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373:- If you see a bit of military hardware drive, fly or sail past, or walk by a military installation, take its photo and then find out what it is and if there's an article on it. If there isn't and the topic is notable, the photo will give you a head start with creating an interesting article. Museums and exhibitions are a great source of photogenic material (one tip is to photograph the item of interest and then the item's display/information card as well - it makes identifying and researching the subject much easier).
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no further opportunities for article creation. The following article outlines my experiences in finding new topics for military history articles in the last few years and areas where I think fairly easy opportunities for article creation remain. I've focused on World War II in the examples only as this is the area I'm most familiar with; similar opportunities exist for many other military history related topics.
192:- We have surprisingly few articles on many important topics. For example, there are few articles on the role women have played in the military and I've got no doubt that the distribution of articles in the English-language Knowledge is slanted towards topics which have involved English-speaking people (for instance, the coverage of ships and notable military units from non-English speaking countries is patchy)
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240:- Knowledge provides a good opportunity to highlight topics which have historically been under-emphasised. For example, as most accounts of the Pacific War emphasise the ferocity of the combat I'd always assumed that few Japanese soldiers had surrendered. When I looked into the topic it turned out that as many as 50,000 surrendered during the war, leading me to create the
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A common explanation for the decreasing number of new articles being created is that most of the obvious topics have now been taken. While it is certainly true that articles on all the major military history topics have been started (in most cases several years ago), that doesn't mean that there are
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are most relevant for military history topics). In short, these guidelines require the existence of "significant coverage in reliable secondary sources" before an article can be created and for the topic to not violate any of the categories at
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is an excellent example of an article tracing how something changed over time. Similar articles could be developed for many long-standing military organisations and there is a large literature on this topic.
279:- There's a massive amount of literature on how military units have been supplied across history, but few Knowledge articles on the topic. It would be easy to write an article on a topic such as
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273:- Many 'routine' wartime events such as contested convoys and major air raids have received considerable coverage in specialised sources which can easily be used to support articles.
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Several pages on the topic in more than one book (the number of pages needed to support a good-quality article can be surprisingly small if the 'density' of the information is high)
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are good examples of articles on an important part of a larger topic. There's also lots of scope to create articles on notable variants of various important weapons systems -
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379:- Think of any questions you'd like answered, and see if Knowledge has an article which provides the answer. If not, you can research the topic and start the article.
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Depite what's sometimes claimed, finding new topics for articles is still much easier than building a bridge during an Afghan summer while wearing full body armour
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and the professional journals most western militaries now publicly publish are particularly useful in this regards.
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The main determinant of whether something is 'article worthy' is if it meets the criteria set out in the guideline
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Military history/Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific military history task force#To-do
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Several non-related news stories in different major media outlets about a person, organisation or event over time
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is a very good example of a high-quality article on a major military operation which involved almost no combat.
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article. Most of the
African civil wars of the twentieth century and before are horrendously undercovered, eg
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Taking the above into account, what are some opportunities for new articles? My suggestions are as follows:
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309:- Yes they still do exist. For instance, coverage of the battles fought in the last 12 months of the
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General guidance on indicators of notability for military history-related topics is available at
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If you have written an editorial or essay that you think may be appropriate for
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level of sourcing which is required to support an article are as follows:
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Read detailed accounts of topics and specialised military publications
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363:- I've created articles on topics I've picked at random from the
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Some strategies which I've used to find new article topics are:
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Knowledge:WikiProject
Military history/Notability guide
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to the project coordinators for possible publication.
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Military exercises and operations not involving combat
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Opportunities for new military history articles, by
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144:Knowledge:Notability (organizations and companies)
281:British logistical support for the Burma campaign
421:WikiProject Military history newsletter articles
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138:and the various subsidiary guidelines (of which
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367:and books taken from the shelves in libraries.
224:Early life and military career of John McCain
228:Wehrmacht forces for the Ardennes Offensive
242:Japanese prisoners of war in World War II
214:Structural history of the Roman military
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18:Knowledge:WikiProject Military history
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190:Under-represented topics
59:: Issue LIII (July 2010)
210:The evolution of things
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200:Horses in World War I
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307:Missing major topics
256:Second-level battles
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341:Look for red links
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69:Project news
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311:Pacific War
65:Front page
57:Newsletter
406:submit it
402:The Bugle
345:red links
277:Logistics
264:June 2002
81:Editorial
46:Editorial
415:Category
301:WP:NBOOK
73:Articles
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347:around.
160:minimum
77:Members
371:Photos
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