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From the coordinators

• The voting phase of the eighth coordinator elections, for the October–March term, started on 13 September and will run until 23:59 Sat 26 September.

  Each candidate garnering twenty or more endorsements will be appointed, to a maximum of fifteen. This election has a strong field of sixteen candidates running, offering many skills and representing all aspects of the project.

• The Contest Department is going from strength to strength and drew a massive number of entries in August (see the results below). If you haven't fielded any entries yet, please think about doing so. It's great fun!  Roger Davies 14:02, 11 September 2009 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Convoy GP55
2. George Koval
3. HMS Endeavour
4. James Newland
5. John Lerew
6. Kaiser class battleship
7. Keith Johnson (cricket administrator)
8. König class battleship
9. Siward, Earl of Northumbria
10. Unification of Germany
11. Victoria Cross for Australia

New featured lists:

1. List of Second World War Victoria Cross recipients
2. List of Victoria Cross recipients by campaign
3. Marine Corps Brevet Medal
4. Order of battle at the Battle of San Domingo

New featured pictures:

1. "Students Going to Man the Fortifications"
2. "Our New 'First Lord' at Sea"

New A-Class articles:

1. 24th Infantry Division (United States)
2. Bayern class battleship
3. Derfflinger class battlecruiser
4. Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld
5. Ellis Wackett
6. No. 3 Commando
7. Operation Pleshet
8. SMS König
9. SMS Hindenburg

Project news

• People with an interest in clearly presenting battle information, and First World War buffs, will find the discussion about a new campaign box for the Battle of the Somme interesting.
• With the recent increase in enthusiasm, Misplaced Pages-wide, for creating "outline" articles, there's an ongoing discussion here. The idea is to produce guidelines for overview articles for Milhist editors and reviewers.
• Proposals have been made to introduce a new self-scoring "honour" system for Contest Department entries. Contributions, especially from regular nominees, are welcome.

Contest Department

• The Contest department has completed its twenty-ninth month of competition, with 145 articles entered by 13 editors. Sturmvogel 66 was placed first again this month with an amazing 101 points, closely followed by Georgejdorner at 98 points. They receive the Chevrons and the Writer's Barnstar respectively. Parsecboy commendably came third with 88 points, with honorable mentions going to AustralianRupert (68), Kumioko (66), Ed! (32), Ian Rose (26) and radek (11). Our thanks go to AM, David Underdown, Work permit, Yellow Monkey and Wild Wolf, who also fielded entries.

Awards and honours

• The Milhist A-Class medal goes to: Parsecboy for König class battleship, SMS König, and Derfflinger class battlecruiser; and to Ed! for 7th Infantry Division (United States), 24th Infantry Division (United States) and I Corps (United States).

Editorial: Getting to FAC via A-Class - some interesting new facts

Looking behind the figures, some other interesting facts emerge. First, 84% of our promoted articles had successfully passed a Milhist A-Class Review before going on to FAC. Second, of the 29 Milhist articles that failed, less than half (41%) had had an A-Class Review. Third, the 97 Milhist articles accounted for 16% of all FACs submitted between January and July of this year.

The clear lesson is that if you want a string of featured articles to your credit, you may find Milhist's A-class Review process to be of benefit to you!  Roger Davies

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From the coordinators

Greetings to all members of the Military history WikiProject, and to those outside the project who receive this news letter as well! My name is TomStar81, and it with a great sense of pride that I assume the position of lead coordinator for the project. On behalf of all the coordinators, both new and returning, we wish to thank those of you who participated in the September elections, and we look forward to working to advance the goals of the project for the next six months.

With the elections concluded, there are two changes. First, Roger Davies has been appointed a coordinator emeritus, joining our first coordinator emeritus Kirill Lokshin. Secondly, for the first time ever, the lead coordinator for the Military history WikiProject will be taking a lengthy wikibreak. For those who were unaware of this, I am an undergraduate student, and will be taking a leave of absence, effective end September, to focus on graduating in December. However, with fourteen coordinators, and two coordinators emeritus, I am confident the needs of the project will be well taken care of. For the VIII coordinator tranche, TomStar81 (Talk)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Battle of Grand Port
2. Derfflinger class battlecruiser
3. Fredonian Rebellion
4. Hermann Detzner
5. Henry Wells (general)
6. Joe Hewitt (RAAF officer)
7. Simon Bolivar Buckner
8. SMS Hindenburg
9. Werner Mölders

New featured lists:

1. List of Medal of Honor recipients for World War I

New featured topics:

1. Derfflinger class battlecruisers
2. Lists of Victoria Cross recipients by campaign

New featured pictures:

1. Beijing Castle in the Boxer Rebellion
2. Fort Baker at San Francisco Bay
3. RAN Squirrel helicopter

New A-Class articles:

1. 1982 British Army Gazelle friendly fire incident
2. Brazilian cruiser Bahia
3. I Corps (United States)
4. North Carolina class battleship
5. Siege of Kimberley
6. SMS Derfflinger
7. SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm
8. SMS Lützow‎

Project news

• Congratulations go to The_ed17 for successfully passing his Request for Adminship.

Contest Department

• This month witnessed an all new and improved scoring system and process established in the Contest Department, which has run both smoothly and successfully. A total of 54 articles were entered this month by 11 editors. Parsecboy placed first with an astonishing 143 points, followed by Sturmvogel 66 on 105 points. They receive the Chevrons and the Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to the_ed17 (41), Auntieruth55 (38), AustralianRupert (17), Radeksz (12) and Ian Rose (11), with our thanks going to Piotrus, Abraham, B.S., Skinny87 and David Underdown, who also fielded entries. All interested editors are encouraged to submit entries for next month's contest; it can be a rather exciting experience!

