User talk:Abraham, B.S.

Welcome!

Frank Hubert McNamara‎ & William Ellis Newton

Hi mate, did you have any special plans for these articles in the near future, given your interest in VCs?! I was going to take a little breather from Chiefs of the Air Staff and get these guys to B/GA class some time in the next month or so... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 09:25, 5 December 2008 (UTC)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXXIII (November 2008)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: The Bugle Issue XXXIII (November 2008)
Project news The Lebanese military history task force has been created. The recent promotion of Tom Crean (explorer) brings the number of featured articles within the scope of the Military History Project to 300. Following a lengthy discussion, a new section - Personal libraries - has been added to the Logistics Department. The aim is to make sourcing and citation checking easier by sharing information about editors' personal book holdings. If you have half an hour to spare, why add a list of your Milhist reference books?	Articles of note New featured articles: Battle of Lipantitlán Battle of Khafji Richard Williams (RAAF officer) Tom Crean Third Battle of Kharkov SS Mauna Loa SS Montanan SS Ohioan (1914) USS Constitution New featured lists: List of Knight's Cross recipients of the Schnellboot service New A-Class articles: 13th Airborne Division (United States) Alaska class battlecruiser Edmund Herring Revolt of the Comuneros Rheinmetall 120 mm gun SS Black Osprey Stanley Goble Tanks in the Spanish Army
Current proposals and discussions Adoption of C-class remains firmly on the Milhist agenda with discussions approaching their fifth month of debate. More views are sought on this. What is a Pyrrhic victory? There's an interesting and lively discussion on this here. (And the short answer is: follow what the sources say.) Can you design logos? We're looking for a snappy new logo to go with the new title of the newsletter. See the ideas so far at the newsletter workshop.
Awards and honors The Contest department has completed its twentieth month of competition, which saw a record 78 entries. The top scorer this month is Bellhalla with 143 points, followed by Catalan with 42 points. Georgejdorner, Ian Rose, Abraham, B.S., the_ed17, Skinny87, Rosiestep, ERcheck, David Underdown and Gaia Octavia Agrippa also fielded entries. Bellhalla remains the overall leader with 481 points in total. The Chevrons go to Bellhalla and Catalan gets the Writer's Barnstar. You are encouraged to submit any articles you are working on as entries.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.

This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 15:50, 6 December 2008 (UTC)

200 GAs for WP Australia

Hi Bryce. WP Australia is now within striking range of 200 GAs. Last year we had 82 GAs at the start of December and managed to rattle off 24 in one month and got the century up by the end of the year. This year we are again in striking range with 178 GAs, so we are trying at WP:AWNB to strive for 200 by the end of the year or Australia Day. Well, seeing as you have been heaps active recently with the ADF bios, I guess, you would be a trump card in the drive. I hope you join us. YellowMonkey (bananabucket) 01:43, 9 December 2008 (UTC)

Military career of Keith Miller photographs

Hi YellowMonkey, I was having a browze through through the above article you nominated for GA, and was woundering if the Australian War Memorial online collections database had any photos of Miller during the Second World War. Sure enough, I found a few after a bit of a search and thought that you might be interested. The ID numbers are:

• SUK14661
• P02218.001
• UK2968
• UK2970
• SUK14459
• SUK14491
• SUK14519
• SUK14520
• SUK14525
• SUK14643
• SUK14645
• SUK14649
• SUK14650
• P02218.004
• SUK14375
• SUK14529
• SUK11623

Well, I hope you find this interesting and/or perhaps helpful. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 11:11, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

P.S. the AWM also has an brief article on Miller here. Abraham, B.S. (talk) 11:11, 12 December 2008 (UTC)

