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Requests for project input
[edit]Please add requests for MILHIST participation to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Military history/Requests for project input. This includes requests for comment, requested moves, articles for deletion, and more.
Requested move at Talk:USS Sumter (1862)
[edit]
An editor has requested that USS Sumter (1862) be moved to CSS General Sumter, which may be of interest to this WikiProject. You are invited to participate in the move discussion. Hog Farm Talk 03:04, 6 February 2026 (UTC)
Infobox result discussion - Siege of Utica
[edit]There is a discussion taking place here regarding what the "Result" should be in the infobox which members of the project may wish to contribute to. Gog the Mild (talk) 21:43, 1 February 2026 (UTC)
RFC concerning result of Kasserine Pass
[edit]An Rfc is taking place over on the talk page for the Battle of Kasserine Pass regarding how to frame the outcome of said engagement. Given that this is likely to be of interest to members of this project, I have provided a link to said discussion here. Emiya1980 (talk) 22:45, 3 February 2026 (UTC)
Requested move at Talk:Gaius Furius Sabinius Aquila Timesitheus#Requested move 19 January 2026
[edit]There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Gaius Furius Sabinius Aquila Timesitheus#Requested move 19 January 2026 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. TarnishedPathtalk 03:05, 4 February 2026 (UTC)
Good article reassessment for T. E. Lawrence
[edit]T. E. Lawrence has been nominated for a good article reassessment. If you are interested in the discussion, please participate by adding your comments to the reassessment page. If concerns are not addressed during the review period, the good article status may be removed from the article. Ten Pound Hammer • (What did I screw up now?) 18:52, 5 February 2026 (UTC)
Requested move at Talk:Mary I of England#Requested move 7 February 2026
[edit]There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Mary I of England#Requested move 7 February 2026 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Векочел (talk) 18:37, 7 February 2026 (UTC)
Italian official histories
[edit]In case anyone else didn't know, the Biblioteca Militari has been uploading the Italian official history on Archives.org eg [1] here.
Pen & Sword for Ancient Roman history
[edit]I've been conducting Talk:Siege of Auximus/GA1 (courtesy ping to nominator A.Cython) and also came across an older discussion regarding one of the sources here, conducted at the Classical Greece & Rome WikiProject. I am not particularly familiar with this topic area or publisher, and the author is unknown to me. Does anyone have any experience they can share with the general quality of this publisher in this topic area? My impression from reviewing the article is that the author follows Procopius maybe a bit too uncritically (see the asbestos vs. lime translation matter) but that it would be more of a high-quality RS for FA issue than the lower bar for GA. Hog Farm Talk 02:11, 29 January 2026 (UTC)
@Hog Farm and A.Cython: Pen and Sword is a British publishing company that has published many books on military history. See https://www.penandswordbooks.com/. Many of the books seem to be on very specific topics. At least the first two books in the following list are relatively short but have extensive footnotes and bibliographies. I have the following books published by Pen and Sword. I recognized some of the authors as having books published by other publishers as well. Septimius Severus & The Roman Army, The Knights Templar at War, 1120-1312, Yank and Rebel Rangers: Special Operations in the American Civil War, The War of the Spanish Succession, 1701-1714, Britain's Rise to Global Superpower in the Age of Napoleon, Sedan 1870: The Eclipse of France, Somme Success: The Royal Flying Corps and the Battle of the Somme 1916, Facing Armageddon: The First World War Experienced. The Great War in the Argonne Forest: French & American Battles, 1914-1918, Breaking Point of the French Army: The Nivelle Offensive of 1917, Artillery in the Great War, The Battle of Eisenborn (part of the Battle of the Bulge). I think that Pen & Sword can be considered a reputable publisher. Donner60 (talk) 06:44, 30 January 2026 (UTC)