Awards and honours

• The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves has been awarded to Roger Davies for his outstanding leadership of the Military history WikiProject, including his introduction of the logistics department, his dedication to the Tag and Assess 2008 & B-class Assessment Drive efforts, and his astute advice and never-ending support and encouragement as both a coordinator and lead coordinator.
• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to Parsecboy for his work on SMS Hindenburg, Bayern class battleship, and SMS Derfflinger.

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From the coordinators

• There's a long running discussion about consolidating various task forces ("TF"). Those affected are: consolidate Taiwanese TF into Chinese TF; merge Australian TF and New Zealand TF to form either Oceania or Australasia TF; consolidate Lebanese TF into Middle Eastern TF; merge Military science with Military technology and engineering to form a Military science and technology TF; and merge Indian TF with the Pakistani TF to form a South Asian TF, which would also include Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Please comment here to help us reach consensus.
• A discussion about a possible military biography notability guideline could also use input. Views from all editors here are welcome!

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. 1982 British Army Gazelle friendly fire incident
2. Amagi class battlecruiser
3. Battle of the Alamo
4. Brazilian cruiser Bahia
5. Ellis Wackett
6. Inner German border

New featured lists:

1. List of Knight's Cross recipients of the Waffen-SS
2. Order of battle in the Atlantic campaign of 1806

New featured portals:

1. United States Air Force

New featured pictures:

1. A synagogue in New York City remained on D-Day
2. Battle of Kennesaw Mountain
3. Journée du Poilu. 25 et 26 décembre 1915
4. Siege of Sevastopol, 1855
5. The burning of Columbia, South Carolina, February 17, 1865

New A-Class articles:

1. AH-56 Cheyenne
2. John Lloyd Waddy
3. Lewis McGee
4. M22 Locust
5. Operation Coburg
6. Operation Teardrop
7. SMS Nassau
8. Tosa class battleship
9. USS Congress (1799)
10. USS President (1800)
11. Winter War

Project news

• The Henry Allingham World War I International Contest is starting on 11 November! If you would like to participate, sign up here, read up on the rules here, and discuss the contest here!

Contest department

• The contest department has completed its thirty-first month of competition; its second month under the new and improved scoring system. A total of 53 articles were entered by nine editors. Sturmvogel 66 came in first with 96 points, followed by Auntieruth55 on 80 points. They are presented the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Ian Rose (38), Abraham, B.S. (33) and Parsecboy (10). Our thanks go to Cuprum17, Ed!, The ed17 and Piotrus, who also fielded entries. All editors are encouraged to submit any articles that are working on for next month's contest.

Awards and honours

• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to Abraham, B.S. for his work on Otto Becher, Teddy Sheean and Lewis McGee.
• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has also been awarded to Parsecboy for his work on SMS Lützow, SMS Kurfürst Friedrich Wilhelm and Tosa class battleship.
• The A-Class medal has been awarded to Brad101 for his work on USS Constitution, USS Congress (1799) and USS President (1800).
• The A-Class medal has also been awarded to Ian Rose for his work on John Lerew, Ellis Wackett and John Lloyd Waddy.
• The A-Class medal has also been awarded to Nick-D for his work on Take Ichi convoy, Convoy GP55 and Operation Teardrop.
• The A-Class medal has also been awarded to The_ed17 for his work on North Carolina class battleship, Brazilian cruiser Bahia and Tosa class battleship.

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Project news

• The Academy Content Drive concluded on 31 October. The first place Golden Wiki went to TomStar81 for 13 entries; the Silver Wiki was awarded to YellowMonkey for 11 entries, and Patar knight was presented with the Bronze Wiki for 3 entries. All other entrants were awarded the WikiChevrons or a barnstar for their contributions. Thank you to everyone who fielded an entry! All editors are encouraged to check out the newly expanded Academy.

• A discussion about the notability of military people has resulted in an update to our in-house style guide. Prompted by some recent "articles for deletion" discussions, members felt that we should provide clearer guidance on the types of person that are most likely to meet Misplaced Pages's biographical notability criteria. The resulting advice, which you can see here, should be very helpful in both future deletion discussions and in deciding where best to focus article-writing efforts.

• Our Task Force housekeeping discussion is now coming to a close. In October a number of proposals were made for rationalising our extensive list of Task forces. Although a few areas remain to be decided, project members have approved the changes summarised here. These will be enacted shortly, so if you haven't yet had your say, now's the time!

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Cologne War
2. Nikita Khrushchev
3. Operation Teardrop
4. SMS Derfflinger
5. SMS Lützow
6. John Lloyd Waddy
7. Ton That Dinh

New featured pictures:

1. Turkish heliograph at Huj

New A-Class articles:

1. Arrow (missile)
2. Battle of Bardia
3. Canadian National Vimy Memorial
4. Collins class submarine
5. Frederick Scherger
6. Iven Giffard Mackay
7. List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords or Diamonds recipients of the Waffen-SS
8. USS Chesapeake (1799)
9. Walter Peeler

Contest Department

• The contest department has completed its thirty-second month of competition; its third month under the new scoring system. A total of 52 articles were entered by seven editors. Sturmvogel 66 came first with 168 points, followed by Ian Rose on 51 points. They are presented the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Auntieruth55 (31), Ed! (26), Abraham, B.S. (26), The ed17 (17) and Piotrus (7). All editors are encouraged to submit any articles that are working on for next month's contest.

Awards and honours

• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to Hawkeye7 for his work on Albert Kesselring, Rupert Downes and Battle of Bardia.

