Word: convoying
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...morning last month, the raucous bell-and-siren summons to General Quarters routed officers & men of the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Spencer from their bunks to battle stations. In the distance a huge Atlantic convoy, Europe-bound, was silhouetted in a streak of silvery light. Somewhere in darkness was an enemy submarine. Aboard the Spencer was TIME Correspondent William Walton, whose account of what followed was released by the Navy this week: The seconds dragging by seemed an age. "Jesus, why don't we do something?" muttered a gunner's mate. Nothing but dark waves could be seen...
...order came to "secure." It was over for the moment. Results: uncertain. If the submarine had not been hit, he would certainly radio the convoy's position to other U-boats. More action could be expected soon...
Many of them next ship on a freighter in a huge North Atlantic convoy, Murmansk-bound. Attacked in mid-ocean by a fleet of German submarines, the ship leaves the convoy, but is trailed by one of the U-boats, runs under some Nazi bombers, is finally torpedoed by the dogging sub. Acting as captain in place of the wounded Massey, Bogart sets fire to his own decks, pretends to abandon ship, makes the Germans come to the surface, then rams and sinks them. The freighter limps into port with cargo intact...
...military convoy moving at night . . . is something that nobody who has been in one can ever forget. . . . The moon was just coming out. The sky was crystal-clear, and the night was bitter cold. . . . We had to cross over a mountain range. There were steep grades and switchback turns, and some of the trucks had to back and fill to make the sharper turns. . . . We had long waits. . . . We would shut off our motors and then the night would be deathly silent except for a subdued undertone of grinding motors far ahead...
Through all this, Cunningham never lost his nerve. He announced that if Bengasi fell to Rommel he would no longer be able to take convoys through to Malta. Bengasi fell. He called his staff together and said: "Gentlemen, you have just heard that the Germans have taken Bengasi. We'll run a convoy next week." When Rommel crept within 65 miles of Alexandria, reporters asked A.B.C. what its loss would mean. He said: "Oh, I don't think we are getting...