Word: feeler
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Though inconclusive, the attack on the Dodecanese was an important feeler against Italy's main base in the eastern Mediterranean. The U.S. destroyer deal had opened the way for a new and bolder British strategy in the Mediterranean: to harass, with the help of reinforcements, Italian bases and communications to such an extent that Mussolini would be forced to bring his main fleet into play to protect the vital line to Libya. Then, at last, His Majesty's Navy might be able to work up something more exciting than a game of drop the handkerchief...
They crushed the Japanese feeler which crept out in May attempting to command the northern approaches to Chungking, with Hanchung (see map) as its ultimate objective. They did the same to a September drive for Changsha, key to Chungking's southern approaches. And they made a bloody, muddy fiasco of a Japanese "cleanup" campaign in supposedly occupied Shansi Province in the north...