Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history

This is a WikiProject, a collaboration area and open group of editors dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of a particular topic, or to organizing some internal Wikipedia process.
Please see the Guide to WikiProjectsand the Directory of WikiProjectsfor more information. Shortcuts:
WP:MILHIST
WP:MIL

Military history
WikiProject

Main project page + talk → Discussion archives Style guide → Essays Announcements and open tasks talk → Articles needing attention talk → Nominations for deletion talk → New articles talk Assessment department talk → New! Tag & Assess '08 talk Contest department talk Logistics department talk Outreach department talk → Stress hotline talk Review department talkNew! Special projects department talk Showcase → Featured picture gallery Portals talk

Project organization Coordinators + talk Members talk → Active → Inactive Awards talk Project banner talk Project category Project history

Templates Infoboxes → Firearm cartridge infobox talk → Military award infobox talk → Military conflict infobox talk → Military memorial infobox talk → Military person infobox talk → Military structure infobox talk → Military test site infobox talk → Military unit infobox talk → National military infobox talk → War faction infobox talk → Weapon infobox talk → Command structure box talk → Operational plan box talk → Service record box talk Navigation boxes talk → Campaignboxes talk Template design style talk

edit· changes

Welcome to the Military history WikiProject on the English Wikipedia! We are a group dedicated to improving Wikipedia's coverage of topics related to military history. If you would like to join us, please feel free to add your name to the list of project members!

Goals

To create the foremost reliable and accurate free-content encyclopedia of military history in the English language.
To improve coverage of military history by creating, expanding, and maintaining articles that describe all of its aspects.
To provide guidelines and recommendations for such articles, and to serve as the central point of discussion for issues related to military history in Wikipedia.

Scope: The project generally considers any article related to historical or contemporary warfare or military affairs to be within its scope. A more detailed description of the scope, and our primary focus areas within it, may be found in the section on project scope.

Structure

Internally, the project has developed several structural features to help in managing our extensive work:

Coordinators, who are responsible for maintaining the administrative aspects of the project.
Departments, which host work on several specialized tasks, including article quality assessment, writing contests, article logistics, and detailed reviews of articles and other content.
Task forces, which are more informal groups for collaboration on specific topics within military history, such as particular nations, conflicts, or periods.

1 Scope
2 Announcements and open tasks
3 Style guide and essays
4 Project organization
5 Showcase

Scope

Shortcut:
WP:MILHIST#SCOPE

As noted above, the project generally considers any article related to historical or modern-day warfare or military affairs to be within its scope. (The American usage of "military" is applicable here; in other words, the project concerns itself with any armed forces rather than only with land armies.)

Our primary work is concentrated in a number of broad areas:

Military operations, battles, campaigns, and wars.
Military personnel, including both leaders and common soldiers, as well as other people involved in military affairs.

Note that military service does not in and of itself place an individual within the scope of the project—particularly in the case of service in modern militaries. To qualify them, an individual's military service must have been somehow noteworthy or have contributed—directly or indirectly—to their notability.
Military units and formations, ranging from small units to entire national militaries.
Military equipment and technology, weapons, armour, and vehicles.
Military facilities and structures, such as fortifications, military bases, test sites, and military memorials.
Military historiography, publications, and historians.
Types and periods of warfare, the military histories of particular nations and groups, and general military science and doctrine.
Depictions of military history in all media, such as video games, painting, sculpture, music, film, poetry, and prose.

Note that the project generally covers only those depictions for which a discussion of historical accuracy or real military influence is applicable. A distinction is therefore made between fictionalized depictions of historical warfare and purely invented depictions of fictional warfare; topics sufficiently divorced from actual history that a discussion of actual military history would no longer be relevant to them—such as futuristic warfare in Star Wars—are not considered to be within the project's scope. However, songs and music with long military associations—for example, It's a long way to Tipperary and Lili Marleen—are within the project's scope.

Announcements and open tasks

Military history WikiProject announcements and open tasks
watch· edit· discuss

Articles needing attention • Article logistics • Article & other content reviews • Stress hotline • Writing contests

A trial collaboration for peer reviews has begun between the Military history Project and the Video Game project with the aim of improving the review process by getting cross project input on articles. It will run until June 30, at which point an evalutation of the program will take place to determine its fate.
A discussion has been started on how to restructure Category:World War II. All input welcome!
The special projects department has opened. It will focus on specific ad-hoc high-priority tasks and implement them with informal, short-term groups of editors.
The May newsletter is now available!
Tag & Assess 2008 has been launched. All editors are very welcome as we've got 60,000 articles to work through. As usual, barnstars galore, plus a friendly competition for the coveted bronze, silver and gold wikis. See here.

