Talk:Arthur Ernest Percival

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

	Arthur Ernest Percival is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. If you can update or improve it, please do.
	This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on January 2, 2007.
Article Milestones Date Process Result February 4, 2006 Peer review Reviewed February 22, 2006 Featured article candidate Promoted Current Status: Featured article

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography. For more information, visit the project page.	Biography Portal
FA	This article has been rated as FA-Class on the Project's quality scale. [FAQ] (If you rated the article, please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)
	This article is supported by the Military work group.

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks.
FA	This article has been rated as FA-Class on the quality scale.
Additional information: Related task forces (nations and regions): British military history task force Related task forces (periods and conflicts): World War I task force World War II task force

	Arthur Ernest Percival is part of SGpedians' Resources An attempt to better coordinate and organise articles related to Singapore. To participate, simply edit this page or visit our noticeboard for more info.
FA	This article has been rated as FA-Class on the quality scale. (If you rated the article please give a short summary at comments to explain the ratings and/or to identify the strengths and weaknesses.)
Mid	This article has been rated as Mid-importance on the importance scale.

This article has been selected for Version 0.5 and the next release version of Wikipedia. This History article has been rated FA-Class on the assessment scale.

Contents 1 Defences 2 Crossbarry and his defeat at the hands of Tom Barry and the IRA 3 West Cork Flying Column Photograph 4 Death of Pat Harte 5 featured article 6 Early Childhood / WWI 7 Nazi? 8 Churchill and the surrender

[edit] Defences

Regarding Percival's comment that "Defences are bad for morale - for both troops and civilians". Was he refering to the "construction of the defences", with all the digging and the menial work, etc.? Any insight on why he thought this would be bad for morale? Thanks in advance. --Vsion (talk) 08:28, 25 February 2006 (UTC)

• The Dixon book suggests that Percival did not want to build defences because they would be a tacit position of how bad a position he and his army were in. More straightforwardly there is the implication that if you build defensive lines, in this case perhaps 100s of miles behind the front line then you are expecting your forces to retreat. Percival had also fought in France during the German blitzkrieg and perhaps fought that defensive works were outdated. I know Brigadier Stimson wrote a book which addresses this question in detail (As the person to whom it was addressed) but I havnt read it Nickhk

AIUI, Percival's issue with fixed defences was that their existence might encourage troops to retreat behind them. The Japanese would then bypass them.

It seems to me that he had a point there. Unless the flanks could be secured, fixed defences wouldn't necessarily have added much value. Tirailleur

[edit] Crossbarry and his defeat at the hands of Tom Barry and the IRA

Most peculiarly, some Wikipedia editor claimed Percival was "successful" against the IRA. Well, I live on planet earth so I corrected that silliness. Who now wants to propose that Napoléon was successful at Waterloo? El Gringo 21:08, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

This is a poor analogy on several levels - Napoleon could still be successful general even if he lost the final battle; moreover Napoleon was the French Emperor whereas Percival was no more than a bit player in a larger tragedy Nickhk

[edit] West Cork Flying Column Photograph

The photo is not of the West Cork Flying Column but of Seán Hogan's Flying column operating on the Kilkenny/Tipperary border. The photo is from a book The Flying Column - West Kilkenny 1916-1921. The book contains the names of the members of the Flying Column. The unit was disbanded at the end of the War of Independence and had nothing to do with the Civil War.

As being an Anti-Treaty and a Pro-Treaty IRA man still creates rancour in Ireland it would be best to remove this photo.

Jm butler 08:30, 6 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Death of Pat Harte

When did Pat Harte die in the hospital ? Was it just after the torture session or was it later ? I could not find the info on the web. Thanks, 62.203.225.47 21:43, 28 November 2006 (UTC)

I don't know how to edit Wikipedia, but there's a thing right after early life that says "he raped little boys." I don't know how to remove it but someone ought to.

[edit] featured article

I'm surprised this made it to be a featured article, it's not a biography of Percival but an apologetic history of the Malay campaign. Brettr 10:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

How exactly? Your unawareness of the distinction between Malay, Malayan, and Straits Settlements seems to give away your lack of expertise. John Riemann Soong 16:53, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Nice try Soong but you didn't address my point. This is a biography of a man but a history of a campaign. Brettr 07:08, 3 January 2007 (UTC)

They are interlinked what. How is it apologetic, exactly? John Riemann Soong 04:09, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Early Childhood / WWI

There seems to be a discrepancy in these first two sections. At the end of Early Childhood it states that Percival was to remain a civilian. Yet in the WWI section it clearly states that he served abroad during this time. Why the disconnect. Am I reading this incorrectly? 19:20, 2 January 2007 Emeril 19:20, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nazi?

General Percival is listed as a Nazi in the introductory paragraph, but no mention of his joining the Nazi party and being an Allied General during WWII is mentioned in his biography.Eddie28 19:50, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Churchill and the surrender

The quote "This was in spite of instructions from Prime Minister Winston Churchill for prolonged resistance.[2]" is misleading in its placement. While Churchill demanded prolonged resistance nearly until the end of the campaign, by the time of the surrender negotiations with Yamashita (which this quote refers to) Churchill had accepted the realities of the situation and given Wavell discretion to end hostilities in a telegram received by Wavell the morning of the surrender (see, for example, Thompson p484). I propose to change this to correct the misleading impression that Wavell and Percival surrended without Churchill's agreement. Thoughts? Simon9 11:17, 3 January 2007 (UTC)