User:Nick-D

There's one characteristic that sets writing apart from most of the other arts – its apparent democracy, by which I mean its availability to almost everyone as a medium of expression

— Margaret Atwood, On Writers and Writing

It’s a funny habit to write encyclopedia entries. It’s not a mass taste.

— Sue Gardner

Arguing with anonymous strangers on the internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be – or to be indistinguishable from – self-righteous sixteen year olds possessing infinite amounts of free time

— Neal Stephenson, Cryptonomicon

We’ll be here in a hundred years and he [Elon Musk] won’t. As long as we stay Wikipedia, people will still love us. All the noise in the world and all these people ranting, that’s not the real thing. The real thing is genuine human knowledge, genuine discourse, genuinely grappling with the difficult issues of our day.

— Jimmy Wales, The New York Times, 18 October 2025

Userboxes

This user is proud to be a financial member of Wikimedia Australia

This user is an administrator on the English Wikipedia. (verify)

This user has taken and uploaded images to Wikipedia and Commons.

This user is a member of
WikiProject Military history.

This user is a coordinator emeritus of the Military history WikiProject.

This user is a member of
WikiProject
Australian politics.

This user is a member of WikiProject Timor-Leste.

This user participates in
WikiProject Books.

This user participates in
WikiProject Maps
Map Workshop (watch)

This user thinks that registration should be required to edit articles.

• Library
• Useful online resources
• My sandbox
• Drafts1, Drafts2, Drafts3, Drafts4, Drafts5, Drafts6, Drafts7, Drafts8, Drafts9, Drafts10, Drafts11, Drafts12, Drafts13, Drafts14, Drafts15, Drafts16, Drafts17, Drafts18, Drafts19, Draft book reviews, Random drafts
• photo gallery
• Some thoughts on Wikipedia based on my experience
• Advice on the A-class and FA review processes

Useful or interesting links:

• Special:Longpages
• Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by featured article nominations
• Wikipedia:List of Wikipedians by number of edits
• User:AlexNewArtBot/MilitarySearchResult
• {{WPMILHIST}}
• Special:NewPagesFeed
• Wikipedia:In the news/Candidates
• X!'s Edit Counter
• admin stats
• FAC statistics
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Military History//FA-Class military history articles/Popular pages
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Coordinators/Newsroom
• Wikipedia:Featured articles that haven't been on the Main Page
• User:Skysmith/Missing topics about World War Two
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Australia/The 5000 Challenge
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Military
• Wikipedia:Guidance on source reviewing at FAC
• Wikipedia:WikiProject Military history/Internet Archive books

To do list
I intend to work on these articles in the near future:

1. Battle of Tarakan (1945)
2. 1 May 1982 engagements (draft under development here, and suggestions for a better article name would be appreciated!)
3. Proposed Japanese invasion of Australia during World War II
4. Operation Title
5. Operation Source

I also have plans to improve or start the following articles over the longer term:

• Battle for Brest - User:Nick-D/Drafts12
• Bombing of Kure (July 1945) (if I can ever find enough sources)
• Australia in the War of 1939–1945
• Convoy TM-1/Convoy TM 1 (see: User:Nick-D/Drafts2)
• Various RAAF flying squadrons (see User:Nick-D/RAAF_sqns)
• B-24 Liberator in Australian service (User:Nick-D/Drafts6)
• Sheila Mary McClemans - Director of the WRANS for much of World War II
• Margaret Irene Lang
• Australian occupation of British Borneo and the Netherlands East Indies - see User:Nick-D/Drafts7
• Attack on Kure (March 1945)
• Recovery of Allied prisoners of war and internees from Japanese captivity (draft under development at User:Nick-D/Drafts11)
• Japanese home island air defences of World War II - see User:Nick-D/Drafts5
• Allied air raids on Hokkaido and northern Honshu
• Operation Inmate
• Liberation of Strasbourg
• Operation Counterblast
• Australian contribution to the Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II (1943-45)
• Battle of Trier
• Battle of Luzon re-write (at User:Nick-D/Drafts16)
• Pacification of Rabaul - needs a new title for starters
• Battle of the Mons Pocket
• British re-occupation of Hong Kong (at User:Nick-D/Drafts17)
• Manpower Directorate (Australia)
• Atlantic pockets
• Operation Argos
• 1st Army Tank Brigade (New Zealand)
• Brewster SB2A Buccaneer
• Australian military deployments to Europe since 1945 (at User:Nick-D/Drafts16)
• South African forces in the Rhodesian Bush War (at User:Nick-D/Drafts8)
• Royal Air Force attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz (1940–1942) (at User:Nick-D/Drafts9)
• British nuclear weapons and the Falklands War (at User:Nick-D/Drafts18)
• Conscription in the Rhodesian Bush War - User:Nick-D/Drafts18