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


 * Battle of Calais : Another in Gog's series on the Hundred Years' War, this article describes an ambush staged on either 31 December 1349 or 2 January 1350 by English troops in Calais against a force of unsuspecting Frenchmen who were attempting to take the city by stealth. In Gog's words, it's "An everyday story of 14th-century folk. Knightly honour and dishonour; bribery and treason; cunning schemes and an incognito king; captivity and ransoms; truces and treachery; revenge and torture. They didn't have Wikipedia in the 14th century, so they had to make their own entertainment."


 * Battle of Azaz (1030) : This article looks at a battle between the Byzantine Empire and the Arabs of the Mirdasid emirate of Aleppo. According to the nomination statement, "Coming shortly after a period when Byzantine military might was at its highest under Basil II, the Byzantine army, under a vainglorious emperor, suffered a humiliating, although in the end not decisive, defeat". The reasons for this humiliation are clear enough: during the Battle of Azaz, the Byzantine army of around 20,000 men was defeated by a force of between 700 and 2,000 Arab soldiers.


 * Cyril Bassett : Cyril Bassett was the first and only New Zealander to be awarded the Victoria Cross in the Gallipoli Campaign of World War I. He served on the Western Front from 1916 until the end of the war. He rejoined the military during World War II, serving as a signals officer in New Zealand. He rarely spoke about his military achievements; his daughter only learned of them at school.


 * Operation Catechism : Completing Nick's long-running series on Britain's air attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz during World War II, Operation Catechism took place on 12 November 1944. Crippled from earlier attacks, Tirpitz had been downgraded to a floating battery and stationed in an unsuitable anchorage. She survived an attack on 29 October by sheer luck, but stood little chance of survival when the pair of elite British heavy bomber squadrons that had been tormenting her struck again. Two hits from massive bombs and several near misses capsized Tirpitz and killed most of her crew.


 * Kaiser Friedrich III-class battleship : Another of Parsecboy's series on German capital ships, this article looks at a class of five pre-dreadnought battleships built for the German Imperial Navy between 1895 and 1901. The ships had relatively uneventful careers, being rebuilt in the mid-1900s and then sent to the reserve as the new dreadnought battleships began to enter service. They were reactivated for duty early in World War I but little activity owing to their age and the threat of submarines. Withdrawn from service and disarmed by 1916, they were all scrapped after the war.


 * SS Politician : SS Politician was a commercial cargo ship that was pressed into service with the Atlantic Convoys at the outbreak of World War II. She ran aground off Scotland in 1941 with 22,000 cases (264,000 bottles) of scotch aboard. In nominator Schrocat's words, "It was the habit of Hebrideans to look at all wrecks on their shores as bounty to be rescued from the being lost, irrespective of the niceties of the maritime salvage laws. The fact that a Scotch-drinking writer by the name Compton Mackenzie lived on a neighbouring island and decided to use it as a basis for a humorous story meant that Politician was immortalised in the book and two films that go under the name Whisky Galore."


 * Lyon-class battleship ( and ) : This article describes the class of battleships that formed the 1915 tranche of a French naval expansion program begun in 1912. Their design was still incomplete when World War I broke out in August 1914. The Army's demands for munitions, the conscription of dock workers and a decision by the Navy to prioritise ships that could be quickly completed led to the class being cancelled before construction began.


 * Roy Inwood : Another article in a long-running series, Roy Inwood is Peacemaker67's latest South Australian VC recipient to achieve featured status. After serving in the Gallipoli campaign, Inwood received the VC for three separate actions during the Battle of Menin Road in September 1917. He served in military police roles during World War II. Inwood stipulated that his VC remain in Adelaide upon his death, and it is currently on display in the city's town hall.


 * Japanese battleship Yashima : Another in Sturm's series on Japanese capital ships, Yashima was designed to counter a pair of Chinese ironclads.  She was one of the first battleships in Japanese service, and had to be ordered from Britain. She participated in the initial battles of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, but struck a mine and sank in May 1904 after trying to go to the assistance of another battleship that also sank. The Japanese were able to keep the news of her loss from leaking to the Russians, who had no idea that the odds against them had been dramatically decreased.


