Word: shorely
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...daylight a young reconnaissance pilot, roaring overhead to make photographs in his P-38 Lightning, beheld a vast, fascinating panoply of war spread out beneath him. Allied warships* were cruising in toward shore, turning loose murderous salvos at the enemy coast, then swerving out to avoid coastal defense batteries. The ships had kindled a chain of smoke and flame extending ten miles inland...
There were ships as far as you could see on the cobalt blue water; the landing barges looked like squirming black fish streaming in & out from the shore. Destroyers were laying down smoke screens to help the landing craft approach safely. The screens mingled with clouds of smoke from the burning land, where shells had spread fires in the dust-dry countryside; everything that could burn was alight...
...military purposes, Sicily is a part of southern Italy, and Italy is one shore of the Adriatic. On the other shore is Yugoslavia, where guerrillas await the Allies. At some time and point, Allied forces moving in from the western and eastern Mediterranean will probably join. In the meantime, firm basing in southern Italy practically completes the neutralization of the Italian Navy, the reconquest of the Mediterranean and the opening of shorter supply routes for the Allied armies on its shores and in Russia...
...first U.S. troops to set foot on Axis Europe were paratroops. Their high half-boots hit the enemy soil early in the moonlit night of July 9, 1943-hours before Allied landing barges disgorged infantry, tanks and artillery on Sicily's shore...
...first attack a sizable task force cruised offshore, pouring round after round of high explosive on the rocky island. No answering flashes came from the shore batteries. Perhaps the Japs, anticipating invasion, did not want to give away their guns' location. Perhaps U.S. battleships which supported the Attu landings were still with the Aleutian fleet; their 14-in. guns would outrange the Jap batteries. But the second shelling, by a single smaller warship, roused the enemy to reply. Results: to the warship, no damage; to the Japs, gun positions revealed. A third shelling brought no reply...