Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/November 2021/Articles


 * Second Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747) : A detour from Gog's frequent studies of ancient conflicts, this was a naval engagement during the War of the Austrian Succession in October 1747. Fourteen Royal Navy ships of the line under Rear-Admiral Edward Hawke intercepted a French convoy of 250 merchant ships, sailing from western France to the West Indies, shepherded by eight ships of the line commanded by Vice Admiral Henri-François des Herbiers. The encounter resulted in a British victory, the Royal Navy capturing six French warships and seven merchant vessels.


 * Edgar Kain : Edgar Kain, known as "Cobber", was the Royal Air Force's first fighter ace of the Second World War. A New Zealander, he joined the RAF in 1936 and served with No. 73 Squadron in the early stages of the war. His successes gained him a high profile in the media during the Phoney War and Battle of France. A devil-may-care flier, he was killed when he 'beat up' his airfield on his way back to England on leave.


 * Grant's Canal : As a break from Hog Farm's usual areas of focus on the American Civil War, this article focusses on a canal that the Union unsuccessfully attempted to dig on two occasions to bypass the Confederate fortress of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River. The first attempt was made in 1862 by slaves and US Army personnel. A second attempt took place in 1863 by US Army soldiers and African-American labourers.


 * Allied logistics in the Southern France campaign : This article covers the logistics behind the successful Allied Operation Dragoon landings in Southern France and subsequent operations between August and October 1944. US military logistics units supported US and French Army operations and fed the liberated civilian population. The logistical effort was often out of step with the needs of the fighting troops, as the initial German resistance was much weaker than expected and the Germans mounted a tough defence late in the campaign.


 * Battle of Oroscopa : This battle took place in 151BC when a Carthaginian army of more than 30,000 men commanded by the general Hasdrubal fought a Numidian force of unknown size under its king, Masinissa.  The result was a heavy Carthaginian defeat. Though it was, in Gog's words, "an inconsequential conflict in itself, it is much commented on as the event which sparked the Third Punic War and the destruction of Carthage".


 * London and North Western Railway War Memorial : Another of Harry Mitchell's series on British memorials, this structure is prominently located outside Euston railway station in London. It commemorates the 3,719 employees of the London and North Western Railway who were killed in World War I, and was unveiled on 21 October 1921. The unveiling ceremony aimed to counter "revolutionary feeling" among the railway's employees, who were encouraged to follow the example of selflessness set by the dead. The railway union pointed out that many of its discontented members were themselves returned servicemen.


 * 2nd Infantry Division (United Kingdom) (EnigmaMcmxc) : The 2nd Infantry Division was a British Army formation that had an on and off again existence for around 200 years. It fought during the Napoleonic Wars, the Crimean War, the Boer War, and both World Wars. This included several famous battles, including playing a vital role in the rout of the Imperial Guard at the end of the Battle of Waterloo. Due to it being a forefront in most of the campaigns it fought in, it also suffered heavy losses. In peacetime, during the second half of the 20th Century and into the 21st, its role changed: it became an armoured formation, reverted back to an infantry division, and became a training unit.


 * Second Battle of Independence (Hog Farm) : Of the four battles fought as part of Price's Raid between October 21 and October 23 1864, Second Independence is generally the least studied. Fought on some of the same ground as the Battle of Little Blue River, at the same time as Byram's Ford, and on the day before Westport, Independence was where things fell apart for Price. From this battle, the Confederates were fighting Union soldiers on two fronts, and defeat was essentially an inevitability.


 * English invasion of Scotland (1650) ( & Girth Summit) : Gog's third entry here -- as co-nom with Girth Summit -- might best be described by quoting from the lads' nomination statement: "Charles I was king of England and Scotland, as two entirely separate matters. When the English chopped his head off they didn't consult the Scots. So when the Scots crowned Charles II it was as king of Britain (not Scotland). Which, with massive understatement, could be described as a provocation. In short order Oliver Cromwell was leading an English army across the border. The campaign was hard fought, but ended with the whole of Scotland subjugated."


 * James Longstreet : One of the senior Confederate generals of the American Civil War, Longstreet was Robert E. Lee's "old war horse" in the Army of Northern Virginia. His preference for defensive tactics sometimes put him at odds with Lee, and Longstreet disagreed strongly with his commander during the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863. Unusually for a former Confederate, Longstreet supported Reconstruction, and was thus regarded by many as a traitor. His reputation began to improve in the late 20th Century to the extent that he is often considered one of the Civil War's great  commanders.


 * Operation Transom : Operation Transom was one of the most diverse military operations of World War II. Undertaken in May 1944, it involved a fleet made up of ships from six Allied nations (including a British and an American aircraft carrier) that sailed from Ceylon, refuelled in Australia and attacked a city in the Japanese-occupied Netherlands East Indies. The sources are oddly divergent over whether the raid was a success, but all agree that it provided the British with useful exposure to superior American carrier tactics.


 * German destroyer Z39 : Z39 was a German destroyer of World War II. Commissioned in 1943, she mainly served in the Baltic where she escorted transports, laid mines and bombarded land forces. The destroyer was bombed on two occasions, but survived the war and was later used by the US Navy for trials purposes and the French Navy as a source of spare parts.


