Word: roadstead
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...foregone conclusion that the Nazis' demolitions would wreck the tide gates of Cherbourg's commercial basin; they might have some temporary success in blocking the entrances to the harbor by sinking ships. But there was little they could do to lessen the usefulness of the magnificent roadstead...
Port of Necessity. There was no doubt that, once Cherbourg was taken, U.S. and British engineers could have the port usable again in a few days. Within the shelter of the five-mile-long roadstead, even lightering in supplies would be far easier and faster than in the wide-open Bay of the Seine, or in the tiny fishing-village ports opened by Royal Marines...
...until late afternoon of D-day were some of the beaches secured. All night, while the naval guns boomed in the roadstead and explosions flashed along the embattled coast, the drenched wounded lay in the sand, some whimpering in delirium. Then the invasion rolled on-beyond the dreadful jetsam on the beaches...
Simultaneously German bombers roared in over the docks, dropped flares, circled to identify the warships' positions. Over the roadstead leading out to sea parachute mines floated down to block the entrance. Aboard the French vessels, officers and crews sprang to their stations. Searchlights stabbed out, anti-aircraft batteries opened up from the ships and ashore. From the flagship of Vice Admiral Jean de Laborde, commander of the fleet, a signal was given...
...days Cebu's people had taken to the hills every time a ship appeared in the roadstead. After each false, alarm, lean, grey, Lieut. Colonel Howard J. Edmands and his little denim-clad Filipino M.P.s tramped back from the dock areas through the street, jaunty and unafraid with their rifles and their single machine gun. The remains of Cebu's population quieted down, and waited...