Word: mortaring
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...midweek, when Aachen had been beaten into mortar-stained destruction, the German command apparently came to its decision: the battle centered on Aachen was indeed the real thing. Now quick to act, the Germans plunged into desperate attacks to break the left arm of Hodges' army. Recklessly they expended sorely needed first-rate fighting "men in futile efforts to smash the most advanced spearheads. In two days they spent more than 60 tanks, gave up the intensive battle for the next two days to gather more strength...
...Canal, thence eastward to the suburbs of Antwerp. While one force of Canadians cleared the outskirts of the city, another struck across the Canal east of Aardenburg. The enemy was dug in, in trenches cut into the sides of the dikes, and had to be routed by intense artillery, mortar and small-arms fire, and finally flamethrowers...
...another Tarawa was developing," Martin cabled. "The Japs knew we were coming and threw everything in the book at us in a desperate effort to stave off annihilation. Two Jap shells made near misses on our amphtrack, pelted its sides with shrapnel. When we reached the beach another mortar a few yards distant spouted bloodily against the smoky island background, killed one Marine, wounded two others. We had to dig for cover in a ditch because our front lines were only 25 yards inland...
...grasp ideas, thorough in getting them into execution. As Infantry Chief, Hodges was concerned with training and new weapons. His knowledge of guns began to pay dividends. Hodges' insistence that an infantryman should have a weapon to stop a tank was an early influence in fostering the mortar-type bazooka. Other Hodges-fostered items: the jeep, the new-type helmet, the rapid-firing carbine...
...Early reports from the battle were deceptive. They were relayed by radio correspondents broadcasting from a ship in the harbor. On the fourth day one radio man who had not been ashore reported that the top of the ridge had been taken and there was no more mortar fire. Two days later another broadcaster said that Jap mortar fire was very inaccurate and ineffective. Those of us who trudged aboard ship simply told them they ought to go ashore and talk to the 200 who had been killed or wounded the night before by those same 'ineffective' mortars...