Word: point-blank
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...days, the fall of Sevastopol had been near. But the Russians had been stubborn. German artillery blazed point-blank at the concrete, steel and limestone of Maxim Gorki " Fort. Bombs chewed great craters in its upper levels. At 800 yards, then at 500, the mouths of the fort's 13-in guns yawned at the attackers, so close that the pressure from the blasts crushed tanks and men, and the orange and crimson flames seemed to singe the dead. When the Germans at last swarmed over the fort, a Nazi radio reporter's voice crackled with epic exasperation...
...last desperate attempt to break through, the invaders threw into the melee their "panzer" division--a truck with the label "Tank" on its sides, but the nefarious machine was stopped in its tracks by a deadly burst of point-blank artillery fire...
Moulmein fell. Sweat-wet, bare-backed British artillerymen fired point-blank into the advancing Japanese, piled them in shredded heaps. U.S. volunteer pilots strafed them. British bayonets stabbed them. Riflemen and machine-gunners tore their advancing ranks on the open flats before the city. But the Japs came on. From Moulmein they drove the outnumbered, outgunned British across the broad Salween River. There, behind the river barrier, the British took their stand between the Japanese and the prize they were fighting for: mastery of strategic Rangoon, of the Burma Road to China, of the invasion road to India...
...Note: that Japs closed to 4,700 yards before 5-and 3-inch guns opened up at point-blank range...
...British tanks, flying their proud little regimental pennants, crisscross and interweave with the darker Nazi vehicles, each marked with great white crosses. Some get so close that cannons are fired over open sights. Tanks suddenly buckle into twisted masses and leap clear off the ground under the impact of point-blank hits. Shells crash in all directions; friend sometimes hits friend...