Word: merchantmen
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...dusk they maneuvered into the middle of a coastwise convoy of six cargo ships and three small naval vessels. Away went the sub's torpedoes and down went two Jap merchantmen. Klakring let his crew take a look through the periscope at "this very pretty sight." When the other Jap ships, panic-stricken, turned and raced for the shore, Klakring surfaced and gave chase. He dogged one ship into a cove and plumped a torpedo into her middle. It was a lucky hit at long range. But, said Klakring, a soft-spoken Marylander, "If I had missed...
...other target was one of the three remaining merchantmen, still outside the harbor. Coastal batteries lobbed shells at him, naval craft chased him as he ploughed off in pursuit of her. He submerged and let her have two torpedoes. "She sort of fell apart...
Instead, Nasi planes came diving out of the sun, machine-gunning and bombing confused merchantmen as they came. Aided by the perpetual daylight of the season, they came again and again on a 24-hour schedule...
When Nelson Stepanyan, an Armenian dive-bomber pilot in the Red Air Force, was made a Hero of the Soviet Union, the Russians said that he had destroyed: 78 German trucks, 67 tanks, 63 anti-aircraft guns, 19 mortars, 36 railroad cars, 20 merchantmen and warships (including one destroyer) 13 fuel tankers, twelve armored cars, seven long-range guns, five ammunition dumps, five bridges. Once, wounded, he was forced to land behind the German lines, but guerrillas helped him escape...
Carriers. The loss of four U.S. carriers in the Coral Sea, at Midway and the Solomons reduced the total known carrier force of the Navy to three, plus some converted merchantmen which are of limited combat value. Atlantic requirements and unreported, but always possible damage to remaining carriers may at any time reduce the U.S. Pacific strength to two, one-or zero. Even allowing for reported damage to Jap carriers last week (see p. 27), Japan may have a two-or three-to-one margin-although most of her carriers are somewhat smaller...