 * John FitzWalter, 2nd Baron FitzWalter : John FitzWalter (c. 1315 – 1361) was an Essex landowner of noble birth who was best known for his criminal activities. According to the nomination statement, "Forget the Rettendon murders, John FitZWalter was the original Essex Boy. Yes, the usual extortion, murders, jury nobbling and...er...sieges?! He makes the Krays look like over-enthusiastic tobacconists..."

Note: MilHist-related articles accounted for half of all FAs promoted in October, and all but Politician and Fitzwalter negotiated ACR prior to FAC.


 * List of battleships of Japan ( & ) : This list summarises the careers of the many battleships operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy between 1897 and 1945. The IJN's battleship force began with the rather modest Fuji-class battleships built in Britain, and ended with the massive Yamato-class battleships that were constructed domestically. The ships generally performed well during the Russo-Japanese War, but few survived World War II.

Peace advocates
While certainly as notable in their own right as the above, these women's notability in respect to Military History is primarily down to their prominent advocacy for peace during World War I.


 * Battle of Babylon Hill (Harrias) : The Battle of Babylon Hill was a skirmish that took place between Royalist and Parliamentarian forces near Yeovil, in South West England, on 7 September 1642, during the early stages of the First English Civil War. In the nomination statement Harrias noted that "both sides were inexperienced and still learning the art of war. As such, the description of this engagement as "more muddle than battle" is fitting. Ralph Hopton was considered one of the more able of the Royalist leaders, and yet here he found himself needlessly ambushed by the enemy".


 * Japanese battleship Kawachi (Sturmvogel 66) : Kawachi was the lead ship of her class of dreadnought battleships built for the Imperial Japanese Navy in the 1910s. Completed in 1912, she often served as a flagship. Her only combat action during World War I was when she bombarded German fortifications in China during the Battle of Tsingtao in 1914. She sank in 1918 after an explosion in her ammunition magazine with the loss of over 600 officers and crewmen.


 * SMS Niobe (Parsecboy and Peacemaker67) : The cruiser Niobe had a colorful career during which she served with five or six countries and was allocated three or four names. Originally built for the German Imperial Navy, she served with that force in World War I. Germany sold the ship to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) in 1901 and she was used by the Royal Yugoslav Navy until April 1941, when she was captured by the Italians. The cruiser served in the Italian Regia Marina until the Italian surrender in September 1943, when she was then seized by the German occupiers of Italy. She was used in the Adriatic Sea until December 1943, when she ran aground on the island of Silba, and was subsequently destroyed by British Motor Torpedo Boats.


 * Soviet cruiser Kalinin (Kges1901 and Sturmvogel 66) : Kalinin was one of six Kirov-class cruisers built for the Soviet Navy in the Russian Far East from components shipped from European Russia during World War II. The ship was one of the last pair constructed, known as the Project 26bis2 subclass. Completed at the end of 1942 and assigned to the Pacific Fleet, she saw no action during the Soviet–Japanese War in 1945 and served into the Cold War. Sometimes serving as a flagship, her post-war career was uneventful until she was disarmed and converted into a floating barracks in 1960. She was scrapped in the early 1960s.


 * Russian battleship Knyaz Suvorov (Sturmvogel 66) : Knyaz Suvorov was a pre-dreadnought battleship built for the Imperial Russian Navy in the first decade of the 20th century. Completed after the beginning of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, she became the flagship of the Second Pacific Squadron. The squadron was sent to the Far East a few months after her completion to break the Japanese blockade of Port Arthur. The Japanese captured the port while the squadron was in transit and their destination was changed to Vladivostok. During the Battle of Tsushima on 27 May 1905, the ship fell out of the battle line after a shell hit her bridge. Knyaz Suvorov was eventually torpedoed and sunk by Japanese torpedo boats; other than 20 wounded officers evacuated by a destroyer, there were no survivors.