Ah thanks, did you spot any oddities about the military stuff that might seem a bit suspicious. The author of that book is very sloppy so I had to fix up some of the cricket info data. Unfortunately, the UK photos go under the 70-year rule so we can't use any of them. YellowMonkey (bananabucket) 04:05, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I havn't had a good read of the prose, but I bet the information should be fine. Also, it was my understanding that any photo contained in the Australian War Memorial collections would come under either A or E of PD Australia if they were produced before the appropiate dates. If so, the above images should be fine. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 05:01, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Well, yeah, for photos in Australia, then it would be ok if it was pre-1955 regardless, but I thought photos taken in England were 70 years after the photographer died. Or is there some loophole somehwere? The photos are basically all from the Victory Test in England in 1945 or his air base in the UK. YellowMonkey (bananabucket) 05:19, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Heinrich Bär

Thanks for your constructive feedback. Please note that I am not a native English speaking person. Having, said that I encourage/ask you to make possible correction directly in the article. Again thanks for helping out here. 08:13, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your offer! I made some changes to the early part of his career as well as his after the war life. I would appreciate if you gave the article a thorough rub down in these areas. MisterBee1966 (talk) 09:03, 15 December 2008 (UTC)

I think that the majority of the issues have been addressed. Could you please have another look and let me know what you think now? ThanksMisterBee1966 (talk) 03:36, 16 December 2008 (UTC)

I think I fixed the sentence. Thanks for all your help on this. MisterBee1966 (talk) 13:27, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

WikiProject Australia newsletter,December 2008

The December 2008 issue of the WikiProject Australia newsletter has been published. You may read the newsletter, change the format in which future issues will be delivered to you, or unsubscribe from this notification by following the link. This message was delivered by TinucherianBot (talk) 06:57, 17 December 2008 (UTC)

Pedler Palmer

Hi -

I have noted your interest in Australian Mil history by your edits to James_Ramsay_(Australian_governor). I am interested in that article also.

More that that - have a look at Pedlar Palmer, I have both the books listed as references and he was quite a gent. Departed Sydney at about your age on a sailing ship for ports all over the world. If you can improve this article --- it would be great. He was quite an Australian - who nearly died fighting for the Brits!. I can tell you a lot about him but documenting it (except by his own books) will be harder.

Regards, Ariconte (talk) 04:13, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Re

Hi there, sorry for that, yesterday evening I had to leave unexpectedly, so I wasn't able to complete the closure of that ACR. Thanks for dealing with it! I'll have look and see if everything's done properly. Cheers, --Eurocopter (talk) 12:25, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Re ce request

No problems, always a pleasure. I'll add it to the list (just when I thought I was getting through it too!) EyeSerene^talk 09:59, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Peer Review of Walter Oesau

Hello There!

I appreciate you taking time out to comment on this article. I have incorporated all the review points you had mentioned. So if you were planning on going over it again you may do so. I know I could take it through B class. But importantly what I'd like to know is, given its current material, will it pass the muster of GA-3 (Broad in its coverage) at all. I know I severely lack personal information, but does Wikipedia mandates such information for GA-3 Criteria ? Please let me know. Thanks once again. Perseus71 (talk) 20:24, 22 December 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. I am afraid, there's a lot of personal information out there that I can't quote for lack of Primary references. Likewise I am told there are primary references that I don't have access to. I believe as to the professional information, that's all there is out there that I could see. So the question then becomes, based on the professional information given in the article, what are its chances of passing the GA-3 criteria ? Appreciate your time. Thanks Perseus71 (talk) 14:26, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

Ha!

