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Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/Allan Walters/archive1

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Comments I don't think that I've laid eyes on this article since the ACR in 2010, and it's good to see it at FAC. I have the following comments:

  • " Over the course of World War II, Walters led No. 1 (General Reconnaissance) Squadron in Singapore, No. 1 (Fighter) Wing in Darwin, Northern Territory, and No. 72 Wing in Dutch New Guinea." ... "By the end of the war, Walters had risen to the rank of temporary air commodore and was leading Northern Command in Papua New Guinea." - I'd suggest either combining these sentences or tying them together given that Northern Command was an operational posting which he began while there was still lots of fighting left.
  • "As the RAAF had no cadet college of its own, it had by this time arranged with Duntroon to take one graduate each year, chosen from among the artillery specialists, for secondment as a pilot trainee" - I think that you could do without at least one of the commas here as they really break this sentence up (I'd suggest chopping the first one as well as "it had by this time")
  • The chronology of Walters transfer from the Army to the RAAF is a bit unclear; was he seconded to the RAAF under the scheme noted above, or did he volunteer for transfer?
    • The practice of taking a graduate from Duntroon's artillery specialists was a standard practice but the individual applied. I'm not sure where the wording suggests it was forced but perhaps I missed something... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 07:58, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
      • To clarify, I found the flow of "Graduating as a lieutenant in December 1927, he transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) on 1 February 1928.[1][3] As the RAAF had no cadet college of its own, it had arranged with Duntroon to take one graduate each year from among the artillery specialists for secondment as a pilot trainee. Walters' preferred career path in the military was engineering, and it was only when he failed to gain selection for this field after his graduation that he applied to transfer to the Air Force." to be a bit confusing - the second sentence here breaks up the material on Walters. Nick-D (talk) 08:22, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "and fresh from combat in Europe" - only about 40% of the pilots had seen combat in Europe
    • Oh, I thought I was saying that the squadrons had seen combat in Europe, not necessarily all the pilots. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 07:58, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
      • Yeah, but the squadrons are basically their personnel. How about "all operating Supermarine Spitfires and transferred from Europe" or "all operating Supermarine Spitfires and piloted by a mix of veterans of combat over Europe and recent graduates from training schools in Australia" (or something along those lines to counter the myth that No. 1 Wing was manned exclusively by crack combat veterans; the inexperiance of most of its aircrew helps explain its mixed early performance). Nick-D (talk) 08:22, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • Can anything more be said about Walters leadership of Northern Command? He took it over when it was supporting the difficult campaigns at Wewak and Bougainville with a fairly inadequate number of aircraft (histories often contrast the lavish air support provided for operations in Borneo with the meager allocation of forces to the New Guinea area at this time). Any material on his role in managing the demobilisation of the RAAF in this area would also be interesting, but this may not exist.
    • I don't believe there's anything more on his individual part than what I've mentioned, though I could look at adding a bit more about Northern Command's operation for context, if you think that'd be useful. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 07:58, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
      • I think that would be good; Walters had a difficult and important job here, and adding a flavour of this would help readers. Nick-D (talk) 08:22, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
        • Walking through Odgers, the detail during Walters' tenure focuses on No. 71 Wing, which was under Northern Command's control, rather than Northern Command per se. OTOH, highlighting that would give us an opportunity to add a touch of irony to the story, as 71 Wing was commanded by Val Hancock, who beat out Walters for CAS 15 years later -- thoughts? Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 11:41, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
          • That sounds good - as I understand it, the Wewak area was much shorter of aircraft than Bougainville, where the RNZAF had a fair few squadrons deployed (which seem to have not been under Australian command). Nick-D (talk) 11:49, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
  • "responsible for direction of" - how about "responsible for directing"? Nick-D (talk) 00:31, 26 May 2013 (UTC)[reply]
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