Word: breakthrough
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...director tells us how several days ago German tanks broke through defenses in one area and rushed toward the factory. When the news reached the factory the men decided that somehow they had to close the breakthrough. The director ordered the workshop manager to finish repairs on several tanks. Meanwhile other workers sat in the tanks and studied their operation. Then & there they formed themselves into tank crews...
...such a cost had Marshal von Bock thrust into the Caucasus and heaved his tank-bristling lines to the Don bend where, with seemingly inexhaustible waves of men and weapons, he was making his greatest bid for a breakthrough to Stalingrad and the Volga. At such a cost had Marshal Timoshenko kept his Red Army virtually intact, with supply lines still open to the Caucasus oilfields and munitions centers to the east. Whether the awful costs had been worth it to either, whether they could afford such expenditure of human life and weapons would be tallied only after the battle...
...tried to crack Russian defenses with revival of svinya (pig), a device used centuries ago by the Teutonic knights. They formed a triangle of several score tanks, filled the center with infantry, then rammed the Soviet line, hoping that the infantrymen could mushroom out behind the lines after a breakthrough. The Russians were not caught napping. They broke the triangle and mauled the hapless foot soldiers. But still the Germans pushed...
...Before German tank columns attempted a breakthrough, artillery frequently laid down a barrage, lasting as much as an hour, to mislead the Russians about the direction of the planned attack. Red-bannered Nazi tanks were sent into the Soviet lines on superscouting expeditions...
...German planes used to be called the ground army's "flying artillery." Now, in a very definite sense, planes have become the army's flying tanks. Reason: against such deep defenses as the Red army's, the tank is no longer effective as a breakthrough weapon. The total number of tanks engaged is still enormous. But they are used in smaller units, as parts of a composite whole, including artillery and infantry...