Word: duckings
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Collisions between planes and birds are reported by U.S. airline pilots about twice a week. They can disable wing tips, dent the fuselage, foul the motor-but the chief danger is a windshield break. Last month a DC-3 almost crashed in Iowa when a duck came through the windshield in an explosion of glass and feathers and knocked out the pilot (the copilot saved the plane...
...There is nothing between us and Red Beach but twinkling, flaring, dancing explosions. Two white fountains spring up in the water just ahead of our tender and the commander snaps: 'Here it comes. Mortars. Get down!' We duck. Then there is the pinging of machine-gun fare and we duck again. Now an amphtank chuffs up on the beach, swings and throws a shot to the left. Next in are the amphtracks, and then the landing boats, loaded with troops. Presently the beach has a jeep, a bulldozer, a U.S. flag. These things make the landing official...
...city of 300 hills, was put to the torch. All but a few aged standpatters and lost children had fled three weeks earlier; its ring of air bases had been burned and blasted (TIME, Sept. 25). Now the Lo-chun-she Hotel, famous for its roast chicken and Peking duck, was gutted by flames; so were stores, cinemas, offices and factories...
...rumors swirled up again, as heady as the smell of garlic to New York's duck-bottomed little Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia. But he would have none of them. Had he not been deceived 17 months ago? Then he had gone confidently to a Manhattan haberdasher and bought a resplendent gabardine uniform, suitable for one silver star, had waited for orders to fly to North Africa, perhaps dreaming of marching into Rome at the head of U.S. columns. But a Congressional hubbub over "political generals" had stopped the appointment cold; Franklin Roosevelt sent to Italy two other New York Democrats...
...Thursday morning 'hate' [shelling period] was very heavy and deplorably few duds. I counted no shells in 35 minutes. ... It seemed every time we'd try to get some food the shelling would start again. You'd duck in a trench to get a cup of tea, then spill it diving back into your own trench. . . . Our trenches would cave in too unless we could reinforce them with boards...