Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/News/September 2014/Articles


 * 1940 Brocklesby mid-air collision (Ian Rose) : In his nomination statement, Ian asked us to "Imagine, if you will, two aircraft colliding in mid-air and, rather than exploding or spinning out of control, they remain locked together in piggyback fashion and continue to fly by virtue of the still-functioning engines of one plane and the control surfaces of the other –- not to mention one pilot's iron nerves!" The article passed GAN and ACR before FAC.
 * Alsos Mission (Hawkeye7) : Another in Hawkeye's series on the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, this article focuses on the task force created by the Manhatten Project to investigate Germany's nuclear energy capability.
 * Battle of Öland (Peter Isotalo) : This article details a battle fought between a Danish-Dutch fleet and the Swedish navy in the Baltic Sea during 1676, ending in defeat for the Swedes. Peter took the article through GAN and ACR prior to FAC.
 * John Hay (Wehwalt) : Hay served under five US Presidents from Abraham Lincoln to Teddy Roosevelt and was also an author, poet, journalist and ambassador. In Wehwalt's inimitable words, "I wrote much of this while on my recent Norway cruise, as it was difficult to sleep with the endless daylight and it gave me something to do. Thus, this article is an example, perhaps never to be equalled on Wikipedia, of making Hay while the sun shines."
 * John Plagis (Cliftonian) : A Rhodesian of Greek ancestry, Plagis became, as Cliftonian noted in his nomination statement, "the top-scoring World War II flying ace for both his country of birth and his ancestral home", with sixteen victories to his credit.
 * Mahan-class destroyer (Pendright) : The Mahan-class comprised 18 US Navy destroyers commissioned in 1936–37, all of which saw action in World War II. Congratulations to nominator Pendright on this, his first Featured Article!
 * Nagato-class battleship (Sturmvogel 66) : Continuing Sturmvogel's prolific work on warships, this article covers a pair of dreadnought battleships operated by the Imperial Japanese Navy. Work on the ships began during World War I, and both were still in service during World War II, but they saw saw little combat. The article attained GA and A-Class status prior to FA.


 * Æthelwold ætheling (Dudley Miles) : Described as "one of the 'Nearly Men' of early medieval Europe", Æthelwold unsuccessfully attempted to claim the crown of Wessex following the death of Alfred the Great in 899, but was recognised as king in two other parts of the modern UK. He was killed at the Battle of the Holme in 902 or 903.
 * Garnet Malley (Ian Rose) : The first of Ian's two new A-class articles on Australian World War I fighter aces for the month, this article covers the rather exotic life of an artilleryman who joined the Australian Flying Corps and shot down six German aircraft. He eventually joined the Royal Australian Air Force after World War I, and was an advisor to Chiang Kai-shek's government in China in the late 1930s. After serving in intelligence roles in Australia during World War II, he left the military to run a coconut plantation in Fiji.
 * HMS Formidable (67) (Sturmvogel 66) : The latest of Sturmvogel's articles on capital ships, this article describes the short but action-packed career of one of the Royal Navy fleet aircraft carriers that saw service during World War II. Formidable fought in virtually every major British theatre of the war, and was badly damaged by German dive bombers off Crete in 1941 and by a Japanese kamikaze off Okinawa in 1945.
 * Les Holden (Ian Rose) : Ian's second A-class article for the month covers the life of a man who destroyed five German aircraft during World War I and helped to establish Australia's commercial aviation industry in the late 1920s and early 1930s. He was killed when a passenger aircraft he was travelling in crashed during 1932.
 * List of Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross recipients (Schu–Sz) (MisterBee1966) : The successful ACR for this article marked the end of MisterBee1966's epic project of developing comprehensive lists of the recipients of Nazi Germany's highest military awards to A-class status. Congratulations for this remarkable achievement.
 * Philippe Leclerc de Hauteclocque (Hawkeye7) : This article covers one of France's greatest heroes of World War II. Leclerc escaped from France in 1940 and subsequently became one of the key figures in the Free French Forces. He is probably best known outside of France for leading the superb 2nd Armored Division during the liberation of France, and was killed in a plane crash in 1947.