Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/September 2010/Articles


 * Battle of Gonzales (Karanacs) : Texas Flag Come and Take It.svg The Battle of Gonzales was the first military engagement of the Texas Revolution. It was fought near Gonzales, Texas, on October 2, 1835, between rebellious Texian settlers and a detachment of Mexican army troops. In 1831, Mexican authorities gave the settlers of Gonzales a small cannon to help protect them from frequent Comanche raids. Over the next four years, the political situation in Mexico deteriorated, and in 1835 several states revolted. As the unrest spread, Colonel Domingo de Ugartechea, the commander of all Mexican troops in Texas, felt it unwise to leave the residents of Gonzales a weapon and requested the return of the cannon. When the initial request was refused, Ugartechea sent 100 dragoons to retrieve the cannon using peaceful means. On October 1, settlers voted to initiate a fight. Mexican soldiers opened fire as Texians approached their camp in the early hours of October 2. After several hours of desultory firing, Mexican soldiers withdrew. Although the skirmish had little military significance, it marked a clear break between the colonists and the Mexican government and is considered to have been the start of the Texas Revolution. News of the skirmish spread throughout the United States, where it was often referred to as the "Lexington of Texas". The cannon's fate is disputed. It may have been buried and rediscovered in 1936, or it may have been seized by Mexican troops after the Battle of the Alamo.


 * Battle of Quebec (1775) (Magicpiano) : [[File:Canadian militiamen and British soldiers repulse the American assault at Sault-au-Matelot.jpg|right|100px|alt=An artist's interpretation of fierce street fighting during the battle]] The Battle of Quebec (French: Bataille de Québec) was fought on December 31, 1775 between American Continental Army forces and the British defenders of the city of Quebec, early in the American Revolutionary War. The battle was the first major defeat of the war for the Americans, and it came at a high price.  General Richard Montgomery was killed, Benedict Arnold was wounded, and Daniel Morgan and more than 400 men were taken prisoner.  The city's garrison, a motley assortment of regular troops and militia led by Quebec's provincial governor, General Guy Carleton, suffered a small number of casualties. In the battle and the following siege, French-speaking Canadiens  were active on both sides of the conflict. The American forces received supplies and logistical support from local residents, and the city's defenders included locally raised militia. When the Americans retreated, they were accompanied by a number of their supporters; those who remained behind were subjected to a variety of punishments after the British re-established control over the province.


 * Japanese battleship Haruna (Climie.ca) : Haruna 1934.jpg Haruna (榛名), named after Mount Haruna, was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. Designed by the British naval engineer George Thurston, she was the fourth and last battlecruiser of the Kongō-class battlecruiser, the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Laid down in 1912 at the Kawasaki Shipyards in Kobe, Haruna was formally commissioned in 1915 on the same day as her sister ship, Kirishima.Haruna fought in almost every major naval action of the Pacific Theater during World War II. She covered landings of Japanese forces in Malaya (in present-day Malaysia) and the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) in 1942 before engaging American forces at the Battle of Midway and during the Guadalcanal Campaign. Throughout 1943, Haruna primarily remained at Truk Lagoon (Micronesia), Kure Naval Base (near Hiroshima), Sasebo Naval Base (near Nagasaki), and Lingga (in present-day Malaysia), and deployed on several occasions in response to American carrier airstrikes on Japanese island bases.  Haruna participated in the Battle of the Philippine Sea and the Battle of Leyte Gulf in 1944, engaging American vessels in the latter.  In 1945, Haruna was transferred to Kure Naval Base, where she was sunk by aircraft of Task Force 38 on 28 July 1945.


 * Rivadavia class battleship (The ed 17 & Dank) : Rivadavia Battleship LOC 14781u.jpg The Rivadavia class was a two-ship group of battleships (Spanish: acorazados) designed by the American Fore River Shipbuilding Company for the Argentine Navy. Named ARA Rivadavia and ARA Moreno, they were Argentina's counter to Brazil's two Minas Geraes-class battleships. During their construction, the Argentine battleships were frequently subject of rumors involving their sale to a foreign country, especially after the beginning of the First World War. Throughout their careers, Rivadavia and Moreno were based in Puerto Belgrano and served principally as training ships and diplomatic envoys. They were modernized in the United States in 1924 and 1925 and were inactive for much of the Second World War due to Argentina's neutrality. Struck from the navy lists on 1 February 1957, Rivadavia was scrapped in Italy beginning in 1959. Moreno was struck on 1 October 1956 and was towed to Japan in 1957 for scrapping.