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From the coordinators

We are currently working on several proposals to improve the project for 2010. These include bringing the Milhist Academy up to full operational status, as well as spicing up and streamlining the task force structure. Also, any help you can offer to clear the current backlog of Military History good article nominations would be appreciated.

For the Coordinators, TomStar81 (Talk) 11:10, 26 December 2009 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Battle of Morotai
2. Castle
3. North Carolina class battleship
4. Xa Loi Pagoda raids

New featured lists:

1. List of Brigade of Gurkhas recipients of the Victoria Cross
2. List of World War I aces credited with more than 20 victories

New featured pictures:

1. After the War a Medal and Maybe a Job
2. Lincoln assassination conspirators execution
3. National Fund for the Welsh Troops
4. USS Annapolis in the Arctic
5. Yiddish World War I poster

New A-Class articles:

1. Battle of Bita Paka
2. Battle of Ostrach
3. Charles Eaton (RAAF officer)
4. Design A-150 battleship
5. Dutch 1913 battleship proposal
6. Helmut Lent
7. Henry Wrigley
8. James Harold Cannan
9. James Whiteside McCay
10. Lebaudy Patrie
11. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3
12. Thomas Baker (aviator)

Project news

• The Henry Allingham World War I contest has entered its second phase with the following users qualifing: Abraham, B.S., Backslash Forwardslash,Carcharoth, Dana boomer, Durova, Eurocopter, Hawkeye7, Ian Rose, Labattblueboy, Redmarkviolinist, Sturmvogel 66 and XavierGreen.
• Coordinator Emeritus Kirill Lokshin has been re-elected to the Arbitration Committee for a two-year term in the 2009 elections. Kirill is one of four present or former coordinators of the project to be appointed to the Arbitration Committee; he was originally elected to a three-year term in 2007. The others are YellowMonkey (2007–2008), FayssalF (2008–2010), and Roger Davies (2009–2011).
• The Contest Department has completed its thirty-second month of competition; and its fourth month under the new scoring system. A total of 45 articles were entered by seven editors. Sturmvogel 66 came first with 82 points, followed by Auntieruth55 with 74 points. They receive the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Ian Rose (51), Abraham, B.S. (21) and Parsecboy (16). Ed! and Binksternet also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for the January contest.

Awards and honours

• The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves has been awarded to Auntieruth55 in recognition of her excellent work on three featured articles, detailed A-Class reviews, high levels of participation, and for always helping other contributors. She also receives the A-Class medal for her work on Hermann Detzner, Cologne War and Battle of Ostrach.
• MisterBee1966 receives the A-Class medal for his work on Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weißenfeld, List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves, Swords or Diamonds recipients of the Waffen-SS and Helmut Lent.
• Hawkeye7 and Ian Rose both receive A-Class medals with Oak Leaves for their work on Iven Giffard Mackay, James Harold Cannan and James Whiteside McCay, and on Frederick Scherger, Henry Wrigley and Charles Eaton (RAAF officer) respectively.

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From the coordinators

• It's only a month into the New Year, and we've already made changes to the project's infrastructure, merging and improving several task forces (see below). Much content within the project's scope has also been improved: eleven new featured articles, two featured lists, two featured pictures, a featured sound, and seventeen A-class articles. Thanks and congratulations to all editors who contributed and/or nominated these items.
• In other news, the elections for new project coordinators are coming up in March. Think about whether you would like to run or not, and self-nominations will be coming up at the beginning of next month.
• Lastly, our project's A-class review process is desperately in need of new reviewers. Please consider looking at least one and leaving comments, no matter how small or trivial. It will be greatly appreciated by the article's nominator(s).
• For the coordinators, —Ed (talk • majestic titan) 03:32, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Battle of the Nile
2. Bodiam Castle
3. Charles Eaton (RAAF officer)
4. Frederick Scherger
5. Helmut Lent
6. James Whiteside McCay
7. Johann von Klenau
8. Peter Heywood
9. The Battle of Alexander at Issus
10. Thomas Baker (aviator)
11. Walter Peeler

New featured lists:

1. List of Asian American Medal of Honor recipients
2. Order of battle at the Battle of the Nile

New featured pictures:

1. Return of the Great White Fleet
2. SMS Moltke (1910)

New featured sounds:

1. It's a Long Way to Tipperary

New A-Class articles:

1. Alexander Pentland
2. Battle of Osan
3. Battle of Winterthur (1799)
4. Cedric Howell
5. CFM International CFM56
6. Florida class battleship
7. Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze
8. HMS Lion (1910)
9. List of battlecruisers of Germany‎
10. List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves recipients: 1940–1941
11. Max-Hellmuth Ostermann
12. Operation Windsor
13. Petlyakov Pe-8
14. Robert Peverell Hichens
15. Smedley Butler
16. USS Hawaii (CB-3)
17. Vernon Sturdee

Project news

• Congratulations go to Abraham, B.S., Nick-D, and Durova, who placed 1st, 2nd, and 3rd, respectively, in our annual Military Historian of the Year contest! Thanks to all who voted, and congratulations to our runners up: Auntieruth55, BilCat, Hawkeye7, Ian Rose, MBK004, MinisterForBadTimes, Parsecboy, Sturmvogel 66, and The ed17.

• Our thanks go to all editors who participated in our recent task force housekeeping discussion and to EyeSerene who implemented the technical side of the approved changes. The new line up is as follows:
  • The Military science and the Military technology and engineering task forces have been merged to form the Military science and technology task force.
  • The Indian and Pakistani task forces have been merged, and re-scoped, to form the South Asian military history task force.
  • The Taiwanese task force has been merged into the Chinese military history task force.
  • The Lebanese task force has been merged into the Middle Eastern military history task force.
  • The Romanian task force has been merged into the Balkan military history task force.

