Word: flak
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Eighth Air Force-and the first time he saw Paris he was "shaking like an aspen" in the nose of the Flying Fortress Georgia Peach in the celebrated Bastille Day bombing. "Ahead of us Focke-Wulfs and Messerschmitts dived and rolled, spitting lead, and bursting flak made black puffballs all around...
...watching the rhythmic rise & fall of the little flow indicator ball in the oxygen control box (most flying was done at heights requiring masks), took pulses and armpit temperatures, watched for trembling, pallor, changes in pupil size. In all, he observed 16 different men during the ordeal by flak. Only three showed no fright reaction...
...Samples: "clobber"-to destroy an enemy plane; "beaver"-to shoot holes in an enemy plane; "wetfeet"-to fly over the Channel; "happy valley"-where flak is heavy...
Cassady and Jaffe got back with the information. Vandenberg's men were ready with antitank guns that travel 400 m.p.h. - P47 Thunderbolt fighter bombers. For the next four hours the Thunderbolts struck in groups of four, boring in through the mist with flak-scarred wings nearly scraping the towering hills, to drop their bombs and to rake the column with rockets. One contingent found another column of comparable size on a winding road, gave it the lethal works...
Skeptical scientists, baffled by the whole affair, were inclined to dismiss the fireballs as an illusion, perhaps an afterimage of light which remained in the pilots' eyes after they had been dazzled by flak bursts...