Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Assessment/List of U.S. general officers and flag officers killed in World War II

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.

No consensus to promote at this time - Gog the Mild (talk) via MilHistBot (talk) 20:20, 27 March 2022 (UTC) « Return to A-Class review list[reply]

List of U.S. general officers and flag officers killed in World War II[edit]

Instructions for nominators and reviewers

Nominator(s): Hawkeye7 (talk)

I don't usually do lists, let alone nominate them here. No comprehensive list exists; this one has been compiled by Wikipedians, from multiple sources. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 20:11, 11 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Nick-D[edit]

This interesting article is in good shape. I have the following comments:

Are sources available that would support some analysis or discussion of the causes of death in the lead? The two suicides (and possible third in the case of John W. Wilcox Jr.) stand out, for instance. It would be interesting to know what proportion of 1-2 star officers were killed, given it looks to have been a fair few.
Remove the little graphic for the Medal of Honor recipients Nick-D (talk) 10:04, 14 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
There were about 2,000 general officers and the article lists 48 as being killed. That is 2.4%, which is about the same as for all service personnel (2.5%). Suicide rate was around 5 per 100,000, so 2 out of 48 is much higher than the average. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:19, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Our tally matches [1] Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:25, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Drive-by comment from Indy beetle[edit]

Hate to be that guy, but frankly I'm not even sure this quite meets WP:NLIST as it currently appears. The list is drawn from three main sources: Warfare History Network, War on the Rocks, and The Biographical Dictionary of World War II Generals and Flag Officers. The former two seem somewhere in between glorified blogs and specialists publications, and while the latter is definitely scholarly, it's a biographical dictionary which is all inclusive of the top brass for the war, regardless of whether they died (though deaths are mention as part of the individual entries). With the current sourcing the topic seems marginally notable at best. I would recommend inclusion of more solidly scholarly works which note the significance of these fallen commanders as a group. I agree with Nick that it would be nice to have some scholarly discussion section for the deaths, if possible. Also, I'm not exactly sure why McNair and Buckley get special treatment in the lede due to a PRIMARY source (a US law), a secondary source would be preferred there. To be clear, I'm not opposing the nomination, but I think if possible these areas should be addressed to place the article on more solid ground. -Indy beetle (talk) 08:23, 18 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Ancell and Miller devote Appendix 2 to listing the generals who died and cause of death. McNair and Buckner are mentioned in the lead solely because of their post-war promotion to four-star rank, given that the article sorts by rank; a perennial question asked is who was the highest-ranking general killed. I have added Ancell and Miller as a secondary source. The list isn't very long though, and it would be possible to merge the separate lists into one. Hawkeye7 (discuss) 19:19, 18 March 2022 (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.