Word: footholds
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...appeared that the Jap attack on Dutch Harbor was more than a reconnaissance, more than an attempt to draw U.S. forces from some other point. It was an end in itself, an effort to seize a foothold for a later drive on the inner Aleutians, the Alaskan mainland and their invaluable bases for long-range U.S. air assaults on Japan-or for Japanese assault on the northwestern...
Scoop in New Caledonia. Meanwhile the United Nations, sure that if they could hold on to New Guinea's foothold they would have a jump-off place against the Jap, forestalled him in another south Pacific area. Washington announced that U.S. troops had landed in New Caledonia, a Free French island 700 miles east of Australia. It was a prize the Jap would have given a lot of men to take, for it lies athwart the lifeline from the U.S. to Down Under. It is also incredibly rich in minerals -No. 2 world producer of nickel...
Following Portuguese, Dutch and British pioneers, the French first got a foothold on the island at the end of the 17th Century. In the 19th Century they started developing one of the world's best natural harbors, Diégo-Suarez on Madagascar's northeast coast. Diégo-Suarez is defended by ancient 75 and 90 mm. guns; on the whole island there are only 5,000 troops, French and Senegalese, with a sprinkling of natives. Of the 40,000 whites, most of the small fry are anti-Vichy; most of the Government, Army and other important...
...took his losses, secured his landings on Bali and Timor. With Bali, he won a foothold at Java's very edge on the east, to match his Sumatra springboard on the west. With Timor, he won another eastern approach and control of an essential waypoint on the route by which sorely needed fighter planes were flown from Australia to Java. And now he was probably near enough to Surabaya to immobilize that last, vital naval base even before he sent his troops against...
...reserve pressed toward the last of three rivers which barred their advance. They had crossed the Salween. They put bicycle scouts in Burmese dress, sent them worming ahead to find weak spots. Small parties of soldiers followed the scouts, stabbed here & there, and called in stronger forces when a foothold was seized. Thus they crossed the Bilin, and moved slowly on toward Rangoon's last important river barrier, the Sittang. The same advance carried them nearer & nearer to the one railway which connects Rangoon with Lashio, at the foot of the Burma Road...