Talk:61st Battalion (Australia)/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Hawkeye7 (talk) 10:01, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

1. Is it reasonably well written?

   A. Prose quality:

   B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and lists:

2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?

   A. References to sources:

   B. Citation of reliable sources where necessary:

   C. No original research:

3. Is it broad in its coverage?

   A. Major aspects:

   B. Focused:

4. Is it neutral?

   Fair representation without bias:

5. Is it stable?

   No edit wars, etc:

6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?

   A. Images are copyright tagged, and non-free images have fair use rationales:

   B. Images are provided where possible and appropriate, with suitable captions:

7. Overall:

   Pass or Fail:

Comments

1. Typos:
   • "the Battle of Milne Bay, which saw the Japanese defeated for the first time in a major a land battle"
   • "saw active service during the Second World War,... and then later during the Bougainville campaign" Consider deleting "then later", as it may appear to mean after the war.
     • I've reworded the lead to rectify these issues. How does it look now? AustralianRupert (talk) 11:24, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
2. " Following the end of the war, the 61st Battalion was disbanded on 12 December 1945." Are you sure? The War Memorial says 2 February 1946
   • This discrepancy is already explained in Footnote 6. I chose to go with 12 December 1945 as that is the date provided by James Watt who wrote the battalion's history and it seems more authoritative to me than the AWM source. It also more closely agrees with the disband date for the 7th Bde, which was disbanded on 8 December 1945 according Belham & Denham on p. 142 of their 7th Bde history. Nevertheless, I could tweak the wording in the prose if you want to say something like this: "was disbanded either in December 1945 or January 1946". AustralianRupert (talk) 10:58, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
     • No. I checked the War Diary, p. 71 The 8 January 1946 date is correct. Hawkeye7 (talk) 20:00, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
       • Ok, thanks for digging that out. I've changed it to 8 January 1946 as one would think that the War Diary would be definitive. I've tweaked the footnote to clarify the discrepancies. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
3. "However, following manpower shortages that occurred as a result of heavy losses amongst the Australian Corps on the Western Front in 1917" The Australian Corps was not formed until November 1917
   • Reworded, well spotted. AustralianRupert (talk) 11:24, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
4. "By this time the Australian government decided to bring the units of the 2nd AIF back from the Middle East to defend against a possible Japanese invasion of Australia, however, the only troops available to respond to the Japanese landings were units from the Militia." By this time (July 1942), the 7th Division and part of the 6th was back in Australia. There was also the 1st Armoured Division, and elements of the 8th Division and a few other units. Re-word.
   • I've tweaked the wording. What do you think now?
5. more to come... Hawkeye7 (talk) 10:01, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
   • Thanks for taking the time to review. I look forward to your subsequent comments. Cheers. AustralianRupert (talk) 11:24, 18 October 2010 (UTC)
6. "on Bougainville Island as Australian troops took over responsibility of the island from the American garrison which was being redeployed elsewhere in the Pacific" Actually XIV Corps with the 37th Infantry Division departed for Luzon in the Philippines in December 1944; the Americal Division was destined to remain on Bougainville until January 1945, when it moved to Leyte in the Philippines.
   • I'm not certain how to word this better so just removed the last clause. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:45, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
7. No alt text on the cap badge, the picture of Cameron, or the parade at Redbank
   • Added, but to be honest I don't know if what I've added for alt text it is really up to scratch. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
8. "Bougainville" is a dablink
   • Fixed. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
9. "Initially, the 7th Brigade, to which the battalion was attached, " Was it attached or assigned?
   • It should have been "assigned". Have changed this now. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
10. "the 61st Battalion took part in the advance inland from Jaba River through Mosina, Sisirua, and Mosigetta towards the Puriata River." A lot of locations here but the reader has no links and no map.
    • Most of these locations don't have pages yet and might never. I was a bit concerned about too many red links, to be honest. I've added in a link for Jaba River and can add redlinks for the others if you think it necessary. Additionally, I've added in the map from the Battle of Slater's Knoll article that SpoolWhippets was kind enough to do on request a while back. How does it look now? AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
11. Link HMAS Westralia
    • Done. Not sure why I didn't do that in the first place. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
12. Can we change Victoria barracks to "Victoria Barracks, Brisbane" as the reader may infer the one in Sydney or Melbourne?
    • Good point. Done. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
13. "many examples of similar inconsistencies such as this that bare no explanation" should be bear.
    • Embarrassing. Fixed. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:08, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
14. Footnote 5 is important enough that it should be in the main text, ie that the 61st battalion became an AIF unit.
    • I agree, but unfortunately I'm not sure of the date that this occured as Johnston just provides a numerical list and Watt didn't seem to mention it, so I am uncertain as to where exactly in the prose to state it. AustralianRupert (talk) 09:45, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
15. Any idea who won the DSOs, the MCs, the MMs and where?
    • Meldrum received a DSO for Milne Bay, and the other was awarded to Charles Bicks.[1] I've mentioned them in the prose now, but am concerned that listing all of the others might unbalance the article (having said that, I don't really have much details about the other awards so I probably can't provide much in this regard, unfortunately). AustralianRupert (talk) 09:45, 19 October 2010 (UTC)

Cheers Hawkeye7 (talk) 20:00, 18 October 2010 (UTC)

• Thanks for the thorough review. AustralianRupert (talk) 10:28, 19 October 2010 (UTC)