 * Frederick the Great : Frederick II, known as "the Great", ruled Prussia from 1740 until his death in 1786, and is considered the man most responsible for his land's rise to the status of a leading power in Europe. One of the enlightened despots, he not only increased Prussia's military prestige but also reformed its administration and supported the arts and culture. His legacy was much esteemed by the Germans during the World Wars, and though Nazi appropriation of his legacy tarnished his reputation post-war, he is generally considered a great military leader and monarch.


 * Schichau-class torpedo boat : Continuing PM's series on warships of the former Yugoslavia, this article covers a class of 22 torpedo boats built for the Austro-Hungarian Navy between 1885 and 1891. Ten were converted into minesweepers prior to World War I, and all but one were used to protect naval bases in the Adriatic during the war. The survivors were split between the Italian Navy and that of the newly created Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) after World War I. Except for one of the Yugoslav boats retained for training, all the boats had been discarded and broken up by 1925. This last saw service with the Italians and then the Germans during World War II.


 * Hundred Years' War, 1345–1347 : This topic covers the major campaigns, battles and sieges of the Hundred Years' War in the period 1345–1347, and includes two 'subtopics' that were already at featured status.


 * 46th Infantry Division (United Kingdom) (EnigmaMcmxc) : The 46th Infantry Division had an unusual War War II. It was sent to France in 1940 as a labour division, and ended up as a front-line unit in the final stages of the Battle of France. Thereafter, it was deployed to Tunisia and fought in several engagements; landed at Salerno and fought two campaigns in Italy; and deployed to Greece during the second stage of the Greek civil war. It returned to Italy in April 1945, too late to take part in the spring offensive. Following the war it formed part of the British occupation force in Austria and was disbanded in 1947.


 * Theodosius III (Iazyges) : This article covers the somewhat bizarre career of a provincial tax collector who was declared the Byzantine emperor by mutinous troops in 715. He lasted just under two years in the job before being deposed and becoming a monk. Little is known about his life or reign as emperor.


 * British logistics in the Siegfried Line campaign (Hawkeye7) : Covering more or more less what it says on the lid, this article describes the logistics that supported the 21st Army Group in North-West Europe from September 1944 to January 1945. During this period the army group fought several major campaigns and established huge logistical bases in Belgium that later supported the invasion of Germany.


 * Draft Eisenhower movement (Kavyansh.Singh) : The article is about a political movement which eventually persuaded General Dwight D. Eisenhower to run for the US presidency in 1952. The famous campaign slogan "I Like Ike" was associated with this movement.


 * Siege of Guînes (1352) (Gog the Mild) : This siege was fought between French and English forces during the Hundred Years War. A French army unsuccessfully attempted to recapture the French castle at Guînes which had been seized by the English the previous January. After two months of fierce fighting, a large English night attack on the French camp inflicted a heavy defeat and the French withdrew. After two further unsuccessful attempts, the French recaptured the castle in 1558.


 * Final Offensive of 1981 (Pizzaking13) : Despite its name, the Final Offensive of 1981 was actually the first offensive of the 12-year-long Salvadoran Civil War, which had a significant impact on the politics and culture of the country. The offensive was one of only three to involve a "typical" style of military warfare, with the other two being in 1982 and 1989. The failure to overthrow the government in January 1981 eventually lead to the guerrilla style of warfare that would be seen throughout the conflict which essentially dragged out the civil war longer than it should have.


 * Uskok-class torpedo boat (Peacemaker67) : This article is about the Uskok or Četnik class of motor torpedo boats built for the Yugoslav Royal Navy during the late 1920s. An enlarged version of a British design, they deployed their torpedoes by lining the boat up with the target, dropping them off the back of the boat and steering away. Both boats were captured by Italian forces in April 1941, and they were commissioned in the Italian Royal Navy. One sank in 1942 when its hull failed, and the second one became non-operational in September 1943, but escaped from the Germans after the Italian surrender that month and sailed to Allied-occupied southern Italy. It was broken up after the war.


 * Alan Deere (Zawed) : Al Deere was probably the best known of the New Zealand flying aces of the Second World War due to his successes during the Battles of France and Britain, but also to his numerous close calls. He saw combat in Europe from 1940 to 1943, and spent most of the remainder of the war in important training and staff positions. Deere is credited with destroying 17 enemy aircraft.


 * Sasaki Tōichi (RGloucester) : Lieutenant General Sasaki Tōichi was a Japanese soldier who served in the Imperial Japanese Army. He was an expert on Chinese affairs, had close relationships with leading figures in the Kuomintang National Revolutionary Army during the 1920s. A violent encounter with KMT forces in 1928 led him to abandon his pro-KMT stance, and adopt a pessimistic attitude toward China. He later served as chief military advisor to the Japanese puppet state Manchukuo, and took part in the Second Sino-Japanese War where he was involved in the Nanjing massacre. Sasaki was captured by Soviet troops towards the end of the war who and handed over to the Chinese communists. He died at the Fushun War Criminals Management Centre in 1955.


 * Operation Sportpalast (Nick-D) : Operation Sportpalast was an unsuccessful German attack on two Allied Arctic convoys in March 1942. The battleship Tirpitz was dispatched from Norway with three destroyers, but was unable to locate either convoy. The British Home Fleet attempted to locate the German ships but was unable to make contact with them until they had almost reached the shelter of a Norwegian port. A strike from the British aircraft carrier failed due to the woeful inadequacy of the aircraft and bad tactics by their commander.