Template:Did you know nominations/Alphons Timmerman
- The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.
The result was: promoted by 97198 (talk) 10:49, 26 January 2020 (UTC)
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Alphons Timmerman
- ... that Second World War German spy Alphons Timmerman was captured on his arrival in Britain? Source: "You are strongly encouraged to quote the source text supporting each hook" (and [link] the source, or cite it briefly without using citation templates)
- ALT1:... that German spy Alphons Timmerman was captured while carrying the ingredients for invisible ink? Source: "You are strongly encouraged to quote the source text supporting each hook" (and [link] the source, or cite it briefly without using citation templates)
- ALT2:... that the German Abwehr failed to spot deliberate mistakes that MI5 introduced into correspondence purporting to come from spy Alphons Timmerman?
Moved to mainspace by Dumelow (talk). Self-nominated at 16:23, 3 January 2020 (UTC).
Date and length are fine. Article is well sourced and nothing problematic on copyvio. QPQ has been done. Hook facts are cited inline, AGF on offline sources. Of the hooks I like Alt1 for being suitably cloak and dagger. Alt0 would be good if he was uncovered within a very short space of time perhaps, but I assume that if a date of his arrest was known it would be included. Alt2 is a little hard to follow in such a short summary, and even reading the full article and sources isn't immediately clear. Presumably MI5 wanted the Abwehr to know right away that Timmerman had been uncovered, and that MI5 were making a clumsy attempt to impersonate him? But those who assemble the queues can make their judgement. One question I do have, the hooks state he was a 'German spy' - reasonable since he was spying (or hoping to) for the Germans, but the article says his nationality was Belgian - hence he was executed for treason rather than espionage. To avoid pedants complaining on the main page, perhaps something like 'German Abwehr spy' in the hook (i.e. linking German to the service he worked for rather than his own nationality), but again I'm happy to leave that to your/the promoter's judgement. Spokoyni (talk) 01:24, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
- Thanks for the review Spokoyni . I believe MI5's intention was for the Abwehr to spot the deliberate mistakes in the messages and so form the opinion that MI5 were incompetent, which would presumably lead to the Germans being less sophisticated in their tactics. In the event the affair exposed the Abwehr in Lisbon as rather inefficient. Difficult to put this across in a short hook though. I am happy for ALT1 to run and for any clarification as to Timmerman's nationality to be included - Dumelow (talk) 12:20, 4 January 2020 (UTC)
