Word: ragtag
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Bows & Arrows. The transition was swift and bloody. Led by a fanatical Uganda-born and Cuban-trained "field marshal" named John Okello, 27, a ragtag, 600-man army carrying pangas, bows and arrows raided two police armories. Then the rebels swept into Zanzibar Town before dawn, passing out guns to Afro-Shirazis and members of the outlawed Red Chinese-orientated Umma Party. In less than twelve hours, the Arab government of Sultan Seyyid Jamshid bin Abdulla had fallen, its ministers were in jail, and the 34-year-old sultan himself was hurrying toward asylum in Tanganyika...
...Ragtag it may be. But amateur football has its dedicated following. When Charlestown won Boston's Senior League championship in 1959, 17,000 rooters were on hand, and one fan got so excited that he drove his Cadillac onto the field and rammed it into the goal posts until they finally fell down. Every evening, outside Jack the Barber's one-chair barbershop on Bunker Hill Street, scores of youngsters gather to ogle the neighborhood heroes, talking football inside. They wheedle and whine until Star Townie Halfback Nippy Nolan agrees-as he always does-to perform the stunt...
...whetstone; the cartridges were loaded with a mixture of dynamite, amatol, and the flash powder from Chinese firecrackers. For every two men, there might be one obsolete rifle and 15 rounds of ammunition; with luck, a platoon would also sport several carbines or an automatic weapon. Yet these ragtag guerrilla forces, scattered across 36,000 square miles of mountain and malarial jungle, were able to tie down a large number of enemy units, kill 7,000 Japanese troops, and secure intelligence of the highest value. And here is one modern guerrilla insurrection that was led by Americans-for this...
Until recently, the only outward manifestations of revolt were a few student marches, and individual acts of defiance. But now Haiti's U.S. -trained 5,000-man army is dissatisfied with Duvalier, and embittered at being upstaged by the ragtag militia. Last month a group of army officers hatched a plot to depose Duvalier. When the dictator got wind of the coup, four of the officers involved managed to take refuge in the Brazilian embassy. A fifth, Colonel Charles Turnier, was picked up and dragged to Dessalines barracks for "questioning." Next morning machine guns rattled in the barracks...
...known as "Madame Yvette," who sauntered about in paratroop boots, camouflage uniform, bush hat and shoulder holster. Only 50 miles from Kolwezi, Indian infantrymen probed cautiously forward, waiting only for the signal to head full blast toward the town. But the signal would not be given rashly, for the ragtag mercenaries threatened to blow up a huge dam and industrial installations, leaving the town a blackened shell. They might not be bluffing...