 * 2/10th Battalion (Australia) (AustralianRupert and Peacemaker67) : This article covers an Australian infantry battalion of World War II. Originally raised in South Australia, the 2/10th Battalion served around the world. It was part of the Australian force sent to the UK in mid-1940, from where it was transferred to the Middle East late in the year. The battalion saw combat in the Siege of Tobruk before returning to Australia in early 1942. It served in two campaigns in New Guinea during 1942 and 1943, spent much of 1944 in Australia and took part in an amphibious landing at Balikpapan in the last weeks of the war. The 2/10th Battalion was disbanded in December 1945.


 * SMS Preussischer Adler (Parsecboy) : Parsecboy described the subject of this article as "one of the oldest ships I've written an article for, and one with a fairly interesting career". Preussischer Adler was a paddle steamer originally built in the mid-1840s for use on a packet route between the Kingdom of Prussia and the Russian Empire in the Baltic Sea. She was requisitioned by the Prussian Navy during the First Schleswig War in 1848 and converted into an aviso. She returned to commercial service following the war, and was purchased again by the Navy in 1862. She saw some combat in the Second Schleswig War during 1864 and served in a variety of roles in the late 1860s and early 1870s. During the Franco-Prussian War, she served as the flagship of the Prussian squadron in the Baltic Sea in 1870. In poor condition, the ship was decommissioned in 1877 and sunk as a target ship two years later.


 * Capture of Wakefield (Harrias) : The capture of Wakefield, Yorkshire on 21 May 1643 featured two of the more prominent commanders from the First English Civil War. Sir Thomas Fairfax, after nearly getting himself captured in this engagement, went on to become the commander-in-chief of parliament's New Model Army which effectively won the war. George Goring was taken prisoner at Wakefield, had some success at Marston Moor, but ultimately failed in southwest England, and escaped to France claiming ill-health. The capture of Wakefield itself was significant for the scale of the victory, and the number of prisoners Fairfax was able to take, but territoriality was of little consequence.


 * 45th Infantry Division (United Kingdom) (EnigmaMcmxc) : The 45th Infantry Division was a second-line British Territorial Army division that was active for most of World War II, and did not see service outside of the UK. Formed shortly after the outbreak of war in September 1939, the division guarded vulnerable points, was relegated to home defense, aided in the administrative/logistical side of Overlord, and was then stripped of its assets to reinforce combat formations. In 1944, it was disbanded and then recreated as a holding division. In this role, it aided in the retraining and rehabilitation of those not up to fitness standards, ex-POWs, and returning troops. It was demobilised at the end of the war, and not reformed.


 * République-class battleship (Parsecboy) : The République class were a pair of pre-dreadnought battleships built for the French Navy in the early 1900s. They had fairly eventful peacetime careers, with Patrie accidentally torpedoing République in 1910 and the latter being struck by flying debris from the exploding battleship Liberté the next year. At the outbreak of war in August 1914, the ships escorted convoys carrying troops from French North Africa to France before joining the rest of the main fleet to seek battle with the Austro-Hungarian Navy in the Adriatic. Both took part in the Gallipoli campaign and later operations in Greece. They spent the remainder of the war in secondary duties and left service during the early 1920s.


 * SMS Roon (Parsecboy) : This article covers an armoured cruiser built for the German Imperial Navy in the early 1900s. Armoured cruisers were made obsolete by the development of battlecruisers soon after she entered service, and Roon was placed into reserve in 1911. The ship was mobilized in August 1914 following the outbreak of World War I and initially assigned the High Seas Fleet in the North Sea. There, she formed part of the reconnaissance screen during two raids on British coastal towns. Roon was transferred to the Baltic Sea in 1915 and took part in several operations against Russian forces. The threat of British submarines led to the withdrawal of old vessels like Roon by early 1916, and she was decommissioned and used as a training ship. Plans to convert her into a seaplane tender in 1918 came to nothing, and she was broken up in 1921.