Word: ajax
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Dates: during 1940-1940
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...came. Through the ship's corridors ran the call "Action Stations." Fire gongs clanged. Out of the darkness darted a flotilla of speedy, 679-ton torpedo boats, charging in close to loose a shoal of their tin fish. Heeling over hard, the Ajax spurted forward out of their path, opened up with her 6-inch guns. Into the hull of one Italian smashed the first salvo, scarcely dispersed at the point-blank range. But the other attackers maneuvered their small guns into play, began pumping 3.9-inch shells back at the Ajax. With an orange-colored flash, an Italian...
...southeast of Sicily (both sides agreed) the action began. This had always been a likely spot for an Italian hit-&-run attack, within easy range of the torpedo boats based at Syracuse. Heavy darkness and calm sea made it perfect. Fanning out ahead of the main British forces, H.M.S. Ajax flirted with the shrouded Sicilian coast to draw the Italians out. This was the light cruiser which had run the Admiral Graf Spee to cover in Montevideo last winter. Tall, square-jawed Captain E. B. D. McCarthy was itching for a chance to test the motto of his new command...
Pounding forward in chase of a third, the Ajax began to ship water through her forward plates, was forced to reduce speed. In the murk before dawn she suddenly came on an Italian squadron of one heavy cruiser and four destroyers. Opening up again at long range, she staggered one destroyer with a shot through the hull. As the crippled destroyer lost way, another slipped her a towline, started spewing out a smoke screen. By now the Ajax (which the Italians claimed to have sunk) had begun calling up support. But before the heavy cruiser York could arrive, the faster...
...daybreak, British planes from an aircraft carrier spotted the Italians again, identified the cripple as the crack, 1,620-ton destroyer Artigliere. Believing British ships near, the other Italians abandoned the Artigliere and cut for home, as the York and Ajax arrived for the kill. The Italians began to abandon ship. "A few seconds later," said a British witness, "came the order for the York to finish her off. The crew were told to abandon ship, and floats were thrown overboard for them...
...Taken, in scholarly fashion, from the Greek classical hero Ajax, son of Telamon, who fought with high-helmed valor before Troy...