Contest department

• The Contest Department has completed its thirty-third month of competition; and its fifth month under the new scoring system. A total of 91 articles were entered by ten editors. Sturmvogel 66 came first with 152 points, followed by Kumioko with 98 points. They receive the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Auntieruth55 (87), Abraham, B.S. (48), Parsecboy (41), and Ian Rose (41). Binksternet, Radeksz, Ed! and D2306 also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for the February contest.

Awards and honours

• The A-Class medal has been awarded to:
  • Auntieruth55 for her work on Johann von Klenau, Friedrich Freiherr von Hotze and Battle of Winterthur (1799).
  • Sturmvogel 66 for his work on Sd.Kfz. 10, Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-3 and Petlyakov Pe-8.
  • The_ed17 for his work on Design A-150 battleship, Dutch 1913 battleship proposal and USS Hawaii (CB-3).
• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to:
  • Abraham, B.S. for his work on Walter Peeler, Thomas Baker (aviator) and Cedric Howell.
  • Parsecboy for his work on SMS Nassau, Florida class battleship and List of battlecruisers of Germany.

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From the coordinators

March, as you know, is an election month for our project, when we pick the coordinators for the next six months. We are seeking motivated individuals willing to devote some of their time and energy to the project so it continues to grow and prosper.

Also, I am making a personal appeal to each of you, the members of this project, to come out and vote for the candidates that run. These users will be responsible for managing the assessment process, answering questions, and making sure that the project's other needs are met. We have approximately 1,000 users who identify as being a part of our project, yet on average only about one-tenth of that number participate in elections. Moreover, as we typically hold referendums on major issues affecting the project along with these election, those who do not vote miss the opportunity to give their opinion on matters affecting the project as a whole. Remember, one vote always makes a difference. For the coordinators, TomStar81 (Talk) 23:47, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Admiralty Islands campaign
2. Alexander Pentland
3. Anthony Roll
4. Battle of Winterthur (1799)
5. Cedric Howell
6. HMS Calliope (1884)
7. The Disasters of War

New featured lists:

1. List of battlecruisers of Germany
2. List of National Treasures of Japan (castles)

New featured pictures:

1. Australian military encampment, 1918
2. Injured Arriving by Boat at Balaklava
3. USS New Jersey, 1918

New A-Class articles:

1. Battle of Taejon
2. Bombardment of Papeete
3. First Battle of Maryang San
4. Henry George Chauvel
5. List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves recipients: 1942
6. Michael J. Daly
7. Nguyen Van Nhung
8. No. 1 Wing RAAF
9. Oswald Watt
10. Red Tail Project
11. Siege of Godesberg (1583)
12. SMS Goeben
13. Yermolayev Yer-2

Project news

• A discussion has begun concerning our military history manual of style's guideline recommending preemptive disambiguation on the naming of military units. As the outcome of the discussion will likely effect a number of pages within our scope we are seeking input from the community on whether the guideline should be changed.
• Late last year, several largely inactive task forces were merged. However, the mergers of the Australia and New Zealand task forces did not take place as there was no consensus for a new name. To resolve this, a discussion has begun and all editors are encouraged to participate.

Contest department

• The Contest Department has completed its thirty-fourth month of competition; and its sixth month under the new scoring system. A total of 82 articles were entered by eight editors. Kumioko came first with 110 points, followed by Sturmvogel 66 with 87 points. They receive the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Auntieruth55 (59) and Ian Rose (36). Binksternet, Cirt, Radeksz and YellowMonkey also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for the March contest.

Awards and honours

• Brad101 has been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves in recognition of his excellent reviewing and work on a sizable number of nautical articles that fall within our scope, producing a number of high-quality articles for the Military history and Ships WikiProjects.
• The A-Class medal has been awarded to Anotherclown for his work on Operation Coburg, Battle of Bita Paka and First Battle of Maryang San.
• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to MisterBee1966 for his work on Max-Hellmuth Ostermann, List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves recipients: 1940–1941 and List of Knight's Cross with Oak Leaves recipients: 1942.

Editorial: Reliable sources in military history

Across Misplaced Pages, guidelines have been set up so that editors can vet sources for themselves. Links to some of these and a guide for checking if a source is reliable can be found in an excellent Signpost dispatch written by Ealdgyth (talk · contribs). However, for the majority of military history-related topics, we strive for more than just a basic reliable source. Specifically, we aim for peer-reviewed articles and books over, for example, most websites. Contemporary news articles or accounts can and should be mixed in (if possible) to give a picture of the general view point of the time—were they calm, afraid, unsure of what was going on?

Another major tenet is neutrality. If an editor rewrote the article Dieppe Raid using only the official Canadian history, we would have a problem; while it does contain a thorough and in-depth overview, a point-of-view can still be read. For one, it gives an undue amount of focus to Canada's input in the planning of the landing, and it would probably give an undue focus to their troops if a majority of the landing forces hadn't been Canadian. Granted, this is a book written to document that country's role in the Second World War, so you would hope it focuses on them, but this same reason makes it unusable as the primary basis for an article.

