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Welcome to the Military history WikiProject! We are a group of Wikipedia editors that work on topics related to military history, theory, and practice.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them on our discussion page, through our IRC channel (#wikipedia-en-milhist), or by contacting the project coordinators directly.

What do we do?

Our goal is to build the foremost free-content encyclopedia of military history in the English language by:

  • Creating, improving, and maintaining articles that describe all aspects of military history;
  • Providing guidelines and recommendations for editors of military history articles; and
  • Serving as the central point of discussion for all issues related to military history in Wikipedia.

We are currently working towards four major milestones:

Military history WikiProject Main project page + talk News & open tasks Academy Core work areas Assessment Main page  → A-Class FAQ  → B-Class FAQ  → A-Class review requests  → Assessment requests  → Current statistics  → Review alert box Contests Main page  → Contest entries  → Scoring log archive  → Scoreboard archive Coordination Main page + talk  → Handbook  → Bugle newsroom talk  → ACM eligibility tracking  → Discussion alert box Incubator Main page  → Current groups and initiatives Special projects Majestic Titan talk Member affairs Membership Full list talk  → Active / Inactive  → Userboxes Awards Main page talk  →A-Class medals  →A-Class crosses  → WikiChevrons w/ Oak Leaves Resources Guidelines Content Notability Style Templates Infoboxes  → Command structure doc · talk  → Firearm cartridge doc · talk  → Military award doc · talk  → Military conflict doc · talk  → Military installation doc · talk  → Military memorial doc · talk  → Military person doc · talk  → Military unit doc · talk  → National military doc · talk  → Military operation doc · talk  → Service record doc · talk  → Militant organization doc · talk  → Weapon doc · talk Navigation boxes doc · talk  → Campaignboxes doc · talk Project banner doc · talk Announcement & task box  → Discussion alert box  → Review alert box Template design style doc · talk Showcase Featured articles 1349 Featured lists 149 Featured topics 32 Featured pictures 473 Featured sounds 69 Featured portals 5 A-Class articles 682 A-Class lists 40 Good articles 5,410 Automated lists Article alerts Most popular articles New articles Nominations for deletion Task forces General topics Fortifications Intelligence Maritime warfare Military aviation Military culture, traditions, and heraldry Military biography Military historiography Military land vehicles Military logistics and medicine Military memorials and cemeteries Military science, technology, and theory National militaries War films Weaponry Nations and regions African military history Asian military history Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific military history Balkan military history Baltic states military history British military history Canadian military history Chinese military history Dutch military history European military history French military history German military history Indian military history Italian military history Japanese military history Korean military history Middle Eastern military history Nordic military history North American military history Ottoman military history Polish military history Roman and Byzantine military history Russian, Soviet and CIS military history South American military history South Asian military history Southeast Asian military history Spanish military history United States military history Periods and conflicts Classical warfare Medieval warfare Early Muslim military history Crusades Early Modern warfare Wars of the Three Kingdoms American Revolutionary War Napoleonic era American Civil War World War I World War II Cold War Post-Cold War Related projects Blades Espionage Firearms Pritzker Military Museum & Library Piracy Ships edit · changes

How can you help?

You don't have to join our project to work on military history articles. We welcome everyone who wants to help improve these topics, and encourage you—project member or not—to participate in all of our activities and take full advantage of the support we offer.

Our list of open tasks contains thousands of articles that need different types of improvement; please feel free to select something that interests you and start editing!

If you would like to advertise your participation, you can formally join the project by adding your name to the list of members, or by adding one of our userboxes to your user page..

What topics do we cover?

