Word: point-blank
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...artillery crew, sighting through the bore of their weapon, fired point-blank at onrushing Reds and escaped with their gun. Other crews had to destroy their guns with grenades before they fell back; one U.S. artillery battalion lost 300 in killed and captured...
Earlier this month, a committee spokesman revealed that all those called for the secret hearing would be asked point-blank if they were or had ever been members of the Communist party...
...Robert B. ("Mick") Carney. Since Carney's land forces were all Italian, an Italian general, Maurizio de Castiglione, who fought under Rommel in North Africa, was appointed to head them. But the fighting men of Turkey and Greece, newly admitted last February to NATO's forces, refused point-blank to take orders from an Italian. The Greeks still resent Italy's jackal invasion of their land in 1940; the sturdy Turks just do not admire Italian soldiering. Britain's Mediterranean fleet, under the command of Vice Admiral Earl Mountbatten, proved equally stuffy about taking orders from...
Truculent. Blunt, taciturn Chess Master Reshevsky had outraged his Cuban hosts by his point-blank refusal to join the other players in a Friday visit to the tomb of Cuban World Champion José Capablanca. Reshevsky later explained that he could not make the trip on Friday, since his Jewish religion forbids public travel after sundown. But he also demanded that the player's day off should be Friday, not Sunday. Furthermore, Reshevsky refused, up to the final day, to agree to leave the winner's trophy in Cuba. Originally donated by Argentina, the cup had been renamed...
...boldly turned his back on the formula of weak minority coalitions set by his predecessors. Instead, he appealed to all French parties, except the Communists, to join a "Government of National Union." It was a timely appeal for French patriotism, but as a political maneuver it failed. Socialists refused point-blank to sit in the same cabinet with Gaullists. Sadly, Paul Reynaud gave up trying. René Pleven, called upon next, refused even...