In this case, you would like to utilize a few recent, peer-reviewed books and journals, the official British, Canadian and German histories, possibly a few books written by historians from the aforementioned countries, and newspapers from that time period. Obviously this is ideal, but you need to represent all three sides in this (the United States would be a fourth, but they played only a minor role in the planning and invading). This neutrality aspect applies especially for battles and to a lesser degree biographies, but it can be utilized in virtually every article in our scope. For example, it could be beneficial to obtain Japanese accounts of B-29 Superfortress bombing raids or non-Puerto Rican peer-reviewed sources for that insular area's role in the Second World War. —Ed (talk • majestic titan)

Notes

1. It should be noted that certain sites like Combined Fleet or Navweaps, which are authored by recognized or published experts in the field, are not "most websites."
2. Stacey, Colonel C.P. Six Years of War: The Army in Canada, Britain and the Pacific. 1, Official History of the Canadian Army in the Second World War. Ottawa: Queen's Printer, 1955.
3. For example, some of the Canadian newspaper articles written about the raid are listed on their War Museum's website here, while a London Gazette supplement written after the war can be seen on their website. Anyone with access to the archives of The New York Times can view the stories printed by that paper on the raid by searching their archives, and the Google News archive lists many newspapers, some of which were scanned by Google and are available at no charge; most of the non-free material requires a subscription to ProQuest.

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From the coordinators

I am pleased to report that the March coordinator elections have concluded, and that 15 members have been selected to serve as coordinators from April to September. Special congratulations go to AustralianRupert, Dank, MisterBee1966, NativeForeigner, Patar knight, and Ranger Steve, all of whom are newly elected coordinators. As we start this new tranche we welcome all returning coordinators, and wish those who decided not to stand for reelection luck as they move on to new things.

In other election news, a motion made to extend the coordinator tranche from its current six-month term to one full year gained consensus from the election participants. This will take effect in September, during the next election cycle. For the IX Coordinator Tranche, TomStar81 (Talk) 05:02, 27 March 2010 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. 21st Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
2. Battle of Osan
3. Bayern class battleship
4. Dutch 1913 battleship proposal
5. Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg
6. Mary Rose
7. No. 1 Wing RAAF
8. USS Congress (1799)

New featured lists:

1. List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Boxer Rebellion
2. List of Medal of Honor recipients for the Vietnam War
3. List of United States Military Academy alumni (Confederate States Army)

New featured topics:

1. Battlecruisers of Germany

New featured pictures:

1. Cavalry At Balaklava

New A-Class articles:

1. Allan Walters
2. Army of the Danube
3. Battle of Dürenstein
4. Byzantine-Sassanid War of 602–628
5. HMAS Sydney (R17)
6. Horses in World War I
7. Lê Văn Duyệt
8. Michael P. Murphy
9. Roderic Dallas
10. USS Triton (SSRN-586)

Project news

• Operation Normandy

  In May 2008 a small group of editors, operating from a page in Cam's userspace, began work on improving Misplaced Pages's articles relating to the pivotal Second World War Battle of Normandy that took place in northern France between 6 June and the end of August 1944. Milhist has now adopted this collaboration as our third special project. The aim of Operation Normandy is to bring all core topics—official operations, battles, and the invasion beaches—to featured status by the 70th anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2014. More information can be found on the project page; any interested editors are most welcome to sign up and help us meet this challenging goal!

• Henry Allingham World War I Contest

  Our Henry Allingham World War I Contest ended on 11 March with the following results: in first place was Sturmvogel 66; in second place was Ian Rose; in third place was Dana boomer; and the finalists were Abraham, B.S., Carcharoth, and XavierGreen. The contest produced an incredible 238 recognised article improvements, of which 6 were Featured articles, 13 were A-Class articles and 22 were Good articles. In addition 43 newly created or expanded articles were successfully submitted for the 'Did you know' section on Misplaced Pages's main page. Our warmest congratulations go to the medallists and finalists, and our grateful thanks go to all participants and particularly to Eurocopter for organizing the contest.

• Would you like to get more involved in the project? There are many open tasks that could use your help. The project's review department is always in need of input at peer reviews, A-class reviews, FACs and FARs; these can be found here. Also, the project maintains a list of deletion debates for military-related articles that have been nominated for deletion; project members are encouraged to provide their opinions in this forum so that consensus can be established. Finally, if content creation is more what you are looking for, each of the project's 48 task forces maintains a list of requested articles.
• Your comments are invited in the following ongoing project discussions:
  • Pre-emptive disambiguation. Since 2006 our in-house style guide has recommended disambiguating the titles of articles about military units whether another article of the same name exists or not. The continued need for this practice is under discussion.
  • Merging the Australian and New Zealand task forces. This is the final call for editors to have their say in choosing a name for the shortly-to-be-merged Australian and New Zealand task forces.

Contest department

• The Contest Department has completed its thirty-fifth month of competition. A total of 66 articles were entered by ten editors. Kumioko came first with 105 points, followed by Lordoliver with 79. They receive the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Auntieruth55 (75), Ian Rose (53), Parsecboy (35), and Historical Perspective (31). Binksternet, Cirt, Radeksz and YellowMonkey also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for the April contest.

Awards and honours

• The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves has been awarded to:
  • Nick-D in recognition of his long and distinguished service as a coordinator of this project from February 2008 to March 2010; sterling efforts on "big picture" subjects, including ten featured articles; and his tireless participation in discussion and review.
  • Sturmvogel 66 in recognition of his distinguished service as a coordinator of this project, extraordinary performance within the Henry Allingham World War I Contest and other extremely valuable contributions to the project.
• The A-Class medal has been awarded to:
  • Auntieruth55 for her work on Siege of Godesberg (1583), Karl Aloys zu Fürstenberg and Army of the Danube.
  • Kumioko for his work on Smedley Butler, Michael J. Daly and Michael P. Murphy.
• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to:
  • Ian Rose for his work on Alexander Pentland, Oswald Watt and Roderic Dallas.

Editorial: Translating article writing to real life

I (Ed) am a college student in the United States, and as part of attaining my desired degree, I chose to take a course in Arab-Islamic history. We began in the early 600s and spent some time on the origins of the Islamic conquering of the Sassanid Empire and partial takeover of the Byzantine Empire (c. 634–750). From there, we have moved through the various ages of history, and the class recently began discussing the Ottoman Empire and other Islamic regions of more recent times.

