Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/11th Airborne Division (United States)/Archive 1

11th Airborne Division (United States)
I have worked this article over extensively, and had it copyedited as well, and now I would like to submit it for a peer review. It is being nominated for GA-Class at the moment, but that process takes times, and sometimes peer reviews can find things a GA Review can't. Skinny87 (talk) 11:59, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

Nick Dowling
The content of this article is very good, but it needs a bit more work to be a polished article. My suggestions are:
 * This article needs a comprehensive copy-edit as much of the wording is a bit awkward - there's lots of repetition and some of the grammar is poor (eg, some of the capitalisation and the use of possessive apostrophes)
 * I'll work on that immediately. Unfortunately I was going through some stressful RL times when I wrote the article and sometimes found it a chore, which I think shows.


 * The first sentence "The 11th Airborne Division was an airborne division in the United States Army during World War II, and was commanded by Major-General Joseph M. Swing" needs to be tweaked given that the division also existed after WW2 and was commanded by several different generals
 * Done!


 * "The division remained in Japan for four years until May 1945" - typo
 * Done!


 * Elements of the 82nd AB took part on Operation Torch before Operation Husky
 * Done!


 * "the division remained as a reserve formation until January 1944" - do you mean "remained in reserve"? A reserve formation is typically one made up of part-time soldiers
 * Done!


 * "but only as an infantry division" - why the use of 'only'? It should be mentioned that Douglas MacArthur didn't support the use of large airborne forces in the Pacific Theatre, believing this impractical and dangerous given Japanese tactics. As a result, the 11th AB Division was mainly used as an elite light infantry formation with a useful airborne capability.
 * Do you have a source for that if at all possible?


 * The claim that the landing at Aparri was "the last airborne operation ever to occur in World War II" is probably not correct: Soviet Troops conducted several air-landing operations in Manchuria in August during Operation August Storm and Allied special forces continued to conduct operations until the end of the war, which included small-scale airborne drops in Malaya and Borneo.
 * Done!


 * It should be mentioned that it was planned that the division would participate in the invasion of Japan, again primarily as a light infantry unit.
 * I'll need to look this up - you don't have a reference, do you?
 * Done!


 * "The airlift succeeded despite the immense scale" this was by no means the largest or most complex airlift of the war, so the wording should be toned down a bit - the scale was not "immense" as entire divisions had been air lifted previously, often between even less well prepared bases and with fewer aircraft. Nick Dowling (talk) 10:35, 16 June 2008 (UTC)
 * Done!

Hawkeye7
This is far, far above the average for the articles on World War II divisions of the United States. I still have some quibbles though:
 * Despite being activated in 1943, the division was not immediately shipped out to Europe to participate in combat, as occurred to the 82nd Airborne Division, which participated in the first large-scale Allied airborne operation, Operation Husky and had also been activated at the same time as the 11th Airborne Division.
 * The 82nd Airborne Division was activated in March 1942 and became an airborne division in August 1942, so it was activated almost a year before the 11th.


 * 'The division was shipped by train to San Francisco, where it then boarded a troop convoy and on 4 May left the United States destined for New Guinea, arriving there in early June.''
 * The division staged at Camp Stoneman, CA in April, and departed on a number of ships, arriving at Milne bay between 25 May and 11 June 1944.


 * These two battalions then proceeded to mop up the last Japanese resistance, incurring considerable casualties against a heavily dug-in enemy.
 * The last Japanese resistance where? Another 24,294 Japanese were killed on Leyte before 8 May 1945.


 * A number of American aircraft were destroyed by the Japanese airborne troops, 
 * Five L-5s and a C-45


 * the two Glider regiments landed near Nasugbu in southern Luzon
 * Can you make it clearer that they landed in navy landing craft? A casual reader might think that they arrived by glider.


 * General Yamashita and his Fourteenth Army
 * Should be Fourteenth Area Army. A Japanese area army was larger than an army.

All in all, very well done Hawkeye7 (talk) 23:03, 19 June 2008 (UTC)


 * All have been dealt with - thank-you very much for the help! Skinny87 (talk) 22:15, 21 June 2008 (UTC)