Word: helgoland
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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Singapore is one of the four most formidable naval fortresses in the world (others: Helgoland, Gibraltar, Pearl Harbor). Before the war started, Britain's strength at Singapore consisted of three cruisers, one aircraft carrier, nine destroyers, 15 submarines and a number of smaller craft-only enough to play for time until help came from the British China Squadron (four cruisers), from Australia and New Zealand (eight cruisers, five destroyers, some of which are now in the Mediterranean) and from the Mediterranean (now impossible). Singapore's guns are powerful, and the only successful attack would be a long siege...
...Writing that off as a dead loss, the project was still worthwhile, provided Hermann Goring's air force was as all-powerful as rated. But Norway's coast is a nearer target for the R. A. F. than Germany's air bases at Sylt and in Helgoland Bight. Moreover, destruction of the German Fleet would leave the Allied navies more free to fight elsewhere to Germany's disadvantage...
...accurate. Two flying officers-D. P. C. P. Wood and Richard Blomfield-were secretly court-martialed. German broadcasters said their crimes were handing in false reports of spectacular air victories in which they participated. Wood was found guilty, dismissed. Blomfield, said to have fabricated a glorious account of a Helgoland raid, committed suicide before hearing the court's verdict on him. The British Air Ministry said neither man was charged with false reporting, that both were in fact groundlings never engaged in air fights in this...
...pursuit ships sat, scoring hits on hangars, planes, civilians (one killed, seven wounded, in addition to seven Jack-tars admitted dead). The Germans said they bombed the airfields because they would not make the same mistake the British did in December "when they tried to attack us [at Helgoland] and had 34 planes shot down by our Messerschmitts...
...Helgoland...