Featured article candidates: Verdeja • Battle of Verrières Ridge • 1965–1966 Central African Republic coup d’état • Montana class battleship • Brian Horrocks • Benjamin Franklin Tilley
Featured article review: Isaac Brock • Structural history of the Roman military • War of the Spanish Succession • Theodore Roosevelt • AK-47
A-Class review [Attention needed!]: Operation Varsity •Roman-Persian Wars • Lince (tank)
Good article candidates: Full list...

Peer review: Battle of Lissa (1811) • Lince (tank) • Uriel Sebree • Cold War • Tank • Roman-Persian Wars • Operation Brevity • USS Lenape (ID-2700) • USS Princess Matoika (ID-2290) • USS Finland (ID-4543) • USS Mercy (AH-4)
Articles needing attention: ...to referencing and citation (11,409) • ...to coverage and accuracy (4,913) • ...to structure (2,911) • ...to grammar (682) • ...to supporting materials (3,120) • ...to tagging (6)

View full version (with task force lists)

Style guide and essays

Shortcuts:
WP:MILHIST#MOS
WP:MILHIST#STYLE

The project's style guide contains most of the editorial guidelines developed by the project. The guide covers the following areas:

All project members are encouraged to consult the relevant portions of the guide as they work on articles.

Shortcut:
WP:MILHIST#ESSAYS

The project also maintains a collection of essays consisting of the advice and opinions of individual members of the project.

Project organization

Coordinators

The project coordinators are generally responsible for maintaining all of the procedural and administrative aspects of the project, and serve as the designated points-of-contact for procedural issues. They are not, however, endowed with any special executive powers, nor with any authority over article content or editor conduct.

The Lead Coordinator bears overall responsibility for coordinating the project; the other Coordinators aid the Lead Coordinator and focus on specific areas that require special attention.

Lead
Coordinator Roger Davies (talk · contribs) Coordinators Blnguyen (talk · contribs)
Eurocopter tigre (talk · contribs)
Kirill Lokshin (talk · contribs) (co-opted)
Kyriakos (talk · contribs)
LordAmeth (talk · contribs) (on wikibreak)
Nick Dowling (talk · contribs)
TomStar81 (talk · contribs)
Wandalstouring (talk · contribs)
Woody (talk · contribs)

The coordinators have each adopted one or more task forces to serve as the primary points of contact for administrative matters regarding them:

More detailed descriptions of the coordinators' responsibilities, the history of the positions, and the process by which coordinators are selected may also be of some interest.

Members

The full list of project members is located on a separate subpage; please feel free to add your name to it if you would like to join the project!

Departments

The assessment department focuses on determining and tracking the quality of Wikipedia's military history articles; the resulting statistics are used to aid in recognizing excellent contributions and identifying topics in need of further work.
The contest department aims to motivate increased quality in military history articles by offering a form of friendly competition for project members making improvements to them.
The logistics department acts as a clearing house where editors' technical skills and resources can be matched to article needs, providing the specialist assistance editors may need to call upon to improve their articles.
The outreach department acts as a central location for various member outreach work, including project newsletters, recruitment and welcoming banners, and other related initiatives.
The review department conducts both informal peer reviews of articles and other content, as well as formal reviews for A-Class status; it also provides a centralized forum for viewing external reviews (such as featured article candidacies) within the project's scope.
The special projects department focuses on specific ad-hoc high-priority tasks within the project and implements them by forming informal, short-term groups of editors for the purpose.

Task forces

Shortcut:
WP:MILHIST#TF

Please discuss any proposals for new task forces with the project coordinators or with the project as a whole before creating them.

Task forces are informal groups of editors gathered for collaborative work on a particular topic within the field of military history; all project members are encouraged to participate in any that interest them.

