Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Alan Rawlinson

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Article promoted by HJ Mitchell (talk) via MilHistBot (talk) 11:06, 11 December 2016 (UTC) « Return to A-Class review list[reply]

Alan Rawlinson edit

Nominator(s): Ian Rose (talk)

Featured article candidates/Alan Rawlinson/archive1

Al Rawlinson's name has been a long-standing redlink in several articles on the RAAF in WWII. His fairly recent death means he has no ADB entry as yet, and the paucity of details on his post-war RAF career prevented me from attempting an article on him before now. Aided by Lex McAulay's short bio (a Kindle book, BTW, hence the citation of section titles rather than page numbers), I've produced an account of Rawlinson's military career that I believe should satisfy A-Class requirements, but as coverage of his later life is next to zero I'll be leaving it at that for now. Oddly, considering his apparently successful career in the RAF, not the Times nor the Independent nor the UK Telegraph carried obits for him as they did for fellow 3 Sqn commander Bobby Gibbes, who died the same year, never served in the RAF, and had a similar official victory score. Rawlinson also seems to have been forgotten by Australian papers that I've checked. Well, perhaps we can give him due attention here... Tks in advance for your comments! Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 05:58, 26 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Support by Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 06:31, 26 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

I recently reviewed this article for GA, and have subsequently done a light c/e for duplicate links, little else drew my attention.
all the tool checks are green.
images are all ok
a quality article covering his whole life, nothing much I could see that needed addressing for ACR.
it is possible that his death was noted by The Border Watch or Naracoorte Herald, but I'm not sure Trove has digitised them.
- Tks PM! I found evidence of a death notice in the Herald via the Ryerson Index but it was presumably little more than the one I found in the Advertiser on microfiche -- c'est la vie (or perhaps c'est la mort in this case)... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 06:59, 26 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Support: G'day, Ian, not much to pick fault with as usual. Just a couple of queries/observations: AustralianRupert (talk) 11:32, 30 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

was his father a professional AFL player, or did he have some other occupation?
- I don't know for sure if the WAFL was pro back then but no sources I came across mention him being anything but a footballer...
capitalisation: "RAAF Officers Personnel files" --> "RAAF officers personnel files"? or "RAAF Officers Personnel Files"?
as above: "RAAF Unit History sheets" --> "RAAF unit history sheets" or "RAAF Unit History Sheets"?
- Heh, I thought those were a bit odd too but it's the way they're capitalised in the NAA catalogue. 'Course it could be argued that WP convention (title case probably) should override and I have no objection to that...
there are a couple of duplicate links in the lead, but these seem fair enough in the circumstances
images appear to be appropriately licensed.
- Tks for that Rupert! Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 12:13, 30 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Support
- Earwig tool reports no issues with close paraphrase etc [1] (no action req'd)
- Citation check tool reveals one minor issue with ref consolidation: (please check if action req'd)
  - "Herington, Air War Against Germany and Italy, pp. 69–72" (Multiple references contain the same content)
- All the standard checks have been done above so I've nothing to add.
- Otherwise nothing stood out to me after a complete read through. Anotherclown (talk) 06:19, 7 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  - Tks very much AC -- I'll check that Herington ref... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 09:59, 7 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Excellent article with just two comments from me:

There are a couple of spots (outside the infobox) that the date format is "1949–52"; I think there has been an RfC that suggests is should be "1949–1952" (I don't think it's a positive move, and the closing summary of the RfC doesn't seem to reflect the consensus of the discussion, but what do I know…)
- Heh, yes, I'd just got through changing 4-digit end years to 2-digit in several articles when they had that RFC... At least we're allowed to leave the 2-digit ones in the IBs (and I think elsewhere for successive years, e.g. 1960–61)! Will action in the main body...
Post-war career: "according to Lex McAuley". Two things here. I think the spelling is McAulay, and we don't need the "Lex" as you've given the name earlier.
- Tks for pointing that out, will action.

I hope these help. I've not done an A-class review, so I'm a little reticent to support outright, but I'd certainly support this at FA, if the co-ordinators want to take that into account. All the best, The Bounder (talk) 09:01, 7 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for taking the time to comment, and great to see you at A-Class Review -- one of our editors defined this assessment level as "like FA, but more forgiving"... ;-) Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 09:59, 7 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

~~Comments~~ Great work as usual Ian. I have the following comments:

"was an Australian fighter ace of World War II" - given that he also had a pre and post-war military career, I'd suggest quickly noting this in the lead sentence (eg, "was an Australian airman and fighter ace of World War II" or similar?)
- Well I thought I could keep it short and sweet by restricting the first line to what made him notable...
  - I'm not sure that it really does him justice though given that he ended up a reasonably senior officer after a lengthy military career? Nick-D (talk) 00:06, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
    - Okay, added words per your suggestion. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 04:16, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
"Moving to Melbourne when he was eight years old" - "His family moved to Melbourne" perhaps?
- Yeah, I'd usually put it that way myself, I guess I was being careful because none of the sources explicitly mention his family moving.
  - Fair enough Nick-D (talk) 00:06, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Should No. 71 Operational Training Unit be red-linked?
- No. 71 Operational Training Unit RAF? Sure, although it's probably less likely to get written than articles on the RAAF OTUs...
  - Actioned. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 03:32, 9 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
Is it possible/accurate to say that Rawlinson was brought back to Australia in early 1942 as part of the efforts to expand and improve the home-based air units?
- Again the sources don't spell this out -- the best I could do that went beyond mere posting details was mention the desert vets' determination to train new pilots properly at OTU.
  - OK. The Australian military's response to the crisis of early 1942 is a surprisingly under-researched topic by historians, so it makes sense that there's nothing explicitly on this topic. Nick-D (talk) 00:06, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
"There he was asked to lead the only Supermarine Spitfire squadron to be formed in Australia" - this doesn't seem correct as two RAF Spitfire squadrons were formed in Australia in December 1943 (see: [2] and [3]). No. 85 Squadron RAAF also converted to the type in WA.
- Sorry, I should probably have qualified it to the only RAAF Spit squadron raised in Oz.
  - Actioned. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 03:32, 9 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
"to undertake interception and escort duties in the New Guinea campaign against Japanese forces" - you could note that its specific role was to complement and support the Kittyhawks, which explains why it ended up in a wing with two Kittyhawk squadrons in modern PNG instead of Darwin or similar (see [4])
- Okay tks, I'll check that out.
  - Actioned. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 03:32, 9 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
I take it that we don't know why exactly Rawlinson joined the RAF, and why they accepted him? (presumably he believed - probably rightly - that it offered better officers and the RAF was happy to take on a proven elite leader?) Nick-D (talk) 10:38, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
- Yeah, again I just did the best I could with the sources, i.e. McAuley mentioning his dissatisfaction with the RAAF. Tks for coming by, Nick! Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 11:13, 8 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]
  - Fair enough Nick-D (talk) 00:06, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Support My comments are now addressed. Nick-D (talk) 00:06, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Tks Nick! Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 04:16, 10 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.