Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/November 2011/Articles


 * Chaplain–Medic massacre (Ed!): The Chaplain–Medic massacre was a war crime that took place in the Korean War on July 16, 1950, on a mountain above the village of Tunam, South Korea. Thirty critically wounded US troops were stranded at the top of a mountain. Attended to by only two noncombatants, a chaplain and a medic, the wounded were discovered by a North Korean patrol. Though the medic was able to escape, the North Koreans executed the unarmed chaplain as he prayed over the wounded, then killed the rest of them. The massacre was one of several incidents that led US commanders to establish a commission in July to investigate war crimes. The same month, the North Korean commanders, concerned about the way their soldiers were treating prisoners of war, laid out stricter guidelines for handling enemy captives.


 * HMS Courageous (50) (Sturmvogel 66): HMS Courageous (pennant number 50) was the lead ship of the Courageous-class battlecruiser cruisers built for the Royal Navy during the First World War. Designed to support the Baltic Project championed by the First Sea Lord, John Fisher, the ship was very lightly armoured and armed with only a few heavy guns. Courageous was completed in late 1916 and spent the war patrolling the North Sea. She participated in the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917 and was present when the German High Seas Fleet surrendered a year later. Courageous was decommissioned after the war, but rebuilt as an aircraft carrier during the mid-1920s. She could carry 48 aircraft compared to the 36 carried by her half-sister HMS Furious (47) on approximately the same tonnage. After recommissioning she spent most of her career operating off Great Britain and Ireland. She briefly became a training carrier, but reverted to her normal role a few months before the start of the Second World War in September 1939. Courageous was torpedoed and sunk in the opening weeks of the war, going down with more than 500 of her crew.


 * HMS Eagle (1918) (Sturmvogel 66): HMS Eagle was an early aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. Ordered by Chile as the Almirante Latorre-class battleship Almirante Cochrane, she was laid down before World War I. In early 1918 she was purchased by Britain for conversion to an aircraft carrier; this work was finished in 1924. Eagle spent the first nine months of World War II in the Indian Ocean searching for German commerce raiders. She was transferred to the Mediterranean in May 1940, where she escorted multiple convoys to Malta and Greece and attacked Italian shipping, naval units and bases in the Eastern Mediterranean. The ship also participated in the Battle of Calabria in July, but her aircraft failed to score any hits when they attempted to torpedo Italian cruisers during the battle. The ship was relieved by a more modern carrier in March 1941 and ordered to hunt for Axis shipping in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic. After completing a major refit in early 1942, the ship made multiple trips delivering fighter aircraft to Malta to boost its air defences in the first half of 1942. Eagle was torpedoed and sunk by the GERMAN SUBMARINE U-73 on 11 August 1942 while escorting a convoy to Malta during Operation Pedestal.


 * Jovan Vladimir (VVVladimir): Jovan Vladimir or John Vladimir (died 1016) was ruler of Duklja, the most powerful Serbian principality of the time, from around 1000 to 1016. Acknowledged as a pious, just, and peaceful ruler, he ruled during the protracted war between the Byzantine Empire and the First Bulgarian Empire. In 1016 Vladimir fell victim to a plot by Ivan Vladislav, the last ruler of the First Bulgarian Empire. He was beheaded in front of a church in Prespa, the empire's capital, and was buried there. He was soon recognized as a martyr and saint; his feast day is celebrated on 22 May. His widow, Kosara, reburied him in the Prečista Krajinska Church, near his court in southeastern Duklja. In 1381 his remains were preserved in the Church of Saint Jovan Vladimir near Elbasan, and since 1995 they have been kept in the Orthodox cathedral of Tirana, Albania. The saint's remains are considered relics, and attract many believers, especially on his feast day, when the relics are taken to the church near Elbasan for a celebration.


 * Battle of Masan (Ed!) : The Battle of Masan was an engagement between United Nations (UN) and North Korean (NK) forces, which took place early in the Korean War between August 5 and September 19, 1950, in the vicinity of Masan and the Naktong River in South Korea. It was part of the Battle of Pusan Perimeter, and was one of several large engagements fought simultaneously. The battle ended in a victory for the UN after large numbers of United States (US) and Republic of Korea (ROK) troops were able to repel the repeated attacks of two North Korean divisions. Throughout the six-week battle, the Korean People's Army 6th and 7th Divisions attacked the US Army's 25th Infantry Division in an attempt to break through and attack Pusan. An initial UN counteroffensive out of Masan proved ineffective but the US 35th Infantry Regiment was subsequently able to repel the North Koreans at the Battle of Nam River. The UN units were able to repel the North Koreans repeatedly, including through a coordinated offensive across the entire perimeter. In delaying and pushing back the North Koreans, the 25th Infantry Division was able to buy time for UN forces to counterattack at Inchon, effectively defeating the North Korean Army at the Pusan Perimeter.


 * De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle (The Bushranger) : The De Lackner HZ-1 Aerocycle, also known as the YHO-2 and by the manufacturer's designation DH-4 Heli-Vector, was an American one-man "personal helicopter" developed by de Lackner Helicopters in the mid 1950s. Intended to be operated by inexperienced pilots with a minimum of instruction, the HZ-1 was expected to become a standard reconnaissance machine with the United States Army. Although early testing showed that the craft had promise for providing mobility on the atomic battlefield, more extensive evaluation proved that the aircraft was in fact too difficult to control for operation by untrained infantrymen, and after a pair of crashes the project was abandoned. A single model of the craft was put on display.


