Word: rearguards
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Throughout these eight days Axis rearguard troops backed up, fighting desperately while the remnants of Erwin Rommel's once-great African army streamed on ahead. German artillery blazed away, rocked back, blazed away again from the mountains that surround Italy's loveliest African seaport. Futilely the Luftwaffe rose to ward off the blows of a superior enemy. At last they gave up. Tripoli fell in flames and smoke, much of its harbor facilities, many of its military installations demolished by the fleeing Nazis. They continued to flee as light British warships crowded in and shelled them from...
...restoration of a lasting peace must be approached in a different way. The facts that bring me to this conclusion are: 1. the failure of Hitler to invade England over 22 miles of water, 2. the failure of the large and idle British army to make an effective rearguard action with an army of 10,000,000 as its ally, 3. the failure of the one totalitarian force in the world with its own forts and inside lines to prevent huge German victories...
...very first day, Napoleon fell off his horse-a bad omen. The horses got colic from eating green crops, and in ten days one third of the cavalry was lost. By the time they reached Vilna, 50.000 men were lost from sickness alone. The Russians fought sharp rearguard actions almost to Moscow, stood at Borodino, killed 25,000 Frenchmen. Having entered most of the first cities of Europe except Moscow, the soldiers were eager to sweep into Moscow. But the Russians burned the town as they entered...
...just the man to explain to the world Japan's case after Japan seized Manchuria in 1931. He was sent as chief delegate to the Plenary Session of the League of Nations, which was considering the Lytton Report on the China-Japan conflict. There he conducted a dramatic rearguard campaign in a series of unconventional, eloquent, unrehearsed speeches in which he dragged in even Christ...
...straight, tumbled into ditches as the Nazi strafers made at them, then scrambled up to pot the advancing tanks or bayonet their way out of traps. As the forces fell back toward wedge-shaped Attica, it became evident that the bulk of them could get clear only if the rearguard made a magnificent stand. Sir Thomas decided that historic Thermopylae pass was the spot. He ordered the chosen few: "Every man must now do his job with strong determination. Select positions with care, and so prevent the enemy from coming down on you from above or infiltrating along mountain tracks...