Word: foothold
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...shipful of explosives on an apparently peaceful transit of the Ditch; 2) bombers launched from an enemy carrier at sea might succeed in a surprise raid in smashing lock machinery or breaching the great dam of Gatun Lake, thereby draining the Canal of water; 3) having gained a foothold in the Caribbean area, an enemy might go about systematic destruction of the Canal with large-scale attacks...
...time to prepare for "any eventuality." What eventuality did he see? Said Colonel Knox: "There is a very serious situation in South America . . . almost made to order for penetration of the type Hitler perfected in Europe. We would be in deadly peril if a foreign power gained a foothold there...
...Noyon on the Oise River and Soissons on the Aisne. The Oise valley was Hitler's broadest, easiest approach to Paris. To command it fully his forces had to storm the high bridge called Chemin des Dames-just north of the Oise-Aisne Canal, and then win a foothold on the Aisne's south bank, to converge on Compiegne and the scene of the 1918 Armistice's signing. This they accomplished by the battle's fifth evening, with appalling loss of life...
...risk fighting Germany, one of the Red Army's principal theoretical advantages would be its hold on the Baltic States-threat to Germany's exposed northern flank. Last week Russia went in for some trumpery which looked very much like an excuse to get a better foothold in the spot nearest Germany: Lithuania. The little State was warned to discontinue trying to pry military information from Soviet soldiers. Five Russians were said to have been kidnapped at various times, gagged, blindfolded, thrown in cellars, starved for several days, beaten, questioned. One was alleged to have been killed...
...hymn. Such fury may be a purging force. Certainly no piece of writing has yet made more vivid the last few ominous years for Britain: "Their world was passing away-London, that great city. None could revive it, none stay the process of disintegration. Feet treading, found no foothold; arms reaching, no guiding wall or comforting pillar found; mind thinking, nothing grasped. All was dissolving. Lost! lost! in the darkness of change...