Word: cannoneer
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...with a front-line view of the first major contact of U.S. and German forces: a tank battle at Tebourba. There, from a hilltop that looks little more than a grenade-throw from the battlefield, the camera watches a group of Nazi tanks deployed in a small valley. German cannon, concealed in straw-thatched sheds, fire at approaching U.S. tanks. Then U.S. artillery takes effect; the Nazi tanks turn tail (their tails are painted red to identify them for their own planes). As they crawl away, one Nazi tank is smacked by a direct hit, spins helplessly on its tracks...
Last Ditch. The story of the next few days was the story of a desperate Allied stand. British artillery and lumbering new Churchill tanks rolled up to block the pass at Sbiba. In the area of Tebessa-the Allied base for Central Tunisia-U.S. cannon and armor, supported by strong air units operating in dubious flying weather, pounded and slashed at the German onrush. In the critical Thala sector British armor, probably drawn from the First Army's reserves, and fresh U.S. artillery fought through the afternoon and into the night...
...weight of Rommel's suddenly concentrated assault was too heavy. The old hands of Rommel's desert army were too smart for freshmen U.S. troops. As the British had done at Knightsbridge, U.S. tanks charged blindly into German ambushes. German 88-mm. cannon blasted them to bits. Swift-moving German columns surrounded and cut them...
...Aircraft's first break came in 1937 when it proudly announced the Airacuda, a freakish-looking, poor-flying bomber-fighter which got a burst of publicity but little else. Then came Bell's first success: the Airacobra, a flashy, 400-m.p.h., single-place fighter which has a cannon in its nose and climbs like an express elevator...
...extraordinary heroism" on a bombing mission over France: Major Al Key, famed endurance flyer of 1935. (He and Brother Fred flew the "Ole Miss" for a record 653 hr. 34 min.) The Major flew his Flying Fortress straight at two enemy fighters, completed his mission, returned safely with a cannon-blasted ship...