Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Landing at Scarlet Beach
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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.
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Landing at Scarlet Beach
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Landing at Scarlet Beach (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs)
The Landing at Scarlet Beach was the Australian Army's first opposed amphibious landing since Gallipoli in 1915, and the Australian Army's largest operation since the Great War. The landing at Scarlet Beach formed the right hook of a General Sir Thomas Blamey's double envelopment of the Japanese base at Lae. Although a knock-down-drag-out fight like the Battle of Buna was anticipated, the Japanese commander, Hatazō Adachi, chose to withdraw. Lae was developed into a major base. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 21:54, 12 February 2026 (UTC)
Support by Nick-D
It's great to see this article here. I'd like to offer the following comments:
- I had largely abandoned the New Guinea campaign articles after Rupert left. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:24, 16 February 2026 (UTC)
- "Landing at Scarlet Beach (Operation Diminish) (22 September 1943)" - presenting the date like this is a bit confusing given the article, correctly, covers the initial landing and the couple of weeks afterwards.
- "native soldiers" - 'New Guinean/Papuan soldiers' or similar would be better here
- Ditto for "native porters", "natives", etc. This is outdated terminology.
- "which was passed on along with GHQ's estimate" - who was this passed on to?
- "advanced along the coast from the Hopoi Mission Station" - can you give a bit more detail about this advance - e.g. "advanced north along the coast", etc - given that the geography here is very obscure to most readers.
- "Japanese marines" - I presume that these were SNLF troops, who are usually referred to as naval infantry rather than marines (as they weren't trained or equipped to make assault landings)
- "Grace ordered Major Ron Suthers" - what he commanded isn't identified at present
- "Suthers halted on the ridge for the night but resumed his advance in the morning, reaching the Bumi at 10:00. They..." - I suspect the first words here should be 'Surthers' company/battalion' or similar?
- "to protect the brigade area" - should this be "brigade maintaince area" or similar?
- "The arrival of the 2/43rd Infantry Battalion meant that" - I was a bit confused by this: I'd suggest tweaking to "The arrival of the 2/43rd Infantry Battalion in the beachhead..." or similar
- "The Japanese launched a counter-attack on the Allied lodgement around Scarlet Beach" - I'd suggest adding the date/s of this attack to clarify things
- From (very distant) memory, Coates notes that the Japanese 20th Division was a second-rate formation that had mainly been used for construction duties in New Guinea. If this is correct, it would be worth mentioning to provide some context.
Nick-D (talk) 09:54, 17 February 2026 (UTC)
Support Those changes look good, and I'm pleased to support this nomination. Nick-D (talk) 23:48, 21 February 2026 (UTC)
Comments Support by A.Cython
It looks like a great article, my comments are mostly minor/cosmetic. I am not an expert of the era and locale, but I hope you find my comments useful, please ignore anything that may not be useful.
Prose
- of air base → of an air base
- cut the terrain → cut through the terrain
- and in fact add comma at the end
- Over the next two weeks add comma at the end
- fight ensured. → fight ensued.
- to conform to Yamada's → to follow Yamada's
- Japanese strong hold → Japanese stronghold (remove space)
- 21 October, the attack consider replacing the comma with a full stop, it is a quite long sentence.
Infobox
- Huon Peninsula, New Guinea if not mistaken "New Guinea" does not need a wikilink per WP:SEAOFBLUE
Not MOS:SEAOFBLUE but MOS:GEOLINK. Unlinked. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:39, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
Wikilinks
- Huon Peninsula at Geography section
- 13 mm heavy machine guns do we know the exact type to wikilink it?
Other
- metres confused which applies here (meter vs metre), see also Metre#Spelling, choose accordingly
Sources
- The first reference has a deadlink tag.
Comments Support by Zawed
A solid looking article, just nitpicks here and there
- In the lead, present distances consistently (first mention is in miles in first instance, second mention in kilometres in first instance)
- All primary measurements are now in metric (MOS:METRIC)
- In the lead, link Bumi River, Sattelberg
- In the lead: ...they requested reinforcements from General Douglas MacArthur. The request was... for sake of succinctness, suggest: "...they requested reinforcements from General Douglas MacArthur. This was..."
- In the lead: ...around Sattelberg and Finschhafen. First mention of Sattelberg, so no context, maybe just say "in the area" rather than identify both?
- Shouldn't the "Allied" subheading in Strategy section be "Allies"? Also link Bogadjim in that section
- Landing, first wave section: They then departed for G Beach...: Suggest "Landing force" or similar to head off confusion as to what is "they"
- Landing, first wave section: for one carrying 11 Platoon of the 2/15th Infantry Battalion: Link 2/15th Battalion
Up to Followup section, more to come. Zawed (talk) 07:35, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
Actually, having read this to the end, that's it. I found a couple of typos which I corrected and this looks to be in good order. Zawed (talk) 10:06, 12 May 2026 (UTC)
Source review – pass
For the record, this is my first time doing a source review at the A-class review. This is not my topic of expertise, but I will try to find the sources and check randomly selected statements. I will need a few days. A.Cython(talk) 16:14, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
Actually most sources were online so this was easier than I anticipated.
- 13: though I would add the initial estimate since it is given and one would better appreciate the reduction in the estimation, i.e., 'in the area from 500–800 to 350.'
- 14a:
- 14b:
- 19:
- 20:
- 33: please re-write the sentence: Ironically, ... was ideally suited to LST operations. as it is too close to the original.
- 50: Mostly checks out, except for the mention of Papuan Infantry. Can you add the relevant page where this is mentioned? "10 Platoon" is mentioned p. 464. Unless, I missed something here.
- 67:
- 77:
- 87:
- 96:
- 97:
- 109:
@Hawkeye7: Please address a couple of issues that popped up, otherwise sources look good. A.Cython(talk) 19:16, 23 May 2026 (UTC)
Image review
- Suggest scaling up the maps
- File:Scarlet_Beach_22_Sept_1943.jpg needs a US tag, per the notice on PD-Australia. Ditto File:Victor_Windeyer_016473.JPG, File:Japanese_bunker_at_Finschhafen_058109.JPG, File:Scarlet_Beach_057448.JPG, File:US_and_Australian_soldiers_with_Japanese_prisoner_057472.JPG, File:Bofors_gun_060440.JPG, File:Human_supply_chain_058093.JPG, File:From_the_Bumi_to_Finschhafen.jpg, File:Gunners_at_Finschhafen_057836.JPG. Nikkimaria (talk) 00:32, 18 June 2026 (UTC)
- Switched licence to c:Template:PD-AustraliaGov Hawkeye7 (discuss) 02:24, 18 June 2026 (UTC)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.
