Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Peer review/William Bostock

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William Bostock[edit]

Significantly expanded this article, whose original World War II section dealt mainly with Bostock's conflict with George Jones, to emphasise the history/operations of RAAF Command. Also expanded the lead and added info/pics/refs to the other sections. My main interest in a peer review is seeing how people feel the new Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command section reads, and about the reorg which breaks the parallel stories of Bostock's WWII operational career and his feud with Jones into two separate subections, as opposed to one long chronological history. The goal is to get this to A-Class and then FA, as a 'companion' piece to the Jones article. Any and all comments welcome. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:23, 2 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Nick-D[edit]

This is yet another very good article - I like the structure and choice of photographs, and the referencing is good. I have the following, mainly minor, comments though:

  • The short 'Early life' and 'World War I' sections could be combined if they can't be expanded.
    • That might make sense, though I do tend to prefer separate sections for these even if short - am just going through a newly discovered file in the National Archives to see if any more can be gleaned.
      • Expanded all three paras somewhat; might leave as separate sections for now. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "In November 1914, Bostock joined the 2nd Signal Troop of the Australian Imperial Force" - did he really get to pick which unit he wanted to serve in as this implies? It might be better to say that he joined the AIF on whatever date and was posted to the 2nd Signal Troop
    • Will see about that.
      • AIF Personnel File seems to confirm he went straight into the 2nd Signal Troop on enlistment in the AIF - given his radio experience, perhaps not so strange. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "Discharging from the AIF, Bostock transferred to the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve on 18 February 1917" is written in the passive voice and is a bit confusing. Maybe something like 'Bostock transfered from the AIF to the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve on 18 February 1917'?
  • "he transferred to the newly created Royal Air Force (RAF)" - I don't know anything about the process with which the RFC became the RAF, but I would have guessed that all the members of the RFC were automatically assigned to the RAF when it was created - did Bostock need to do anything to make this move (as the text implies)?
    • Tend to agree but both his ADB and AWM bios say "transferred" so I've gone with that.
      • Left as is for now per above. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "He retired from the RAF" - did he 'retire' or 'resign'? - he would have been well below retirement age at this time.
    • Again, I've employed the term both his ADB entry and AWM Who's Who article use, i.e. "retired", but could alter to simply "left".
      • Left as is for now per above. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • The 'Deputy Chief of the Air Staff' section seems a bit short - could it be expanded to include a description of Bostock's main successes (and failures?) while in this position?
    • Not aware of much more info around but will review the sources.
  • What's 'ADRAAFCOM' the acronym for?
    • Ha, remiss of me, will add.
      • Not quite so remiss of me after all - Odgers never spells it out, but does call it an 'advanced' headquarters, so one can assume it stands for 'Advanced RAAF Command'. However I think it's probably simpler to just drop the acromym anyway... Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 11:06, 4 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • "the Borneo campaign, which marked the war's last engagement of Australian land forces" - Australian troops were also fighting in New Guinea, New Britain and Bougainville until the last day of the war (as an aside; with inadequate air support due to the massive force which was assigned to support operations in Borneo)
    • Hmm, better let Jeffrey Grey know that! Happy to drop it anyway, not essential to this article.
  • Wasn't the problem with Jones' and Bostock's relationship ultimately that they were the same rank and neither was clearly in charge? The modern-day ADF is also structured so that the Chiefs of the services are responsible for raising and sustaining combat forces but play no role in operations, with these instead being commanded by the VCDF, Air Commander, Land Commander and Maritime Commander (who are junior in rank to their relevant chief) and this structure aparantly works fairly well.
    • True, will clarify that a bit.
  • "when Jones made a unilateral decision to ground RAAF bomber squadrons scheduled to take part in the attack" - I suggest that you add 'for maintenance' somewhere here so it's clear that Jones was being weirdly pedantic rather than obstructing the operation outright.
    • Quite right, it wasn't a whim on Jones' part, I mentioned the reason of the unit(s) having exceeded allowed flying hours in the Jones article and will also include here.
  • Could you expand the material on Bostock's parliamentary career? Ten years is a long time to spend in Parliament and, at face value, it seems odd that such a capable person never entered the ministry as his party was in government for the whole time - was this due to his age? Nick-D (talk) 01:58, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Unfortunately my current sources say nothing more about his pariamentary career but I'll see if I can dig out anything more from the State Library.
      • Good old parliamentary debates! Opened one volume at random from 1957 and found him recommending amalgamation of the single-service government departments into one, and making all service chiefs responsible to a commander-in-chief of defence - something he'd put forward as early as 1951. Quite ahead of his time... Welcome your review in particular of the quick precis I've given for how it finally came about in the 1970s and 80s. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
  • Many thanks for taking the time to review, Nick. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 23:29, 3 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
    • Thanks again, Nick - pls let me know anything else based on the changes I've made. Cheers, Ian Rose (talk) 14:00, 7 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]
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