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


 * 13th Missouri Cavalry Regiment (Confederate) : Another in Hog Farm's series on the American Civil War, the 13th Missouri Cavalry Regiment was initially armed with experimental cannons before becoming a more traditional cavalry unit. It served under Sterling Price in the Camden Expedition and Price's Raid. Between its formation on April 6, 1863, and disbandment on June 8, 1865, the unit played a relatively undistinguished role in several battles, burning a depot, a bridge, and a train.


 * Battle of Halidon Hill : Another of Gog's forays into the medieval, one can't go past his nomination statement for a pithy overview of the essentials... "We are back in the 14th-century again. Once more the Scots decide to risk an open battle. Once more they get hammered by the English. Even more badly than usual. The English king orders 'No prisoners!' and executes those who are taken. One RS is titled War Cruel and Sharp. Indeed."


 * Yugoslav gunboat Beli Orao : Peacemaker67's latest FA on a ship of the Royal Yugoslav Navy features a vessel that went through a dizzying five names and three flags over its nearly forty-year career. This ship was used as an admiralty yacht, submarine chaser/gunboat/escort, anti-submarine warfare training vessel and motor gunboat tender, and for several decades after World War II as a presidential yacht for Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito.


 * Operation Grapple : Continuing Hawkeye's nuclear-themed articles, Operation Grapple was a series of weapons tests that formed part of the British hydrogen bomb programme. The tests were conducted on Malden Island and Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, and involved many British military personnel and units. According to Hawkeye's  nomination statement, "It wasn't my first choice for a FAC nomination, but I do think it is a worthy and interesting article in its own right." We agree!


 * Burnt Candlemas :  Gog's second FA last month concerns a failed invasion of Scotland in late January – early February 1356 by an English army commanded by King Edward III, the last campaign of the Second War of Scottish Independence. The episode's unusual name comes from the English army's destruction of Lothian; the custom at the time was to take one's annual stock of candles to the local church on 2 February to be blessed in a ceremony known as "candlemas", and then use the candles for the rest of the year.


 * Battle of Byram's Ford : In nominator Hog Farm's words, "this is a two-day battle that feels kinda like a hodgepodge of two different actions: the first day as an extension of the Battle of Little Blue River, and the second as an extension of the Second Battle of Independence.  But historians have treated this as a separate event, so here we are with the third Price's Raid FAC.  Confederate cavalry pushes Union cavalry and militia across the ford on Day 1, while Union cavalry trailing the Confederates push across the ford on Day 2."


 * List of protected cruisers of France :  Another in PB's lists of warships, this features the protected cruisers built by France from the 1880s to early 1900s; a type that represented a competition between different elements in the French naval officer corps. Some favoured long-range commerce raiders, others preferred small fleet scouts, and still others wanted ships suitable for patrolling the French colonial empire. This led to a wide variety of ships being built, from small scouts to large but lightly armed raiders and to large and heavily armed colonial cruisers like D'Entrecasteaux. The French eventually decided to rely on armored cruisers for all of these roles by the early 1900s, so no further protected cruisers were built.


 * Project Waler (Nick-D) : Project Waler was a failed attempt by the Australian Army to acquire large numbers of high performance armoured fighting vehicles during the 1980s. The project proved over-ambitious, however, and was cancelled by the government after considerable scoping work demonstrated that the costs would be twice as high as expected and the Defence Minister concluded that the capabilities the new vehicles offered were in excess of what Australia needed. The very successful ASLAV wheeled armoured fighting vehicles were purchased instead, and the M113 fleet was subjected to an upgrade project that was also badly bungled.


 * 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 numerous 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 peace time, during the second half of the 20th Century and into the 21st, it went under various role changes: it became an armoured formation, reverted back to an infantry division, and became a training unit.


 * Operation Transom (Nick-D) : 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.


 * List of British divisions in World War II (EnigmaMcmxc) : This article does pretty much what it says on the tin - it provides a summary of each of the 85 divisions raised by the British military during World War II. These ranged from elite airborne formations to rather unglamorous coastal defence and anti-aircraft outfits.


 * 20th Battalion (New Zealand) (Zawed) : The 20th Battalion formed part of the 2nd New Zealand Division during the Second World War. It started the war as an infantry unit, and fought in Greece, Crete and then North Africa. It got decimated at El Alamein, following which it was converted to armour and went on to serve in Italy as the 20th Armoured Regiment. The unit ended the war at Trieste in Italy.


 * 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 eventuality.


 * Yugoslav minelayer Zmaj (Peacemaker67 and Sturmvogel 66) : Zmaj was built as a seaplane tender, but was barely used in that role, being converted to a minelayer before WWII. Captured during the invasion of Yugoslavia, the Germans put her to use as Drache and then Schiff 50, mainly as a troop transport, escort and minelayer. Interestingly, she was used for shipborne trials of helicopters in 1942–1943. One of the minefields she laid in the Aegean accounted for an Allied submarine and two destroyers, with another severely damaged. She was sunk by British aircraft in late 1944. The article was developed to A-class standard 10 years after being assessed as a GA.