Nations and regions

General topics

Periods and conflicts

Classical warfare (talk) (c. 700 BC–c. 500 AD)
Medieval warfare (talk) (c. 500–c. 1500)
Early Muslim military history (talk) (to c. 1000 AH [c. 600–c. 1600])
Crusades (talk)
Early Modern warfare (talk) (c. 1500–c. 1792)
American Revolutionary War (talk)
Napoleonic era (talk) (c. 1792–1815)
American Civil War (talk)
World War I (talk)
World War II (talk)

Portals

There are a number of portals associated with this project:

American Civil War · American Revolutionary War · British Army · Cold War · Crusades · Iraq War · Italian Wars · Military history of Africa · Military history of France · Military history of the Ottoman Empire · Military of ancient Rome · Military of Australia · Military of Greece · Military of the United States · NATO · Royal Air Force · Royal Navy · United States Air Force · United States Army · United States Coast Guard · United States Marine Corps · United States Navy · War · Weapons of mass destruction · World War I · World War II

The various articles used in these portals' "selected article" (and similar) sections are tracked through Category:Military history articles used on portals.

Awards

WikiChevrons

The WikiChevrons (formally, the Military history WikiProject Distinguished Service Award) are the project's official award, to be bestowed on anyone who has made significant contributions to Wikipedia's coverage of military history or to the project itself; they are awarded in two different grades. The regular WikiChevrons may be awarded by any user; project members are encouraged to use them to recognize outstanding work by their fellow editors. A template is available for ease of use:

Shortcut:
WP:MILHIST#OAK

WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves

The WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves are awarded by the project coordinators in the name of the project as a whole; they are intended to recognize editors who have made contributions of truly incredible quality or importance in the area of military history. Members wishing to nominate an editor for the award should leave a brief recommendation on this page, keeping in mind the following:

Editors are cordially requested not to nominate themselves.
Nominees should generally be members of the WikiProject.
Nominees should generally already have received the WikiChevrons.
Nominees should not be coordinators. By tradition and consensus, coordinators are ineligible for the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves until they leave office.

WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves

To date, the following individuals have been awarded the WikiChevrons with Oak Leaves:

Bedford: In recognition of the outstanding contribution he has made to the project's organization by going above and beyond the call of duty in tagging, assessing, and classifying a massive number of articles during the 2007 assessment drive. (Awarded January 2008)
Blnguyen: In recognition of his efforts in improving the quality of articles related to Vietnamese military history, including the creation of numerous A-Class articles. (Awarded December 2007)
Buckshot06: In recognition of his consistently excellent edits and his continued commitment and tireless efforts towards improving the quality of articles pertaining to military history. (Awarded June 2008)
Bwmoll3: In recognition of his superior contributions to a variety of articles about the United States Air Force, including a great number of those dealing with wings and installations. (Awarded January 2008)
Cla68: In recognition of his many valuable contributions to military history articles, and, in particular, his leading role in the creation of numerous featured articles on the topic of the Pacific Theater of World War II. (Awarded April 2007)
Halibutt: In recognition of his massive contributions to articles related to the Eastern Front of World War II and the military history of Poland, including the production of ten featured articles. (Awarded July 2007)
Hlj: In recognition of his many consistently fine and valuable contributions to military history articles within the American Civil War task force. (Awarded May 2008)
JKBrooks85: In recognition of his diligent efforts to improve our coverage of fortifications in the American Civil War, and, in particular, his creation of a substantial number of A-Class articles. (Awarded October 2007)
Kevin Myers: In recognition of his outstanding work on early modern warfare in North America, and, in particular, the creation of four featured articles on the topic. (Awarded May 2007)
Kirill Lokshin: In recognition of his outstanding organizational work, his painstaking maintenance work, and his unstinting advice, throughout his two years of project leadership. (Awarded February 2008)
MBK004: In in recognition of his outstanding effort to improve our compliment of naval ships by updating infoboxes, replacing deprecated infoboxes, and locating sources for ships in the employment of their respective countries' navies. (Awarded February 2008)
Mike Christie: In recognition of his outstanding work on Anglo-Saxon military history, including the production of numerous featured articles. (Awarded November 2007)
Noclador: In recognition of his outstanding work on structural graphics for land-based forces worldwide, his contributions to the Alpini and other regiments, and all his other military graphics. (Awarded June 2007)
RM Gillespie: In recognition of his massive efforts to improve Wikipedia's coverage of the Vietnam War, and, in particular, his development of a substantial portion of the project's A-Class articles. (Awarded April 2007)
SandyGeorgia: In recognition of the instrumental role she plays in the featured article process, both by checking the project's featured article candidates to ensure that citations are formatted correctly, and by helping clear out the backlog of featured articles that no longer meet the criteria. (Awarded September 2007)
Tony the Marine: In recognition of his considerable efforts in raising Puerto Rican- and Hispanic-related military history articles to featured status. (Awarded October 2007)
Wandalstouring: In recognition of his long and dedicated service as a project coordinator and his many contributions to the structure and operations of the project. (Awarded August 2007)
Wilsbadkarma: In recognition of his work on lists (included two featured lists) and portals (including one featured portal). Lists especially are an undermanned area of work, and his excellent efforts deserve commendation. (Awarded April 2007)
Woody: In recognition of his outstanding work on topics related to the Victoria Cross, notably including the creation of featured articles, featured lists, and a featured topic. (Awarded December 2007)

