Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/May 2019/Articles


 * German torpedo boat Albatros ( and ) : Albatros was the fourth of six Type 23 torpedo boats, and was laid down in 1925 and launched in 1927. The ship participated in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. She fired the first shot of the German invasion of Norway in 1940, but ran aground and was destroyed two days later while attempting to avoid Norwegian coastal artillery. Congratulations to L293D for their first FA!


 * Western Area Command (RAAF) : Another in Ian's series on RAAF area commands, Western Area was the longest-lasting of these geographically based command formations, and covered most of the state of Western Australia. While the units assigned to the command did not see much combat during World War II, they were nevertheless busy patrolling the remote oceans off the state, and its squadron of B-24 Liberator heavy bombers took part in the Borneo campaign of 1945.


 * SMS Lothringen :  Continuing Parsecboy's series on German capital ships, SMS Lothringen was a pre-dreadnought battleship that served with the Imperial German Navy and the post-war Reichsmarine from 1906 to 1920. Under repair during the Battle of Jutland and unavailable when the rest of her squadron sortied with the German fleet for the battle, she was one of the few battleships retained by Germany after the war, but was used solely as a parent ship for minesweepers while Germany fulfilled the requirement to clear the North Sea of mines. The ship was scrapped in 1931.


 * Lancaster's chevauchée of 1346 : Another in Gog's series on the Hundred Years' War, Lancaster's chevauchée of 1346 was a large-scale mounted raid led by Henry, Earl of Lancaster. Lancaster and an Anglo-Gascon force met no effective resistance from the French, and the attack shifted the focus of the fighting from the heart of Gascony to well beyond its borders.


 * Al-Mu'tadid : Cplakidas describes the subject of this article as "passionate about 'women and buildings', known for his cruel and ingenious punishments and fiscal stringency, and the greatest Abbasid warrior-caliph". Al-Mu'tadid ruled from 892 until his death in 902, his power relying on close relations with the army. Despite his military and governance successes, al-Mu'tadid's reign was ultimately too short to effect a lasting reversal of the caliphate's fortunes.


 * Michael Collins (astronaut) ( and ) : Completing Hawkeye's and Kees' great effort in bringing Apollo 11 and its crew of three to FA standard in time for the 50th anniversary of Man's first steps on the Moon, Michael Collins is best known for being the astronaut who remained in orbit while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made their historic landing. Prior to joining NASA, Collins was a fighter pilot and test pilot in the USAF. He remained a member of the USAF Reserves after leaving NASA, and reached the rank of major general in 1976 before retiring in 1982.


 * Battle of Lukaya (Indy beetle and Applodion) : The Battle of Lukaya was the largest engagement of the Uganda–Tanzania War, and one of the most significant. After briefly occupying the town of Lukaya, Tanzanian and Ugandan rebel forces were driven away by Libyan rocket fire. Fearing a reversal in their campaign, the Tanzanians orchestrated a successful counterattack, inflicting heavy casualties upon the Libyan and Ugandan government forces and retaking the town. Several observers have recognised it as a key turning point in the war, whereafter the Uganda Army failed to provide any significant resistance.


 * French battleship Jauréguiberry (Sturmvogel 66 and Parsecboy) : Jauréguiberry was one of five roughly similar battleships built in the early 1890s in response to a British naval expansion program. Constrained by fiscal and size limitations imposed by the French National Assembly, they were inferior to their British counterparts and had much longer building times. The ship was particularly accident prone, with incidents of running aground as well as boiler and torpedo explosions. She played a minor role in World War I, spending most of the conflict as a guard ship in Egypt. She was then used as an accommodation hulk until 1934.


 * Yugoslav torpedo boat T8 (Peacemaker67) : The latest in a series on these ships Peacemaker67 is developing into a featured topic covers a sea-going torpedo boat that was operated by the Royal Yugoslav Navy between 1921 and 1941, after spending World War I in the Austro-Hungarian Navy. She performed convoy, patrol, escort and minesweeping, and anti-submarine tasks during World War I, and became one of the Royal Yugoslav Navy's few vessels upon its formation. The ship was captured by Italy during the Axis invasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941, and later served with the Royal Italian Navy. Following the Italian capitulation in September 1943, she was sunk by German aircraft.


 * Wittelsbach-class battleship (Parsecboy) : Continuing the nautical theme, this article covers the first ships built under the Imperial German Navy commander Alfred von Tirpitz's fleet expansion program in the late 1890s and early 1900s. They were long-since obsolete by the outbreak of World War I and thus saw little active use. Four were scrapped in the early 1920s, but one was converted into a target ship and survived until 1944 when Royal Air Force bombers sank her.


 * David Scott (Wehwalt) : David Scott is an American astronaut who was the seventh person to walk on the Moon, achieving this as the commander of Apollo 15 in 1971. Before becoming an astronaut, Scott graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and joined the Air Force. After serving as a fighter pilot in Europe, he graduated from the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School and Aerospace Research Pilot School. Scott retired from the Air Force in 1975 with the rank of colonel, and more than 5,600 hours of logged flying time.


 * Battle of Blanchetaque (Gog the Mild) : Another entry in Gog's huge series on the Hundred Years' War, this article covers a battle fought on 24 August 1346 between an English army under King Edward III and a French force commanded by Godemar du Fay. The English force was attempting to seize a crossing of the river Somme to escape from a trap, and engaged a smaller French force defending it. The English were victorious, with the French suffering heavy casualties.


 * Braunschweig-class battleship (Parsecboy) : Also part of a huge series, this article covers the five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German Imperial Navy in the early 1900s to succeed the Wittelsbach-class. They were rapidly rendered obsolete by the fast pace of battleship development, but saw active service during the first two years of World War I. The battleships were among the few the post-war German navy was permitted to retain, and soldiered on in a variety of roles. The final survivor of the class was used as a target ship by the German and later Soviet navies until 1960.


 * Battle of Petroe (Cplakidas) : Cplakidas described this article as being "essentially a chronicle of the rebellion of Isaac I Komnenos, head of a coterie of generals and the first of the 'military aristocracy' to become Byzantine emperor outright in two centuries". The battle was fought on 20 August 1057 between the loyalist forces of the Byzantine emperor Michael VI Stratiotikos and the supporters of Isaac Komnenos. It ended in victory for Komnenos, who became Emperor soon afterwards. This proved short-lived, however, as he was also forced to abdicate in 1059.


 * List of screw corvettes of Germany (Parsecboy) : This article covers the 23 screw corvettes built by the Prussian and German navies between the 1860s and 1880s. These ships were generally used to protect German economic interests abroad and later German colonies, as well as to train naval cadets on long-distance cruises. Some of the earlier ships also saw action during the wars of German unification. Most of the corvettes were sold for scrap between the 1880s and 1920s, but two were lost in accidents.


 * Battle of Caen (1346) (Gog the Mild) : The Battle of Caen on 26 July 1346 was the assault on the French-held town by elements of an invading English army under King Edward III as a part of the Hundred Years' War. In the nomination statement Gog described the battle as "a stain on England's record", and it's not hard to see why - after capturing the town on the first attempt, the English forces sacked it for five days and killed over 5,000 French soldiers and civilians.