Now you see my sore Point! I for the life of me was not able to find even that! Its something to do with his flying style. That's all I know. :( Appreciate your time though. Perseus71 (talk) 02:07, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Military Biography

I stumbled across Richard Nelson Gale and noted it's appalling state, and though I'm doing a few articles at the moment I thought I'd stretch myself even further and add more to my workload! When I thought 'Military Biography', I naturally thought of you and your fine work. So, can you help me - what's a good structure for a military biography? Skinny87 (talk) 19:26, 23 December 2008 (UTC)

+cats

Well done.
Meanwhile, Merry Xmas, and wishing you a Happy New Year, and Best Wishes for a successful and minimum-stress Year 12.
(My eldest daughter has just survived it with no noticable permanent ill-effects.)
Have you some ideas on what you want to do at Uni? Which Uni? Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 14:49, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

Hi Pdf, thank you for the very kind comments. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you as well. I have a few ideas at what uni I would like to attend, but I have already decided on a Bachelor of Arts degree in modern history. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 23:00, 27 December 2008 (UTC)

I can not express any surprise that you are planning a Bachelor of Arts degree in modern history ;-) I expect that you would thoroughly enjoy it and do very well.
Good luck with Year 12! Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 04:01, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Redirects

Hey there hows it going. I noticed you have changed a few articles infoboxes to reflect United States of America vice United States|United States of America. Is there a reason why you are doing that. It is creating unecessary redirects. Also, when using AWB to look at a group of articles its easier to look at United States, rather than try and determine all of the different possible combinations of the US. (I.e. US, USA, United States, United States of America, etc).--Kumioko (talk) 20:06, 30 December 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the comments and I know of the rule you pointed out however that rule has existed since WP had only a few thousand pages and way before the creation of AWB. Although I understand that it seems unnecessary, there are couple reasons why I do it. 1) To provide standardization to the articles, 2) to make it easier to pull in a group of articles as mentioned above. To illustrate this better here is a breakdown of some of the common ones I have found.

• over 25000 articles that link to United States
• 16708 to United States of America
• over 25000 to USA
• 2565 to US
• 4106 to U.S.
• 1434 to U.S.A

so when we that use AWB or some other application want to scan through these we have to try and guess at all the combinations. Therefore making it say United States makes much more sense.--Kumioko (talk)

Happy New Year!

MisterBee1966 (talk) 16:15, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

It's still last year here - just. Pdfpdf (talk) 13:31, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

Oh. No it isn't. Pdfpdf (talk) 13:32, 31 December 2008 (UTC)

abbreviation vs expansion

I was on Russ Shalders page and noticed this edit. I've noticed you do similar things before. I was wondering why you prefer the expanded version of the rank over the abbreviation?
(I'm not unhappy about the change - somewhat indifferent, actually. I was just wondering ... )
Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 05:19, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Hi Pdf. I prefer the expanded variant as it looks more formal and professional. To me, the abbreviation just looks a little too messy and informal. I just went around a little while ago and made edits on several former and present senior ADF personnel in an attempt to make the succession boxes uniform. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 05:29, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

"Hi Pdf." - Hi Bryce
"I prefer the expanded variant as it looks more formal and professional. To me, the abbreviation just looks a little too messy and informal." - I'm not sure about the informal, but I agree that the "all capitals" convention used by the ADF looks messy - in my opinion, the British "LtGen" and "MajGen" looks much neater than the Oz "LTGEN" and "MAJGEN".
(By-the-way, had you noticed that the British have changed usage from "Major–General" to "Major General"?)
"I just went around ... " - Yes, I had noticed. Big job! Very diligent (and patient) of you to stick with it and complete it.
Thanks for the reply. Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 05:53, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

linked ranks

Regarding edits like this one, why did you decide to delink (unlink?) the ranks?
Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 06:56, 1 January 2009 (UTC)
(P.S. Reply here if it's easier for you - I have this page, and 2,500 others, on my watchlist.)

It is best not to over link, and in most cases the ranks in the succession boxes are already linked in the article. Also, it looks less attractive when the name is linked in conjunction with the person's name and creates (in my opinion) an unnecessary blue line. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 07:08, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Ta Pdfpdf (talk) 07:34, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

forced line breaks

BTW: Some people use windows that are A4-portrait size and shape; That's why there were line breaks between the rank and the person's name. With the line breaks removed, the line wraps in unpredictable places (i.e. where it wraps depends on how wide the reader's window is), and the result can be "less attractive". e.g.

