Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Then I have had to cable for Engineers, trench mortars, bombs, hand grenades, periscopes. Then again, seeing things are going less swimmingly than K. had thought they would, I have had to harden my heart against his horror of being asked for more men and have decided to cable for leave to bring over from Egypt a Brigade of Gurkhas to complete Birdwood's New Zealand Division.
One of the soldiers picked up the bullet that had killed his officer, and then it was that real excitement prevailed in that particular bay, for the bullet was obviously of German make. Hugging the parados, messengers carried the word in both directions and presently periscopes were leveled above the parados and keen eyes were searching out the traitor.
Some submarines have gotten inside, been juggled around, but have escaped. More, perhaps, have been lost this way. Then, when merchant ships began to carry armament, the periscopes were shot away, so the navy invented a so-called "finger-periscope," a thin rod pipe with a mirror at one end.
The periscopes erected through the upper cover of the turret must not be too easily turned in their sockets, and the latter are very tightly screwed in, for otherwise they would not be able to resist the water pressure at a great depth.
Some of the passengers took the rehearsal to heart, and, all night, fully dressed, especially as to boots, tramped the deck. As the promenade-deck is directly over the cabins, not only they did not sleep but neither did any one else. The next day they began to see periscopes. For this they were not greatly to be blamed.
The German destroyer, driving full speed at the spot where they had sighted the periscopes of the American tormentor, had crossed directly over the Monitor and dropped a depth bomb that had exploded nearly upon the turret of the doughty fighter! A great gap was torn in the turret through which the sea swept in a torrent.
Either she had gone under altogether, or withdrawn to such a distance that her periscopes were invisible in the mist. 'Train the gun on them, growled the German officer. Then, raising his voice, 'If this is a trap, every one of you will pay for it with your lives. 'I have told you the literal truth, said Captain Carrington coldly. 'You can take us or leave us as you wish.
Reluctantly, but yielding to his better judgment, McClure gave orders to submerge. At the same time the damaged periscopes were cut off in the conning tower to prevent an inflow of water when the ship dived. "Too bad to quit right now; but it would be folly to stand out under those deadly bombs any longer," he said.
They had to repair any of these wires they found severed, and this somewhat elaborate scheme was the means of our capturing some German patrols and gave us entire control of No Man's Land. We also took advantage of every possible means to make Fritz's sentries jumpy. We would have our snipers on certain days smash all their periscopes.
And now, from the rear of the Monitor and her consorts, came the answering crash of the great guns on the mighty ships of the Allies. The furious battle was on! German aviators, having sighted the American submarines, were bending all their energies on wiping out the "invisible mosquitoes." Guided only by the telltale wake of the periscopes, they were dropping huge depth bombs at random.
Word Of The Day