 * George Andrew Davis, Jr. (Ed!) : George Andrew Davis, Jr. (1920–1952) was a US flying ace in World War II and the Korean War. He rose to lieutenant colonel and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Korea's "MiG Alley". He was the only US ace to be killed in action durng the war. Davis joined the US Army Air Corps in early 1942, and after training was sent to the Pacific Theatre. He flew in the New Guinea and Philippines Campaigns, scoring seven victories over Japanese aircraft. He gained a reputation as a skilled pilot and accurate gunner whose "daredevil" flying style contrasted with his reserved personality. Davis did not see action in Korea until late 1951, but quickly became the war's ace of aces, downing 14 Chinese, North Korean and Soviet aircraft before his death in 1952. During his final combat mission, he surprised and attacked 12 Chinese MiG-15 fighters, downing two before himself being shot down and killed. This controversial action earned him the Medal of Honor. With a total of 21 victories, Davis is one of only seven US military pilots to have become an ace in two wars, and one of only 31 to gather more than 20 victories. He was the fourth highest-scoring ace of the Korean War.


 * HMS Hermes (95) (Sturmvogel 66) : HMS Hermes was an aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy, begun during World War I and finished after the war ended. She was the world's first ship to be designed and built as an aircraft carrier, although the Imperial Japanese Navy's JAPANESE AIRCRAFT CARRIER Hōshō was the first to be commissioned. Hermes spent the bulk of her early career assigned to the Mediterranean Fleet and the China Station. She returned home in 1937 and became a training ship in 1938. Shortly after World War II began, the ship was assigned to Dakar to cooperate with the French Navy in hunting down German commerce raiders and blockade runners. With the establishment of Vichy France in June 1940, Hermes blockaded Dakar and attempted to sink the FRENCH BATTLESHIP Richelieu with depth charges underneath her stern as well as torpedoes from Fairey Swordfishes. In February 1941, she supported Commonwealth forces in Italian Somaliland during the East African Campaign and in the Persian Gulf during the Anglo-Iraqi War. Hermes refitted in South Africa between November 1941 and February 1942 and then joined the Eastern Fleet in Ceylon. After the raid on Colombo on 5 April by the Japanese, Hermes was sent to Trincomalee, but had left the harbour when the Japanese attacked it on 9 April. She was spotted near Batticaloa by a Japanese scout plane and then attacked by several dozen dive bombers; 307 men were lost in the attack.


 * List of ironclad warships of Germany (Parsecboy) : Between the mid 1860s and the early 1880s, the Prussian and later German Imperial Navies purchased or built sixteen ironclad warships. The term "ironclad" in this period frequently referred to armored capital ships that succeeded the sailing or steam-powered ship of the line and preceded pre-dreadnought battleships, though other historians have used the term more generally, especially in relation to the small armored ships operated by the US Navy during the American Civil War. The rival Danish fleet had three ironclads in service by the time the Second Schleswig War broke out in 1864; as a result, Prussia purchased the ironclads SMS Arminius and SMS Prinz Adalbert (1865), which entered service by 1865. The Prussian Navy acquired three more ships&mdash;SMS Friedrich Carl (1867), SMS Kronprinz (1867), and SMS König Wilhelm&mdash;by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870. A fourth would not be completed in time to see service during the war. In 1871, the various Germanic states were unified under Prussian dominance as the German Empire; the Prussian Navy became the core of the Imperial Navy. The three turret ships of the Preussen-class ironclad were built in Germany in the early 1870s, followed by two Kaiser-class ironclad vessels, the last capital ships ordered from foreign yards. The next design, the four Sachsen-class ironclad ships, was intended to operate from fortified bases against a naval blockade, not on the high seas. The last German ironclad was another new design, SMS Oldenburg (1884), before the Navy instead began to focus on torpedo boats for coastal defense.


 * List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients (T) (MisterBee1966): The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross and its variants were the highest awards in the military of the Third Reich during World War II. It was awarded for a wide range of reasons and across all ranks, from a senior commander for leadership of his troops in battle to a low-ranking soldier for a single act of gallantry. A total of 7,322 awards were made between 30 September 1939 and 17 June 1945. This number is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR). Presentations were made to members of the three military branches of the Wehrmacht—the Heer (Army), Kriegsmarine (Navy) and Luftwaffe (Air force)—as well as the Waffen-SS, the Reichsarbeitsdienst (RAD) and the Volkssturm. There were also 43 recipients in the military forces of allies of the Third Reich. The 7,322 recipients are listed in the 1986 edition of Walther-Peer Fellgiebel's book, Die Träger des Ritterkreuzes des Eisernen Kreuzes 1939–1945 — The Bearers of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross 1939–1945. In 1996 a second edition was published with an addendum delisting nine of these original 7,323 recipients. Author and historian Veit Scherzer has cast doubt on a further 192 of these listings. The majority of the disputed recipients had received the award in 1945, when the deteriorating situation of the Third Reich during the final days of World War II left a number of nominations incomplete and pending in various stages of the approval process.


 * Thomas Blamey (Hawkeye7) : Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey (1884–1951) was a general of the First and Second World Wars, the only Australian to date to attain the rank of field marshal. He joined the Australian Army as a regular soldier in 1906. During the First World War he participated in the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and served as a staff officer in the Gallipoli Campaign and the Western Front. After the war Blamey was Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and was involved in the creation of the Royal Australian Air Force. He resigned from the regular Army in 1925 to become Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police, but remained in the Militia. He resigned from the police in 1936 following two scandals. During the first years of the Second World War he commanded the Second Australian Imperial Force and I Corps in the Middle East. In 1942, Blamey returned to Australia as Commander in Chief of the Australian Military Forces and Commander of Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific Area. He oversaw several successful campaigns, including a series of controversial offensives in the last months of the war. Blamey signed the instrument of surrender on behalf of Australia at Japan's ceremonial surrender in Tokyo Bay on 3 September 1945, and later personally accepted the Japanese surrender at Morotai. He was promoted to field marshal in June 1950.