Lieutenant General

Sir Arthur MacDonald

looks more attractive than

Lieutenant General Sir Arthur

MacDonald

(Even when they're centered, the first still looks better than the second.)
However, given that you've already done it to so many pages, ...
Well, it's time to go under the house and do the annual white-ant inspection.
(Sometimes I think I'd prefer to rent than own!)
Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 06:56, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

The Hassett article was the only article that used the line breaks, and they were placed there by me as a compromise between the full rank and an abbreviation. I would prefer not to change it as all other succession boxes are presented in the same mannor (not just the ADF ones). Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 07:14, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Agreed. Cheers, Pdfpdf (talk) 07:35, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Reviews

Just letting you know that I put Percy Shaw Jeffrey up for both a WP:BIO and GA reviews. Seeing as though you did the original start class rating, I thought you might be interested.20:39, 1 January 2009 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jarry1250 (talk • contribs)

Milhist writing contest

		The Writer's Barnstar
		For placing second, with 32 points, Milhist writing contest for the month of December, I award you the writer's barnstar. Well done, Woody (talk) 02:08, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Happy New Year!

Dear Abraham, B.S., I hope you had a wonderful New Year's Day, and that 2009 brings further success and happiness! ~ YellowMonkey (bananabucket) 04:10, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks again for all the FAs and GAs. A good read. Here is some fuel from my tree to keep you firing in the new year! All the best for Yr 12. YellowMonkey (bananabucket) 04:10, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

RE: Moro River Campagin GAN

Hey, Kirrages & I have dealt with several of the issues brought up in Prose, MoS & Neutrality. Feel free to check back in. One minor note, however - I'm currently away from my primary book collection (as I'm currently skiing;), and as such won't be able to address the "factual accuracy" or "broad in coverage" issues until Monday, January 5 (Australia-time, that is). If addressing them takes longer than expected, it is because I am not at my book-collection - my apologies. Cam ^(Chat) 05:29, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Alright, We've addressed everything in the "Neutrality" section, the majority of the issues in "Well-Written", and all the issues in "Images". Would you be able to check back in so that we can know what we still have to do? Cam ^(Chat) 19:01, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

Alright, I think Kirrages & I have everything dealt with. Cam ^(Chat) 02:21, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

There we go. All done. Cam ^(Chat) 04:56, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

Done. Cam ^(Chat) 05:00, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

John Whittle

Oops, sorry about that. I try to avoid that as often as possible, but I guess I was careless in this case. --Closedmouth (talk) 04:45, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Phil Lamason

Appreciate your help with this article. PS, I was also born on 10 September, although several years earlier. Regards, Spy007au (talk) 14:57, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

Lol. You're welcome. Always nice to meet a fellow virgo, and one interested in military history to boot. Cheers, Abraham, B.S. (talk) 15:02, 5 January 2009 (UTC)

London Gazette url has changed

The Gazette have just completely changed their url scheme, the basic search page is now at http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/search, I've just updated the template so everything should keep working, but you may need to force a purge of your cache to see the updated version, and if you spot any problems this may be the reason. For reference, the notarchive= parameter is no longer required. David Underdown (talk) 17:25, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

DYK for Percy Statton

On January 9, 2009, Did you know? was updated with a fact from the article Percy Statton, which you created or substantially expanded. If you know of another interesting fact from a recently created article, then please suggest it on the Did you know? talk page.

