Word: coastal
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Different Show. Allied commanders, eagerly studying the reports from air-conquered Pantelleria and Lampedusa, saw in them auguries of what could be done to specific targets in Sicily and southern Italy. On Pantelleria, an entire military establishment had been destroyed. Artillery, anti-aircraft positions and coastal batteries had been silenced. The island had not been able to withstand this demolition, coupled with the effective blockade by aircraft and the Royal Navy...
Aircraft from the Royal Navy's escort carrier H.M.S. Biter, first of these American-made auxiliaries to be identified in the Atlantic action, began the battles by depth-charging and machine-gunning two submarines. Long-range Coastal Command planes then joined the escort, and one of them, a Liberator, disabled a submarine. A British destroyer and one of the new British "frigates" (somewhat similar to the U.S. Navy's new destroyer escorts) led naval aircraft to another submarine. Attacking in turn, they destroyed the U-boat. Other aircraft, including the first Fortresses mentioned in Coastal Command...
...cover from Britain has been extended to the mid-Atlantic. The R.A.F.'s Coastal Command long ago drove the submarine packs from British waters. Recently the Coastal Command has become an ocean command, shifting gradually from short-range medium bombers to VLR ("very long range") American Liberators and other heavy bombers. These planes, armed with guns and depth charges, have attacked U-boats 1,100 miles at sea, and the number of air actions against submarines has multiplied many times. This cover is being extended also from the U.S. and Canadian coasts. But still longer range planes, or bases...
Smallest of the island objectives is humpy, volcanic Pantelleria (see map). Its single harbor, its one known airfield, its coastal and interior fortifications were bombed around the clock last week. Five times in seven days British naval guns raked the island's shores. Apparently Pantelleria was to be the first objective, perhaps with simultaneous moves against the other islands...
This raid was only one of many hundreds of tip-&-run raids. The same day another coastal town was hit. England's Atlantic City, Brighton, had nearly a hundred raids. The Germans choose misty days and they swoop out of the clouds, sometimes with their engines switched off, spray the town with bullets, dump their bombs and are off before the ack-ack is effective...