As we began discussing the Ottoman Empire's role in the First World War, our professor mentioned that they were blockading the Bosphorus, using it as a chokepoint to cut off needed supplies traveling to Russia's only warm-water port, Sevastopol. An astute classmate, realizing this meant the use of warships, wondered what naval technology was like during this time. The professor turned and asked me to answer the question, as he knew I had been studying naval history and believed that I knew more about the subject.

The point of this anecdote is not to boast, but to provoke some thought. By virtue of the research Misplaced Pages writers must do to write complete, referenced articles, many of us are acquiring knowledge in specialized topics that can surpass even learned scholars. Misplaced Pages might even provoke some of us into becoming learned scholars through the subjects we find here. To profile one such case, take a look at Parsecboy.

Beginning in May 2007, he came across a few essentially empty stubs on German battleship classes. Nearly 3 years later, he's written or collaborated on more than forty articles rated as good or higher, including over a dozen featured articles and a featured list; the majority relate to German warships. The work Parsecboy has done for Misplaced Pages has had a tremendous impact on his academic career: to complete his undergraduate degree, Parsecboy is currently writing an Honors Thesis that will analyze the British and German battlecruiser squadrons during the First World War. Parsecboy plans to attend graduate school and continue his research in the area, culminating in a dissertation. He comments that "without a doubt, I would not have had nearly as much knowledge and interest in the topic, nor would I have known where to begin researching if I had not become so involved with the topic here on Misplaced Pages."

The knowledge you acquire through writing Misplaced Pages articles will remain with you for the rest of your life. Try to find a way to use it to your advantage.

—Ed (talk • majestic titan) and Parsecboy (talk)

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From the coordinators

It's been a month since the end of the coordinator elections, and I am proud to inform the project that the IX coordinator tranche is doing well. Our new coordinators are rapidly learning the ropes, and the last of the task forces under consideration for merging have been consolidated into a new task force which should increase productivity and improve quality article output.

At the moment the coordinators are discussing preliminary plans for an improved version of The Bugle, and are working with editors from the American Civil War task force who are in the process of organizing a new special project relating to that conflict. It is our hope to see these changes implemented in the upcoming month. Lastly, as many of our members are also in school, we extend our best wishes to all who will be taking final exams both this month and next. For the IX coordinator tranche, TomStar81 (Talk) 22:36, 30 April 2010 (UTC)

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Battle of Dürenstein
2. Battle of Pulo Aura
3. Battle of Taejon
4. Battle of The Cedars
5. Brougham Castle
6. Cleomenean War
7. Harry Chauvel
8. Japanese battleship Yamato
9. Lester Brain
10. Myles Standish
11. Roderic Dallas
12. USS President (1800)
13. War of the Bavarian Succession

New featured lists:

1. Order of battle at the Battle of Camperdown

New featured topics:

1. Yamato class battleships

New featured portals:

1. Biological warfare

New A-Class articles:

1. 22nd Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry
2. Battle of Chochiwon
3. Battle of Chonan
4. Battle of Naktong Bulge
5. Battle of Pyongtaek
6. Battle of Slater's Knoll
7. Battle of The Cedars
8. Battle of Valcour Island
9. Brian Eaton
10. Douglas MacArthur
11. Heinrich Prinz zu Sayn-Wittgenstein
12. HMAS Australia (1911)
13. Kongō class battlecruiser‎
14. List of battleships of Germany
15. Massachusetts in the American Civil War
16. Operation Sandblast
17. Order of Saint Hubert (Bavarian)
18. Ordnance QF 25-pounder Short
19. Petlyakov Pe-3
20. SMS Helgoland
21. Sovetsky Soyuz class battleship

Project news

• With consensus reached on a new name, the project's Australian military history and New Zealand military history task forces have been merged to form the Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific military history task force (shortcut: WP:ANZSP). Under its wider remit, this task force will also include those islands and regions of the South Pacific not covered by our Southeast Asian military history task force. Coordinators Ian Rose and AustralianRupert have transferred across and will continue to serve as coordinators for the ANZSP task force.

Contest department

• The Contest Department has completed its thirty-sixth month of competition. A total of 50 articles were entered by eight editors. Parsecboy came first with 126 points, followed by Ian Rose with 73. They receive the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Historical Perspective (72), Auntieruth55 (62), and Kumioko (30). Lordoliver, Binksternet and LeonidasSpartan also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for the May contest.

Awards and honours

• The A-Class medal has been awarded to:
  • Auntieruth55 for her work on Battle of Dürenstein, War of the Bavarian Succession and Order of Saint Hubert (Bavarian).
  • Ed! twice for his work on Battle of Osan, Battle of Taejon, Battle of Pyongtaek, Battle of Naktong Bulge, Battle of Chonan and Battle of Chochiwon.
  • Magicpiano for his work on Battle of Ticonderoga (1759), Siege of Fort Ticonderoga (1777) and Battle of The Cedars.
  • Nick-D for his work on Dutch 1913 battleship proposal, No. 1 Wing RAAF and Ordnance QF 25-pounder Short.
  • Saberwyn for his work on Collins class submarine, HMAS Sydney (R17) and HMAS Australia (1911).
  • Sturmvogel 66 for his work on HMS Lion (1910), Yermolayev Yer-2 and Sovetsky Soyuz class battleship.
• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to:
  • Hawkeye7 for his work on Vernon Sturdee, Harry Chauvel and Douglas MacArthur.
  • Ian Rose for his work on Allan Walters, Lester Brain and Brian Eaton.
  • Parsecboy for his work on SMS Goeben, SMS Helgoland and List of battleships of Germany.