We generally consider any article related to historical or modern-day warfare or military affairs to be within our scope.[Note 1]

Most of our work focuses on eight broad areas:

  1. Military operations, battles, campaigns, and wars.[Note 2]
  2. Military personnel, including both leaders and common soldiers, as well as other people involved in military affairs.[Note 3]
  3. Military units and formations, ranging from small units to national armed forces.
  4. Military equipment and technology, weapons, armour, and vehicles.
  5. Military facilities and structures, such as fortifications, bases, test sites, and memorials.
  6. Military historiography, publications, and historians.
  7. Types and periods of warfare, the military histories of particular nations and groups, and general military science and doctrine.
  8. Depictions of military history in all media, such as video games, painting, sculpture, music, film, poetry, and prose.[Note 4]
Notes
  1. ^ The American usage of "military" is applicable here; in other words, the project concerns itself with any armed forces rather than only with land armies.
  2. ^ Other than a requirement for military or paramilitary involvement, we do not limit the events to which terms such as "war" or "battle" are applied; it is generally enough for the term to be used by reliable sources. Editors should beware, however, of interpreting such usage too literally; the popular media often uses them to describe civil law enforcement matters such as "gang wars" or "street battles", which are not typically within our scope.
  3. ^ Military service does not in and of itself place an individual within the scope of the project—particularly in the case of service in modern militaries. To qualify them, an individual's military service must have been somehow noteworthy or have contributed—directly or indirectly—to their notability.
  4. ^ We generally cover only those depictions for which a discussion of historical accuracy or real military influence is applicable. A distinction is made between fictionalized depictions of historical warfare and purely invented depictions of fictional warfare; topics sufficiently divorced from actual history that a discussion of actual military history would no longer be relevant to them—such as futuristic warfare in Star Wars or fantasy battles in Lord of the Rings—are not considered to be within the project's scope. However, songs and music with long military associations—for example, It's a long way to Tipperary and Lili Marleen—are within our scope.

What advice can we offer?

We maintain three sets of formal guidelines for articles related to military history:

  • The content guide covers article content and structure.
  • The notability guide covers the notability of topics.
  • The style guide covers naming conventions, usage and style, sourcing and citation, templates, and categories.

In addition, our Academy offers training and instruction on a wide range of subjects related to military history and Wikipedia.

Who coordinates our project?

The project coordinators are the designated points of contact for issues concerning the project, and are responsible for maintaining our internal structure and processes. They do not, however, have any authority over article content or editor conduct, or any other special powers.

Lead coordinator
Coordinators
Coordinators emeritus

To contact the coordinators, please leave a message on the coordinators' discussion page, or use the ((@MILHIST)) notification template on any other discussion page on Wikipedia.

How is our project organized?

We have organized activities within the project under four main departments:

  • The assessment department determines and tracks the quality of military history articles.
  • The contest department offers a form of friendly competition to motivate editors.
  • The coordination department maintains the project's internal structure and processes.
  • The incubator department host new groups and initiatives within the project.

We are undertaking four special projects to reach specific article improvement goals:

  • Operation Brothers at War aims to bring all core topics related to the American Civil War to featured status in time for their 150th anniversary.
  • Operation Great War Centennial aims to bring all core topics related to World War I to featured status by the centenary of the war.
  • Operation Majestic Titan aims to create the largest featured topic on Wikipedia, covering every modern battleship ever planned or built.
  • Operation Normandy aims to bring all core topics related to the Battle of Normandy to featured status by its 70th anniversary.

We also maintain task forces to organize collaboration on particular military history topics:

General topics
Fortifications · Intelligence · Maritime warfare · Military aviation · Military biography · Military historiography · Military land vehicles · Military memorials and cemeteries · Military science and technology · National militaries · War films · Weaponry
Nations and regions
African · Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific · Balkan · Baltic states · British · Canadian · Chinese · Dutch · French · German · Italian · Japanese · Korean · Latin American · Middle Eastern · Nordic · Ottoman · Polish · Russian, Soviet and CIS · South Asian · Southeast Asian · Spanish · United States
Periods and conflicts
Classical warfare · Medieval warfare · Early Muslim military history · Crusades · Early Modern warfare · Wars of the Three Kingdoms · American Revolutionary War · Napoleonic era · American Civil War · World War I · World War II · Cold War