Word: mortars
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...tiny mirror, still not used to the G.I. buzz cut, stares at himself. A lieutenant from Live Oak, Fla., peeks nervously over the sandbag ramparts and wonders about the alien landscape. A private forks out the last globs of mushy tinned meat and then, dog-tired from worrying about mortar rounds all day, snuffs his cigarette in the greasy C-ration can and sleeps...
...ladder, to join their firepower to that of five comrades who were already in the rooftop fighting position. That act of gallantry cost them dearly. Three rocket-propelled grenades burst on the sandbags around the position without causing significant damage. But at about 10 p.m., a single 120-mm mortar round crashed through the roof, blowing up the bunker with the ten Marines inside. Rescuers arrived to find a ghastly scene, the ruined bunker a swamp of blood. Only three of the ten men had survived the blast, and all were wounded, one mortally. They lay among the bodies...
Spectre, proved highly effective with their shooting rate of up to 6,000 rounds a minute. They knocked out Cuban mortar and gun positions that threatened the invading troops early in the action. But they also suffered casualties, some in heroic low-level flights to draw ground fire, thereby exposing the enemy position to attacks from other U.S. choppers. The Pentagon said five helicopters had been shot down. One transport helicopter, hit by ground fire as it brought troops into the Point Salines airstrip, struck another chopper in its uncontrolled descent. Both crashed...
...fighting was far from over. An additional 400 Cubans, it turned out, plus an unknown number of Grenadian soldiers and militiamen, continued to rattle the Rangers with sniper and mortar fire. They had isolated the medical school's Grand Anse campus from its True Blue buildings. They roamed the back streets of St. George's, pounding on doors, and melted up into the hills, seeking either hiding or sniper sites. They continued to control the capital's small harbor...
...ruins. The next day, under a tight cloak of secrecy, Bush flew on Air Force Two from Washington to Cyprus, where he boarded a helicopter for the Iwo Jima. His arrival in Beirut was delayed for more than an hour when Marine positions east of the airport came under mortar attack from a Druze stronghold in the hills above. The Marines returned the fire, and the shelling died...