Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/Battle of Morotai

Battle of Morotai

This obscure battle of World War II has a confusing historiography. While the US official histories state that the island was occupied with little fighting and the Japanese were unable to bring in reinforcements, other books, including the history of one of the US Army division's involved and a Japanese account complied under US Army supervision, record that thousands of Japanese reinforcements were landed, and the battle's heaviest fighting occurred after the island was declared secure. I would appreciate other editors' views on how well I have covered this confusion and any suggestions on how to advance the article towards A-class standard. Nick-D (talk) 01:39, 31 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Jim Sweeney

Comment In the Allied landings section On 22 September a Japanese force attacked the headquarters of the 1st Battalion, 167th Infantry Regiment but was easily repulsed have you a source for this statement ?

Just had a quick glance and will return later --Jim Sweeney (talk) 11:15, 1 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

It should be on page 130 of General Krueger's memoirs. I don't have a copy of it at the moment, so I can't double check this. I'll see if I can borrow it from the library tomorrow. Nick-D (talk) 08:01, 2 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

I can. It's there, in the first paragraph on the page. Hawkeye7 (talk) 21:54, 4 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Cla68

I like putting additional details, such as the wikilinked names of major ships involved and perhaps some of the smaller unit commander names, in the footnotes, but that's up to you of course.
If you have the time and info some of the red links probably should be started as stubs.
Were the Americans surprised to encounter as much resistance as they did in the January 1945 action? It appears that if they believed that the island was effectively blockaded that they wouldn't have been expecting to find so many Japanese troops remaining on the island. Or did they have intel that there was a sizeable amount of Japanese troops remaining?

It appears that the 33rd Division's regiment was specifically brought in to deal with a Japanese regiment. I'll expand this.

How were the Japanese reinforcements delivered to the island? By barge and small craft?

Yep - I've just added this

Where did the Japanese air attacks originate from?

Ceram and the Celebes - I've just added this

How many Japanese were still alive on the island at the end of the war? How many of them surrendered?

I'll see if I can find this out.

The two map images from Reports of MacArthur are probably of high enough quality that they could be nominated for Featured Image and have a fair shot at passing.
I'm checking my copy of the book Kogun right now which gives the Japanese reaction to the Allied Morotai landings and will try to add something to the article about that. Otherwise, I think you've done a good job at detailing what happened on the island from the sources available. Cla68 (talk) 02:32, 3 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks - any additional information would be fantastic. Nick-D (talk) 10:32, 3 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Patar knight

A few comments:

In the introduction you use a primarily US-based phrase (WWII), and then Commonwealth date systems (15 September). The choice of US vs. Commonwealth should stay consistent within the article, and should be based on what nationality the majority of the Allied troops were from.
Watch your comma use, especially when using a dependent clause followed by an independent clause.
"10 destroyer escorts" should be "ten destroyer escorts"
In the "Allied landings" section, there's only one internal link (to coral reef), and there could be far more relevant links (e.g. Units, military terms)

A good article, just needs more sources for some claims. Hope that helped, --Patar knight - ^chat/_{contributions} 02:45, 3 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, I'll take those comments on board. Nick-D (talk) 10:49, 3 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Hawkeye7

I like this one!

There were 82 air raids between September 1944 and February 1945, but the Japanese airfields on Halmahera were gradually suppressed and the last raid occurred on 22 March 1945. The raid on 22 November 1945 was pretty notable in that 42 aircraft were destroyed. [Craven & Cate, Matterhorn to Nagasaki, pp. 315-316]
I ~~might~~ would have said more about the development of the base.

Thanks. I'd like to say more about the development of the base as well - I'll see what sources I can dig up on this. Nick-D (talk) 22:19, 4 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

You want Casey, Airfield and Base Development. Hawkeye7 (talk) 12:32, 5 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]