 * SMS Goeben (Parsecboy & Sturmvogel 66) : Bundesarchiv DVM 10 Bild-23-61-15, Panzerkreuzer "SMS Goeben".jpg SMS Goeben ("His Majesty's Ship Goeben") was the second of two Moltke-class battlecruisers of the Imperial German Navy, launched in 1911 and named after the German Franco-Prussian War veteran General August Karl von Goeben. Along with her sister ship SMS Moltke (1910), Goeben was similar to the previous German battlecruiser design, SMS Von der Tann, but larger and with increased armor protection and two more main guns in an additional turret. Compared to their British rivals in the Indefatigable class, Goeben and Moltke were significantly larger and better armored. Several months after her commissioning in 1912, Goeben, with the light cruiser SMS Breslau, formed the German Mediterranean Division and patrolled there during the Balkan Wars. After the outbreak of World War I on 28 July 1914, Goeben and Breslau evaded British naval forces in the Mediterranean and reached Constantinople. The two ships were transferred to the Ottoman Empire on 16 August 1914, and Goeben became the flagship of the Ottoman Navy as Yavuz Sultan Selim, usually shortened to Yavuz. In 1936 she was officially renamed TCG ("Ship of the Turkish Republic") Yavuz; she carried the remains of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from Istanbul to İzmit in 1938. Yavuz remained the flagship of the Turkish Navy until she was decommissioned in 1950.


 * SMS Westfalen (Parsecboy & Dank) : SMS Westfalen LOC 25466u.jpg SMS Westfalen ("His Majesty's ship Westphalia") was one of the Nassau-class battleships, the first four dreadnoughts built for the German Imperial Navy. Westfalen was laid down at AG Weser in Bremen on 12 August 1907, launched nearly a year later on 1 July 1908, and commissioned into the High Seas Fleet on 16 November 1909. The ship was equipped with a main battery of twelve 28 cm guns in six twin turrets in an unusual hexagonal arrangement. The ship served with her sister ships for the majority of World War I, seeing extensive service in the North Sea, where she took part in several fleet sorties. These culminated in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, where Westfalen was heavily engaged in night-fighting against British light forces. Westfalen led the German line for much of the evening and into the following day, until the fleet reached Wilhelmshaven. On another fleet advance in August 1916, the ship was damaged by a torpedo from a British submarine.The ship remained in Germany while the majority of the fleet was interned in Scapa Flow after the end of the war. In 1919, following the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Westfalen was ceded to the Allies as a replacement for the ships that had been sunk. She was then sent to ship-breakers in England, who broke the ship up for scrap by 1924.


 * USS Massachusetts (BB-2) (Yoenit) : USS Massachusetts (BB-2), Antonio Jacobsen.jpg USS Massachusetts (Battleship No. 2) was an Indiana-class battleship and the second United States Navy ship comparable to foreign battleships of the time. Authorized in 1890 and commissioned six years later, she was a small battleship, though with heavy armor and ordnance. The ship class also pioneered the use of an intermediate battery. She was designed for coastal defense and as a result her decks were not safe from high waves on the open ocean. Massachusetts served in the Spanish–American War (1898) as part of the Flying Squadron and took part in the blockades of Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba. She was decommissioned in 1906 for modernization. In 1917 she was recommissioned to serve as a training ship for gun crews during World War I. She was decommissioned for the final time in March 1919 under the name Coast Battleship Number 2 so that her name could be reused for USS Massachusetts (BB-54). In 1921 she was scuttled in shallow water off the coast of Pensacola, Florida.