Editorial: Milhist's special projects

This month we're taking a look at the Military history WikiProject's special projects. At present we have three—Operation Great War Centennial, Operation Majestic Titan, and Operation Normandy—with, as Tom mentions in his introduction, a fourth coming on line as this newsletter goes out.

• Operation Great War Centennial

  Officially the longest running of our special projects, this started in December 2008 with the ambitious goal of improving our core articles relating to the First World War by June 2014. As it states on the project's page, "the centenary of the start of World War I ... will doubtless be a mammoth commemoration of one of the most significant wars in history, attracting vast interest from schools, universities, veterans groups and the media. It offers us the chance to showcase what a brilliant resource Misplaced Pages is". With World War I receiving well over 20,000 page views per day on most days, the truth of these words is evident and the opportunity too good to miss. Operation Great War Centennial has compiled a list of over 300 articles covering topics such as battles, geographical areas, people, armaments, and technology; while some have achieved featured or good status, the majority are at B-Class or below, so there is plenty there for willing editors to get their teeth into.

• Operation Majestic Titan

  The home of our much-respected and admired "Battleship Cabal", Operation Majestic Titan started in June 2009 with the aim of creating the "single largest featured topic on Misplaced Pages, centered around the battleships considered, planned, built, operated, canceled, or otherwise recorded." At time of writing the prolific Majestic Titan team has produced an impressive 33 featured articles, 19 A-Class, 60 good articles, three featured topics and six good topics. According to the project's working list, there are only 427 more articles to go...

• Operation Normandy

  Although it first appeared in Milhist's pages in March 2010, this project had been formerly operating out of Cam's userspace as the "Normandy Team" since May 2008, making it a contender for our longest-running unofficial special project. Operation Normandy is aiming to create a Featured Topic on the Second World War Battle of Normandy by the 70th Anniversary of D-Day on 6 June 2014. With nine featured articles so far and 29 more to go, progress has been steady. More help, however, is always welcome.

• Our fourth special project, American Civil War Sesquicentennial, is in the process of organising and at present lacks a name (see this discussion if you have any suggestions). The project will be looking to improve Misplaced Pages's coverage of the American Civil War by its sesquicentennial anniversary in 2011. The beginning of a drive is always an exciting time to get involved, so interested editors are strongly encouraged to drop by and sign up.

Special projects are a great way of organising a long-term collaboration with a specific end-point in mind, and tend to be more goal-oriented and focused than the general task forces or informal working groups. Joining a special project is also a fantastic way to work alongside like-minded editors with whom you'll undoubtedly develop close working relationships; by your third or fourth FA submission you'll hopefully be operating as part of a well-oiled team. Editor roles are many and varied: content writers, source material providers, image- and map-makers, copy editors, reviewers, MoS gurus, wikignomes, specialists and generalists... you're sure to find a job that suits you and benefits the team. If you have an idea for a special project or are already undertaking a collaboration that you think fits in with the ethos of those above, and you'd like to benefit from Milhist's support and infrastructure, consider dropping the coordinators a note. Personally I've found the synergy and teamwork of contributing to a special project (Operation Normandy in my case) to be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of my time here. I hope you will too. EyeSerene 14:16, 4 May 2010 (UTC)

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From the coordinators

With Eurocopter's resignation (see editorial below), this month marks the end of his tenure as a project coordinator. Eurocopter has been with the team for almost three years now and will be sorely missed, but he has taken the tough decision that his real life commitments have unfortunately made it too hard for him to focus on his coordinator duties. We wish him good luck in the future, both in real life and on-wiki.

Efforts to redesign The Bugle are moving forward and it is our intention to roll out a new format, based on the Signpost, for next month's issue. We hope that this will allow us to provide better coverage of the project's news by allowing more room to expand on the stories we bring to you. If you have any comments or suggestions on what we can do to improve coverage, please let us know.

—your IX Coordinator Tranche, May 2010

Articles of note

New featured articles:

1. Action of 1 August 1801
2. Battle of Villers-Bocage
3. Brian Eaton
4. HMAS Australia (1911)
5. HMS Lion (1910)
6. Japanese battleship Tosa

New featured lists:

1. List of battleships of Germany

New A-Class articles:

1. 102nd Intelligence Wing
2. Battle of Quebec (1775)
3. Bombing of Yawata (June 1944)
4. Deutschland class battleship
5. Indiana class battleship
6. Russian battleship Slava
7. SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand
8. SMS Hannover
9. William Ellis Newton

Project news

• With consensus reached on a name the American Civil War task force has officially opened our newest special project. Codenamed Brothers at War, its goal will be "...to improve related Misplaced Pages articles to featured status, and to see as many of these as possible appear on the main page on their respective 150th anniversaries."
• The straw poll concerning preemptive disambiguation of military units as outlined by our Manual of Style has been closed, with near unanimous consensus that the current practice of preemptive disambiguation be retained. Thanks to everyone who participated in either the discussion or the straw poll.
• Members of Operation Majestic Titan have adopted a three-tiered award system to show appreciation to those who have done work on battleship or battlecruiser articles. Formally known as the Titan's Cross, the award has been issued to Parsecboy, Climie.ca, The ed17, and MBK004.
• The project's official IRC channel (#wikipedia-en-milhist) has been restarted. Project members and anyone interested in military history are encouraged to join us for substantive discussions, social discourse and a few laughs. Instructions on how to get on IRC are available here.