For the record, I am not an expert on history, but from all the history books that I could gather (and still gathering) on the Gothic War (535–554), Ilkka Syvänne's book was the most instructive in the details of each of the battles/sieges that other historians skip all together or oversummarize, making impossible to develop these articles. He may not be the rising star in late antiquity military history, but his work (if I am not mistaken) was extension of his PhD and thus valid WP:RS. It was also the book that enjoyed reading most because he helped me in finding relevant literature and provided explanations to understand what was going on and why. Other historians failed to adequately explain their deviations from the primary source, i.e., Procopius. Most notable frustration was the army size of Goths during the Siege of Rome (537–538) bringing the 150,000 men all the way down to 20,000 with no really good argument; not to mention every historian gives a different number from 20,000 to 50,000 as if they play bingo (no offense); the more I read, the mess becomes worse than I originally thought. For the Siege of Auximus, I provide a specific example (see source) of how other historians summarize the siege (making very challenging to use such sources): Much of 539 was taken up in a war of attrition in which the Romans held the upper hand. The Goths, defending the strongholds of Auximum and Urbinum, were at the mercy of famine, and indeed the country dwellers, who had been prevented by the warring parties from planting crops the previous year, were reduced to extreme distress and starvation, described with chilling realism by Procopius. With staring eyes, jaundiced, their skin desiccated and furrowed by emaciation, 50,000 were estimated to have perished from hunger (Procopius, Bell. Goth. 6.20.23-33). The Roman troops were provisioned by supplies brought into Ancona (Procopius, Bell. Goth. 6.24.14). After a six-month siege Auximum and Faesulae capitulated and their garrisons defected to Belisarius, pledging loyalty to the emperor (Procopius, Bell. Goth. 6.27.25-34). This is not useful. The only secondary source that comes close in adequately describing the battles and sieges in the Gothic War is that of J. B. Bury, but he also skips details necessary in the narrative of the encounters and given it was written in 1923 one can say it is a little outdated. If anyone can direct to another book that does provide in detail all the battles/sieges of the Gothic War, I am happy to look at. A.Cython(talk) 03:04, 29 January 2026 (UTC) One more thing regarding the terminology "lime" vs "asbestos", Bury uses the term "quicklime" is related but distinct from lime. Now that I read more on the chemistry, it appears that Ian Hughes has made a minor mistake, because not all kinds of lime interact with water. So deviating from the primary source was a mistake. A.Cython(talk) 03:27, 29 January 2026 (UTC) I don't have much experience with Pen & Sword's ancient history titles, but the company is generally OK. The quality of its works can vary quite a bit, but they're professionally edited. Quite a few P&S books are written by people with deep expertise in the topic and some are by enthusiasts. From what I've seen, a lot of P&S ancient history works are on very specialist topics, so I'd suggest checking whether the author seems appropriately qualified to be writing about this and whether there are any particularly negative professional reviews. Nick-D (talk) 10:14, 29 January 2026 (UTC) I cannot talk about the publisher as I am not familiar with all of their books. But I can say that the particular book covering 6th century Roman/Byzantine military history is effectively an updated version of J. B. Bury books as both largely rely on the narrative set by Prokopius.- The author has several books and journal publications (Google scholar). He may not be in elite ranking of top international institutions but does not appear a quack either. He has several collaborations with other academics. Again nothing fancy but respectable from what I can tell.
- One of the (as it seems) professional reviews in Spanish says (translating the last paragraph):
- Another blog review for the book in question
- In a professional review of book belonging to a different author, Ilkka Syvänne is mentioned as an expert on military topics of late roman period.
- In a professional review, of book belonging to a different author, Ilkka Syvänne is cited as expert on Roman military topics (see note 3).
- Ilkka Syvänne has contributed a chapter in a multi-academic book on water, where he talked about the water supply of the roman army.
- In the following academic paper it states:
- One more case where Ilkka Syvänne is explicitly mentioned in an academic paper.