 * List of Commando raids on the Atlantic wall (Jim Sweeney) : Commando raids during the Second World War became so effective that by October 1942 Adolf Hitler issued the Commando Order, which required the execution of all Commandos captured. The raids were conducted by the armed forces of Britain, the Commonwealth and a small number of men from the occupied territories serving with No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando during the Second World War. All the operations took place between the Arctic Circle in Norway to the French border with Spain, along what was known as the Atlantic wall.
 * List of National Treasures of Japan (crafts: swords) (Bamse) : The list presents 110 swords and 12 sword mountings from ancient to feudal Japan, spanning from the late Kofun to the Muromachi period. The objects are housed in Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, museums or held privately. The Tokyo National Museum houses the largest number of these national treasures, with 20 of the 122. During the Yayoi period from about 300 BC to 300 AD, iron tools and weapons such as knives, axes, swords or spears, were introduced to Japan from Korea and China. Shortly after this event, Chinese, Korean, and eventually Japanese swordsmiths produced ironwork locally.


 * 1964 South Vietnamese coup‎ (YellowMonkey)
 * Before dawn on January 30, 1964, General Nguyen Khanh ousted the military junta led by General Duong Van Minh from the leadership of South Vietnam without firing a shot. It came less than three months after Minh's junta had themselves come to power in a bloody coup against then President Ngo Dinh Diem. The coup was bloodless and took less than a few hours—after power had been seized Minh's aide and bodyguard, Major Nguyen Van Nhung was arrested and summarily executed. After a tumultuous year in power, Khanh was himself deposed in February 1965 and forced into exile.


