Word: mediterraneans
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...since the Bismarck has there been such a sea hunt. In the teeth of a gale that whipped the azure Mediterranean into an ash-gray cauldron of 20-foot waves, five Israeli-manned gunboats scooted to Haifa last week on a 3,000-mile dash from the northern French port of Cherbourg. At various points, they were tracked by French reconnaissance planes, an R.A.F. Canberra from Malta, Soviet tankers, the radar forests of the U.S. Sixth Fleet, television cameramen and even Italian fishermen. From a distance, the world watched with emotions ranging from amusement to outrage. In a twist...
Christmas morning, in single file and with no lights, the fleet of five slipped past the Fort de l'Est breakwater, turned south and moved across the Bay of Biscay. They maintained radio silence until they reached Gibraltar 64 hours later. There they split up to prevent Soviet Mediterranean fleet units from boxing them in and herding them to an unfriendly port. Off Sicily, tankers were waiting to refuel the boats. Israeli naval units, possibly including two submarines, had also converged to serve as escorts. Unwilling to risk a pasting, Egyptian fighters and warships gave the fugitive flotilla...
Even after the legerdemain was uncovered, the Israeli government continued to insist to all questioners that the speedy, 45-knot boats would be used to service and defend Mediterranean oil rigs. No one took that insistence particularly seriously. "Using these boats to look for oil is like using a Ferrari to haul potatoes," said a French radio commentator...
...shift in the Azores high-pressure area from 35° north latitude, where it normally centers, to 45° north. The shift eliminated summer rains from most of Europe and brought unusually warm and sunny weather. Meanwhile, cool air suddenly began to flow from the Soviet Union toward the Mediterranean. A low-pressure system over Northern Africa created a bowling-alley effect, directing the moisture-laden air mass straight at Tunisia. On the Tunisian-Algerian border, the Atlas Mountains blocked the air and caused the rain to fall. The mountains also set up a swirling air flow in which clouds...
...together, created a torrent eight miles wide. The force was so great that 100-ton concrete slabs, used to anchor bridges, were hurled downstream. An irrigation project that took two years and $7,000,000 to construct was washed away in six hours. As late as last week the Mediterranean was still an oozing ochre sore from the Gulf of Tunis to the Gulf of Bou Grara because of topsoil washed into the sea by the boiling rivers...