--Dravecky (talk) 05:54, 9 January 2009 (UTC)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter : Issue XXXIV (December 2008)

The Military history WikiProject Newsletter: The Bugle Issue XXXIV (December 2008)
Project news Appearing on the main page on 8 December 2008, Ivan Castro's DYK drew 71,300 page views in a single day - now the all-time high for DYK views. As a result of the 2008 Arbitration Committee elections, Lead Coordinator Roger Davies is the fourth coordinator of the project to be appointed to the Arbitration Committee. The others are Kirill Lokshin (2007-2009), FayssalF (2008-2010) and YellowMonkey (2007-2008). This month saw 14 military history-related articles promoted to featured status, the highest number for a single month since the project's establishment in October 2002. Congratulations all round!	Articles of note New featured articles: 13th Airborne Division (United States) 2nd Canadian Infantry Division Action of 13 January 1797 Akutan Zero AMX-30 Arena Active Protection System Blair Anderson Wark British Empire Frederick III, German Emperor Phan Dinh Phung Rheinmetall 120 mm gun SS Dakotan SS Washingtonian Tanks in the Spanish Army New featured lists: Timeline of the Adriatic campaign, 1807–1814 New featured topics: Spanish Tanks New A-Class articles: Battle of Salamis Bruce Kingsbury Four Freedoms (Norman Rockwell) George Ingram Jagdgeschwader 1 (World War II) John Whittle Lexington class battlecruiser Maryland and Virginia Rifle Regiment SM U-5 (Austria-Hungary) Tetrarch (tank) USS Iowa turret explosion Zanzibar Revolution
Current proposals and discussions Design competition Editors with design skills urgently needed to design an eyecatching logo for this newsletter. The logo needs to incorporate a bugle motif as well as the newsletter's title, "The Bugle". Fame and honour (a barnstar) guaranteed for the successful design. Submit entries here please. Who will be the three "2008 Military historians of the Year"? There are 13 candidates so far and the number is rising rapidly. The winning editors will receive the Gold, Silver and Bronze Wikis; and all other nominees the WikiProject barnstar. To nominate editors you admire, or to cast your votes, please visit here! A new drive has been started to identify the core topics of World War I with the aim of improving their quality before the centenary of the start of World War I in 2014. A discussion is underway regarding flag icons and whether to rewrite the current guidelines to reflect the Manual of Style.
Awards and honors Bellhalla has been awarded the Milhist A-Class medal for three ship-related articles: SS Black Osprey, SS Mauna Loa, and SM U-5 (Austria-Hungary). JonCatalán has been awarded the Milhist A-Class medal for Battle of Khafji, Rheinmetall 120 mm gun, and AMX-30. The Contest department has completed its twenty first month of competition, which saw 58 entries. The top scorer this month is Bellhalla with 113 points followed by Abraham, B.S. with 32 points. Ed!, Chamal_N, JonCatalan, Skinny87, Rosiestep, the_ed17, David Underdown, Maralia and Terrakyte also fielded entries. Bellhalla remains the overall leader with 594 points in total. The Chevrons go to Bellhalla and Abraham, B.S. gets the Writer's Barnstar. You are encouraged to submit any articles you are working on as entries.
To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please list yourself in the appropriate section here.

This has been an automated delivery by BrownBot (talk) 01:54, 10 January 2009 (UTC)

Triple Crown

Your majesty, it gives me great pleasure to bestow the Triple Crown upon Abraham, B.S. for your contributions in the areas of WP:DYK, WP:GA, and WP:FC. Cirt (talk) 04:12, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for contributions to the project, Great work, especially on Harry Murray - quite a well done, well cited piece. May you wear the crowns well. Cirt (talk) 04:12, 11 January 2009 (UTC)

Well done!

		The WikiProject Barnstar
		For your extensive contributions to the Military history WikiProject, as evidenced by your nomination in the 2008 "Military Historian of the Year" awards, I am delighted to present you with this WikiProject Barnstar --ROGER DAVIES talk 03:55, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Thanks! Abraham, B.S. (talk) 08:14, 12 January 2009 (UTC)

Well deserved ACM

		The Milhist A-Class medal
		For prolific work on Clarence Smith Jeffries, George Ingram and John Whittle, between October and December 2008, please accept the A-class medal from the WP:MILHIST coordinators. Congratulations and keep up the good work! JonCatalán(Talk) 16:52, 12 January 2009 (UTC)