Talk:Breaker Morant

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This article is written in Australian English, which has its own spelling conventions (colour, realise, program, labour (but Labor Party)) and some terms that are used in it may be different or absent from other varieties of English. According to the relevant style guide, this should not be changed without broad consensus.

Breaker Morant was one of the good articles, but it has been removed from the list. There are suggestions below for improving the article to meet the good article criteria. Once these issues have been addressed, the article can be renominated. Editors may also seek a reassessment of the decision if they believe there was a mistake.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
September 6, 2006	WikiProject A-class review	Not approved
December 5, 2006	Good article reassessment	Delisted

Current status: Delisted good article

Military history: Biography / South Pacific / British / European

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Archive 1

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Re. "Execution section" - Sentence implying gunshots may not have been heard

"Witton wrote that he was by then at Pretoria railway station and heard the volley of shots that killed his comrades. However, Robert Poore, who attended the execution, wrote in his diary that he put Witton and Lieutenant Picton on the train that left at 05:30 hours. Thus, Witton would have been several miles on the way to Cape Town when the execution occurred."

The last sentence suggests that Witton's account that he heard the killing shots is inaccurate and possibly embellished. The evidence provided is insufficient to justify this suggestion. Anecdotally, I know that the .303 can be heard from several miles away. The .303 is a large, supersonic round and can be heard from several miles away in forested terrain. For further information, search hunting forums regarding audible range of various gunshots. The reasonably flat geography of Pretoria would allow multiple .303 gunshots to be heard from "several miles" away.

I suggest that someone with the authority to do so rewords the sentence to remove the implication that Witton was embellishing his account. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 103.101.171.156 (talk) 02:37, 25 March 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Even better, we should remove all material cited to Witton because he is not a reliable source. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 11:59, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

BVC photograph

This photograph is not properly licensed. If no author is known, then we can hardly use a 70 year post-mortem licence. Unless someone knows who took it or an early publication which means it is out of copyright, it will need to be deleted. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 11:57, 9 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Why is the oath quoted verbatim?

There is no encyclopaedic value in reproducing the oath Morant took when he initially enlisted for the war. In the first case, the provisions can be easily summarised, and in the second case, he was commissioned before he committed any war crimes we are aware of, and would have taken an officer's oath at that time. It would be similar, but not exactly the same, and of course, as a British Army commission would not have mentioned anything about Australia. I will shortly summarise it and delete the full text. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 01:09, 10 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

History Net

I'm removing the Ron Soodalter/History Net citations and material, per the discussion here. It is not of sufficient quality for a GA, which is where this is going in the first instance. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 07:40, 29 January 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is there bloat?

There seems to be a lot of stuff in this article that is just bloat. An entire section that makes no mention of the primary subject of this article should probably be deleted. Betterkeks (talk) 00:21, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How about we get the basic chronology sorted out and trim from there? At present, the article is in very poor condition, and I'm waiting for access to a couple of sources. I'm a bit distracted with RW stuff for the next month, but will be pushing on with getting this to GAN later this year once all the nonsense of Witton's fairytale has been removed and the narrative of the reliable sources is put in place. I presume you are referring to the "A Squadron at Sweetwaters Farm" section which provides background of what happened with the other squadron of the BVC? That is highly relevant context for what happened with Hunt's squadron, especially as Handcock transferred to Hunt's squadron, and had already been involved in murders. I expect that once the rest of the article has been rewritten, this section will be trimmed down, but it isn't necessary now. Peacemaker67 (click to talk to me) 01:22, 22 March 2024 (UTC)[reply]