 * Arnold's expedition to Quebec (Magicpiano) : In September 1775, early in the American Revolutionary War, Colonel Benedict Arnold led a force of 1,100 Continental Army troops on an expedition from Cambridge, Massachusetts to the gates of Quebec City. The expedition passed through the wilderness encountering unanticipated problems along the way. By the time Arnold reached the French settlements above the Saint Lawrence River in November, his force was reduced to 600 starving men. Arnold's troops crossed the Saint Lawrence on November 13 and 14 and attempted unsuccessfully to besiege Quebec City. Arnold was rewarded for his effort in leading the expedition with a promotion to brigadier general.
 * Battle of Marengo (Andynomite) : The Battle of Marengo was fought on 14 June 1800 between French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte and Austrian forces near the city of Alessandria, in Piedmont, Italy. The French overcame Austrian General Michael von Melas's surprise attack near the end of the day, driving the Austrians out of Italy, and enhancing Napoleon's political position in Paris as First Consul of France in the wake of his coup d’état the previous November. It was followed by a propaganda campaign, which sought to rewrite the battle three times during Napoleon’s rule.
 * Boeing B-52 Stratofortress (Kyteto) : First flown on 15 April 1952, the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress is a long-range, subsonic, jet-powered strategic bomber designed and built by Boeing and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF). Built to carry nuclear weapons for Cold War-era deterrence missions, the B-52 Stratofortress replaced the Convair B-36. Superior performance at high subsonic speeds and relatively low operating costs kept the B-52 in service despite the advent of later aircraft and the 50th anniversary of continuous service with its original primary operator came in 2005.
 * Bombing of Singapore (1944–1945) (Nick-D) : United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) very long range bomber units conducted eleven air raids on Japanese-occupied Singapore between November 1944 and March 1945 during World War II. Most of these raids targeted the naval base and dockyard facilities on the island, though several minelaying missions were conducted in nearby waters. After the American bombers were redeployed the British Royal Air Force assumed responsibility for minelaying operations near Singapore and continued these until 24 May 1945.
 * Camp Chapman attack (Cs32en) : The Camp Chapman attack was a suicide attack against Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the United States Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan, on December 30, 2009. One of the main tasks of the CIA operatives stationed at the base was to provide information for drone attacks against targets in Pakistan. Seven CIA operatives, including the chief of the base, and an officer of Jordan's General Intelligence Directorate were killed, and six others were seriously wounded when the attacker detonated a bomb he was carrying. The bombing was the most lethal attack against the CIA in more than 25 years.
 * Courageous class aircraft carrier (Sturmvogel 66) : The Courageous class, sometimes called the Glorious class, was the first multi-ship class of aircraft carriers to serve with the British Royal Navy. The three ships – HMS Furious (47), HMS Courageous (50) and HMS Glorious (77) – were originally laid down as "large light cruisers" (battlecruisers) during the First World War. While very fast, their minimal armour and few guns limited their long-term utility in the post-war Royal Navy. Rather than scrap them, they were converted to aircraft carriers and operated in that role until the end of the Second World War.
 * HMS Courageous (50) (Sturmvogel 66) : HMS Courageous 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 of the Admiralty, Lord John Fisher, they were 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.
 * Japanese battleship Kirishima (Cam) : Kirishima (霧島) was a warship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during World War I and World War II. Designed by British naval engineer George Thurston, she was the third launched of the four Kongō-class battlecruisers, the most heavily armed ships in any navy when built. Laid down in 1912 at the Mitsubishi Shipyards in Nagasaki, Kirishima was formally commissioned in 1915 on the same day as her sister ship, JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Haruna. Kirishima patrolled on occasion off the Chinese coast during World War I, and helped with rescue efforts following the 1923 Great Kantō earthquake.
 * John Kourkouas (Constantine) : John Kourkouas (Ἰωάννης Κουρκούας, fl. ca. 915–946), was one of the most important generals of the Byzantine Empire. His successes in battle against the Muslim states in the East definitively reversed the course of the centuries-long Byzantine–Arab Wars and began Byzantium's 10th-century "Age of Conquest". In 923, Kourkouas was appointed commander-in-chief of the Byzantine armies along the eastern frontier, facing the Abbasid Caliphate and the semi-autonomous Muslim border emirates. He kept this post for more than twenty years, overseeing decisive Byzantine military successes that altered the strategic balance in the region.
 * List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves recipients: 1943 (MisterBee1966) : The Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross (German: Ritterkreuz des Eisernen Kreuzes) and its variants were the highest award in the military of the Third Reich during World War II. The number of 882 Oak Leaves recipients is based on the analysis and acceptance of the order commission of the Association of Knight's Cross Recipients (AKCR).
 * Nguyen Chanh Thi (YellowMonkey) : Lieutenant General Nguyễn Chánh Thi (February 23, 1923 – June 23, 2007) was an officer in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN). He is best known for frequently being involved in coups in the 1960s and wielding substantial influence as a key member of various juntas that ruled South Vietnam from 1964 until 1966, when he was overpowered by Vietnam Air Force chief and Prime Minister Nguyen Cao Ky in a power struggle and exiled to the United States.
 * Operation Postmaster (Jim Sweeney) : Operation Postmaster was a British World War Two operation conducted on the Spanish island of Fernando Po, by the Small Scale Raiding Force (SSRF) and the Special Operations Executive (SOE) in January 1942 to seize Axis ships. While the ships' officers were attending a party arranged by an SOE agent, commandos overpowered the Axis ships' crews and sailed off. The raid boosted SOE's reputation at a critical time and demonstrated its ability to plan and conduct secret operations no matter the political consequences.
 * SMS Deutschland (1904) (Parsecboy) : SMS Deutschland was the first of five Deutschland class pre-dreadnought battleships and launched on 20 November 1904. With the outbreak of World War I in mid-1914, Deutschland and her sisters were tasked with defending the mouth of the Elbe and the German Bight from possible British incursions. Deutschland and the other four ships of her class were then attached to the High Seas Fleet as the II Battle Squadron; participating in most of the large-scale fleet actions in the first two years of war, culminating in the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916. After the battle, Deutschland was assigned to coastal defense duties and, in 1917, was withdrawn from combat service. She was broken up for scrap by 1922.
 * SMS Kaiser (1911) (Parsecboy) : SMS Kaiser ("His Majesty's Ship Emperor") was the lead ship of the Kaiser-class battleship of battleships of the German Imperial Navy. She fought at the Battle of Jutland on 31 May – 1 June 1916, during which she was hit once and suffered negligible damage. The ship was also present during Operation Albion in the Baltic Sea in September and October 1917, and at the Second Battle of Heligoland Bight in November 1917. After the end of the war in 1918, she was interned with other ships of the High Seas Fleet at Scapa Flow where the commander of the interned fleet, Rear Admiral Ludwig von Reuter, ordered the fleet to be scuttled.