Service awards

One stripe

Two stripes

Three stripes

Introduced in October 2007 as part of Tag & Assess 2007, these come in the form of one, two or three stripes. They are awarded to recognize contributions to specific project tasks and drives as may be announced from time to time.

Banner

The {{WPMILHIST}} project banner template should be added (not subst:ed) to the talk page of every article within the scope of the project. While the template does not require any additional parameters, it has a number of optional ones that add various extra features to the banner. The full syntax and usage instructions are documented on a separate subpage.

Project history

Military history
articles Importance None Total Quality FA287 287 A78 78 GA246 246 B2403 2403 Start34283 34283 Stub30325 30325 Assessed 67622 67622 Unassessed5 5 Total 67627 67627

October 21, 2002 - WikiProject Battles is created by TeunSpaans, at the suggestion of ktsquare and Eclecticology.
April 10, 2003 - WikiProject Military is created by Stan Shebs.
January 27, 2004 - WikiProject Wars is created by Ilyanep.
September 7, 2005 - WikiProject Battles introduces a banner for article talk pages.
October 23, 2005 - WikiProject Battles and WikiProject Wars merge to form the consolidated Military history WikiProject.
January 15, 2006 - The project's first task force, covering Canadian military history, is created.
January 28, 2006 - The first project worklist is created.
February 5, 2006 - The first project coordinator election concludes.
March 6, 2006 - A collaboration of the fortnight is started.
March 10, 2006 - An internal peer review process is created.
March 12, 2006 - The WikiChevrons are introduced as a project award.
March 30, 2006 - The first issue of the project newsletter is published.
May 4, 2006 - The project worklist is retired in favor of an automated assessment scheme.
August 26, 2006 - The second project coordinator election concludes.
September 1, 2006 - An A-Class review process is instituted; the first article to pass this review is Basiliscus.
September 8, 2006 - WikiProject Military is absorbed into the project.
February 25, 2007 - The third project coordinator election concludes.
March 25, 2007 - An article-writing contest is introduced within the project.
April 8, 2007 - The collaboration of the fortnight is discontinued.
August 28, 2007 - The fourth project coordinator election concludes.
October 9, 2007 - A tagging and assessment drive begins.
November 10, 2007 - The project's style guide becomes an official Wikipedia guideline.
February 28, 2008 - The fifth project coordinator election concludes.
March 3, 2008 - The project's logistics department is created.
May 14, 2008 - The project's special projects department is created.
May 22, 2008 - Wikipedia is described as the best general online resource on military history by Simon Fowler's A Guide to Military History on the Internet.

Showcase

The following is a listing of articles (and other types of content) within the scope of the project that have been noted for their outstanding quality. Project members are encouraged to peruse these at their leisure, as they serve as excellent examples of different writing and organizational styles that one may wish to emulate.

Please note that the project does not necessarily claim any authorship or credit for creating these. While many were written by members—sometimes with extensive input from the project as a whole—others were created by uninvolved editors, or predate the existence of the project itself, and are listed here merely because they fall within our scope.

Featured lists

Featured lists are considered to be the best lists in Wikipedia; they must pass through a review process as featured list candidates before being selected.

A-Class articles

A-Class articles, while not as rigorously reviewed as featured articles, are nevertheless considered to provide a well-written and complete treatment of the topic; they pass through a review process within the project before being selected.