- Here the authors is explicitly mentioned in the main text of another academic journal. A.Cython(talk) 04:28, 30 January 2026 (UTC)
- One more academic article explicitly mention the author:
- Siege of Ariminum (538) (1375 words) is currently GA and it has some interest to the reader as it has unique story: beating a numerically superior besieging force without a fight. Though it is the smaller article of the four.
- Siege of Ravenna (539–540) (2042 words) currently GAN, it also has a unique plot twist: Belisarius refused the purple as a way to capture the city without a fight. At some point I want to write a "Scholarly assessment" section and summarize some comments by historians (unbroken loyalty to the emperor but disobeyed orders and also political consequences), so you may ignore this one...
- Siege of Auximus (2382 words) GA status since yesterday. Not the highlight of the Gothic War but it has some interesting aspects beyond the battle engagement itself.
- Battle of Taginae (2858 words) overhauled last week (probably the longest article of the child articles so far, but it might have some wriggles that need to be ironed first), I am planning to submit for B-class later today and then GAN.
Would anyone be able to help me confirm that the Charles Lodewick in this article is Charles Lodwik, Mayor of New York City from 1694 to 1695? Thanks, HKLionel TALK 10:10, 7 February 2026 (UTC)
Lamb, Martha Joanna (1877). History of the City of New York: The period prior to the Revolution, closing in 1774. A.S. Barnes. has the following in a discussion of events in New York in 1689 - Dumelow (talk) 19:07, 7 February 2026 (UTC) Oops, I did come across this source, must've missed the following sentence. The times and identities all match up, I'll link to Lodwik in the Rebellion article and the Lodwik article can be expanded using sources from the Rebellion article. Great, thanks for your help! HKLionel TALK 19:18, 7 February 2026 (UTC) The city militia consisted of six free companies called train-bands, embraced in a colonel's command ... Bayard was their colonel; and the six captains were Abraham De Peyster, Johannes De Bruyn, Gabriel Minvielle, Charles Lodwyck, Nicholas Stuyvesant, and Jacob Leisler ... Lodwyck was an English merchant and an old-time Whig of the deepest dye. He was a man of irreproachable character, and of no mean ability. Five years afterward he was elected mayor of the city. BTW, we have an article on trained bands. Alansplodge (talk) 20:19, 9 February 2026 (UTC) Yep, I linked to that in my edits. Thanks! HKLionel TALK 01:46, 10 February 2026 (UTC)Requested move at Talk:George VII of Georgia#Requested move 31 January 2026
[edit]There is a requested move discussion at Talk:George VII of Georgia#Requested move 31 January 2026 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Vestrian24Bio 14:25, 8 February 2026 (UTC)
What's wrong with my referencing?
[edit]I've just written an article on Bertrand Pierre Castex, which has been assessed against B-class criteria by MilHistBot. It comes up good for all areas except "Referencing and citation". The article is liberally peppered with references, all to RS, so I don't really see what more I need to do to get across the line to B-ness. I'd ask the reviewer, but it's a bot. Chuntuk (talk) 14:16, 9 February 2026 (UTC)
Hello Chuntuk, I'll have a look and comment on the article talk page. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 11:15, 10 February 2026 (UTC)Requested move at Talk:Rapid Action Battalion#Requested move 3 February 2026
[edit]There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Rapid Action Battalion#Requested move 3 February 2026 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. Vestrian24Bio 13:01, 10 February 2026 (UTC)
The article Christopher Bassford has been proposed for deletion because of the following concern:
I received an email from the subject asking for this to be deleted, without prejudice for an uninvolved, unpaid editor to write a new article.
You may prevent the proposed deletion by removing the {{proposed deletion/dated}} notice, but please explain why in your edit summary or on the article's talk page.
Please consider improving the page to address the issues raised. Removing {{proposed deletion/dated}} will stop the proposed deletion process, but other deletion processes exist. In particular, articles for deletion allows discussion to reach consensus for deletion based on established criteria.
If the proposed deletion has already been carried out, you may request undeletion of the article at any time. Bearian (talk) 13:08, 11 February 2026 (UTC)