire at times makes the protagonists in Game of Thrones look unambitious!


 * SMS Hessen (Parsecboy) : This article covers a German pre-dreadnought battleship. Hessen was commissioned in 1905, but was rendered obsolete soon afterwards. She was slated to be withdrawn from service in August 1914, but the start of World War I in July interrupted that plan and she remained in service with the High Seas Fleet. Hessen was the oldest battleship present at the Battle of Jutland in 1916, and was withdrawn from service along with the other pre-dreadnoughts. She was one of the few battleships Germany was allowed to retain after the war, and formed part of the fleet's combat forces until 1934. She spent the rest of her career as a target ship and icebreaker. In these roles, she survived World War II, and was used by the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1960.