The following is an archived discussion of a featured article nomination. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the article's talk page or in Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates. No further edits should be made to this page.

The article was promoted by SandyGeorgia 20:04, 12 December 2009 [1].

Battle of Morotai[edit]

Nominator(s): Nick-D (talk) 01:09, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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This article on a small but strategically significant battle of World War II was peer reviewed in February and passed a Military History project A class review in March. It has since been further improved by myself and a number of other editors (including, but not limited to, User:Cla68 and User:Ian Rose) and I think that it now meets the FA criteria. Nick-D (talk) 01:09, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Technical comments

--an odd name 01:27, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

  • Thanks for those comments. I've re-written the alt text for the maps to describe what they depict as you suggest - does this now look OK? Nick-D (talk) 01:39, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • The alts are all good now. --an odd name 01:53, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Anyway, well done and thanks for your contribution. — AustralianRupert (talk) 04:08, 21 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

In short, because there is no source which provides anything approaching a comprehensive number of casualties during the fighting between September 1944 and August 1945 (the period covered by the article). I've mentioned the casualty numbers for the periods where these are available in the article's text. I removed the casualties section from the infobox in July (leaving a note at Talk:Battle of Morotai) and no-one has either complained or provided a sourced figure. Nick-D (talk) 05:42, 22 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

CommentFifelfoo (talk) 00:02, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

2c:
Please supply original publication date: 31st Infantry Division (1993 (reprint)).
Done
Please supply publication location for all presses (eg Infantry Journal Press. )
Done
For non standard document identifiers please name the identification system (eg 6429367X.; ASIN B000ID3YRK.)
Converted to ISBNs
Chapter in book? Book in series? Help us out, make it more explicit (and generally, chuck [Series] behind series names which don't contain the word series]): Long, Gavin (1963). The Final Campaigns. Australia in the War of 1939–1945. Series 1 – Army. Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
I've included the series name in the 'series' section of the appropriate citation templates. Chapters are displayed quite differently, so there shouldn't be any confusion.
1c:
Seriously concerned that Willoughby is a primary source (as its MacArthur's reports) and being used to substantiate facts (Willoughby, Charles A. (editor in chief) (1966). Japanese Operations in the Southwest Pacific Area Volume II – Part I. Reports of General MacArthur. )
The book was actually written by ex-Japanese Army officers and is pretty much the only source of information on the Japanese experiences in this battle (the 1994 introduction to the book states, correctly, that it's a "unique Japanese version of their operations in the Southwest Pacific that remains one of the few English-language descriptions of Imperial Army campaigns during World War II"). It's been used in other FAs such as Landing at Nadzab and Take Ichi convoy as well as A class articles including Admiralty Islands campaign, Battle of Kaiapit, Battle of Wau, Landing at Saidor and Landing at Nadzab. Nick-D (talk) 07:07, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
I've never considered these to be primary documents. They were created from the monographs, a set of 200 odd accounts written by ex-Japanese Army officers. These are hard to find but there are microfilm copies in the National Library, War Memorial, and ADFA. Some were written from memory but others were compiled from orders and diaries and therefore are more like secondary documents. There are very few sources from the Japanese side, as so much documentation was destroyed during retreats and by Allied action, and there were few survivors of many important actions. Hawkeye7 (talk) 08:32, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Note that there is nothing wrong with using primary sources in the Wikipedia to substantiate facts. Hawkeye7 (talk) 08:32, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Please explain how you've exhausted sources, especially contemporary ones and recent scholarship? Fifelfoo (talk) 00:02, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
As Hawkeye7 notes, there is no single history which covers this battle from its inception in September 1944 until the end of the war; most sources cover either the first few weeks of the battle, the development of the Allied base or the fighting in early 1945. As a result, I've pieced the story together by consulting dozens of works (some useful, some not) in two major university libraries, including one which claims to have the best military history collection in the southern hemisphere and a focus on the Pacific War, and the National Library of Australia. There isn't really any 'recent scholarship' on this topic; Stephen R. Taafe's 1998 book was the most recent I could find that had a chapter or more on the topic (and he only covered the landing). I'm confident that I've consulted every significant work concerning on the battle and believe that the diverse references I've used in the article speak for themselves in this regards. Nick-D (talk) 07:07, 23 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for that. Nick-D (talk) 07:51, 25 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Support – Great read, well-written and meets all FA standards. Just found a couple of picky comments, which I'll quickly mention:

  • Thanks for your comments, I've just made those changes. Nick-D (talk) 02:57, 6 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Image review: Images good. File:Landing craft 017615.jpg, File:US troops landing into deep water Morotai 017591.jpg, File:Wama airstrip April 1945 OG1934.jpg, and File:Japanese surrender party Morotai.jpg are all in the public domain if their country of origin is Australia; since the AWM seems to think that they're in the public domain, I can accept that they are indeed of Australian origin. However, the tagging should be improved: rather than simply stating that they're in the public domain because the AWM says so, it should state that they're in the public domain in Australia because they are photographs taken before January 1, 1955, and that they are in the public domain in the United States because they were in the public domain in the country of origin on January 1, 1996. Everything else looks good. Steve Smith (talk) 09:22, 6 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that. I've replaced the tags with ((PD-Australia)) Nick-D (talk) 09:45, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks. That tag is actually problematic, since it claims that the image was created in Australia (which these obviously were not), but the problems with the tag are probably beyond the scope of this FAC, so I'm marking image concerns as resolved. As an FYI, I've raised issues with the template here. Steve Smith (talk) 07:36, 8 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Comments, mainly minor prose issues. I haven't had time yet to look at the final couple of sections but will do so. Can I say that in general I concur with the positive comments in this FAC review - this is clearly a comprehensive and well-researched article.

  • Done.
    • Done
    • Done
    • I don't agree - the date for the landing on Morotai was set so the Pacific Fleet could simultaneously protect both operations. I've tweaked the wording so it's clear that the timetable allowed the fleet's main body to, in effect, do two things at the same time.
    • Done
    • Done
    • Yeah, but the combination of written and numeric numbers in prose looks rather odd, and writing the numbers seems to be the least-worst solution in this instance.
  • Done
    • It's not really very relevant to this battle (as it involved a submarine which happened to be transiting the area being attacked by anti-submarine aircraft operating from carriers which departed the area the next day) so I didn't want to spend too much time on it.
    • Tweaked to avoid this.
    • Tweaked. HMS Ariadne had no role in the landing at Morotai (which was conducted by the US and Australian forces as described by the article).
      • Understood, but if the occupation of the Asia Islands is seen as part of the Battle of Morotai, then some explanation of the British presence should be given. Brianboulton (talk) 10:57, 8 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I will try to complete my prose review soon. Brianboulton (talk) 17:14, 7 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

A few final comments

Most of these are pretty minor matters. I have also done a few small tweaks myself. Competent work (yours, not mine!) Brianboulton (talk) 01:18, 10 December 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this page.
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