Contest department

• The Contest Department has completed its thirty-seventh month of competition. A total of 119 articles were entered by nine editors. Buggie111 came first with 139 points, followed by The Bushranger with 120. They receive the Chevrons and Writer's Barnstar respectively. Honorable mentions go to Sturmvogel 66 (115), Parsecboy (86), Ian Rose (56) and Auntieruth55 (52). The ed17, LeonidasSpartan and Historical Perspective also fielded entries. Please submit any articles you are working on for the June contest.

Awards and honours

• The A-Class medal has been awarded to:
  • Sturmvogel 66 for HMAS Australia (1911), Petlyakov Pe-3 and Russian battleship Slava.
• The A-Class medal with Oak Leaves has been awarded to:
  • Parsecboy for Deutschland class battleship, SMS Erzherzog Franz Ferdinand and SMS Hannover.

Editorial: Project coordination and constructive editing

For those of you who might not know me, I'm Eurocopter. I served as a coordinator of the Military history WikiProject from August 2007 until few days ago, when I decided to resign due to real life issues making it impossible for me to continue to perform project duties on a regular basis. Reflecting on my experience and activities within the project, I decided to write this editorial to set out a few thoughts and offer some advice to interested members.

First of all, what does project coordination mean and how does it help the Military history WikiProject? Although the coordinators do not have any real executive powers, they play an important role in project management. To make editing contributions easier for our members we establish guidelines, manage Peer and A-Class reviews, and consult and assist when needed. The primary goal of the coordination team has always been to stimulate the development of quality articles and, once they have been developed, to facilitate maintaining them at a high standard for as long as possible. This has been carried out through the organization of a considerable number of assessment drives, contests and special projects. However, there is still much to be done to make the project one of the best and most active wiki-communities. Coordinator involvement in trying to achieve this, as the central promoters of any activity undertaken within the project, is more than important; the coordination team should stand as an example of civilised and constructive cooperation. Perhaps the most annoying issue—unfortunately quite widespread through the pages of Misplaced Pages—is POV-dominated conflict. While such a phenomenon might seem inevitable in a community within which hundreds of members of different nationalities with different historical and political views interact, it doesn’t mean we should accept it. The ability to neutrally mediate such conflicts is an important and desirable coordinator function.

Secondly, but most importantly in my opinion, is the question of how the project enables editors to contribute effectively. Perhaps you already know how difficult it is to take an article to the highest quality levels such as A-Class or featured status. It is even harder to do this working alone. I believe the best thing the Military history WikiProject has done is to bring together groups of editors with similar interests. As there are very few editors skilled in all the diverse article development areas, you might feel the need for help from editors more experienced in, for example, advanced copy editing, image editing etc. To this end the project provides task forces and special projects where members should always feel encouraged to ask questions, discuss, debate and give advice. Such cooperation is the best way to create properly balanced articles and to establish a neutral point of view. Our Style guide and Academy are also useful in guiding you along the path of writing an article. A final, but vital, part of the collaborative article writing process is editor behaviour when interacting with other editors who are contributing to the same article. Even on those occasions where an editor upsets you or allows their personal opinions to influence their editing, always remain calm, civil and try to reach an agreement. Contributing to Misplaced Pages is something most of us do as a hobby; time spent in useless conflicts is precious editing time wasted.

All in all, the Military history WikiProject is a good meeting point for milhist-interested editors, both beginners and advanced, with someone always there to give help and advice when needed. I wish to thank all my fellow coordinators and project members who keep this beautiful community running. I will certainly miss it!

Best regards and happy wiki-editing! Eurocopter (talk) 20:24, 2 June 2010 (UTC)

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Project news

Catch up with our project's activities over the last month, including the new Recruitment working group and Strategy think tank

Articles

Milhist's newest featured and A-Class content

Members

June's contest results plus the latest awards to our members

Editorial

LeonidasSpartan shares his thoughts on how, as individual editors, we can deal with frustration and disappointment in our group endeavour

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Project news

New parameter for military conflict infobox introduced;
Preliminary information on the September coordinator elections

Articles

Milhist's newest featured and A-Class content

Members

July's contest results, the latest awards to our members, plus an interview with Parsecboy

Editorial

Opportunities for new military history articles

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Greetings!

The BAG Newsletter is now the Bots Newsletter, per discussion. As such, we've subscribed all bot operators to the newsletter. You can subscribe/unsubscribe from future newsletters by adding/removing your name from this list.

Highlights for this newsletter include:

Arbcom

Magioladitis ARBCOM case has closed. The remedies of the case include:

• Community encouraged to review common fixes
• Community encouraged to review policy on cosmetic edits
• Developers encouraged to improve AWB interface
• Bot approvals group encouraged to carefully review BRFA scope
• Reminders/Restrictions specific to Magioladitis

BRFAs

We currently have 27 open bot requests at Misplaced Pages:Bots/Requests for approval, and could use your help processing!

Discussions

There are multiple ongoing discussions surrounding bot-related matters. In particular:

• RFC on COSMETICBOT
• Efforts at WP:CHECKWIKI to identify cosmetic fixes
• Requested move for the Bot Owners' Noticeboard
• A phabricator ticket T162685 has been made to have a "bots" tag, so issues related to bot frameworks can be tracked

New things

Several new things are around:

• A BAG Guide has been created (WP:BAGG, discussion).
• Users now have the option to hide AWB from their watchlists via a script (WP:HIDEAWB, discussion)
• The guidance on how to deal with bot issues has been overhauled (WP:BOTISSUE, discussion)
• The bot policy has been updated to clarify that bot operators are required to register accounts. (WP:BOTACCOUNT, discussion)

Wikimania

Wikimania 2017 is happening in Montreal, during 9–13 August. If you plan to attend, or give a talk, let us know!

Thank you! edited by:Headbomb 11:35, 12 April 2017 (UTC)

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