Word: spezia
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...Sicily and Sardinia steadily increased (see p. 55). Italian and German resistance, particularly in the air, steadily decreased. But softening by air is not conquest. At the weekend, Americans struck at Italy's chief weapon of Mediterranean defense, its navy, with an air attack on three battleships at Spezia. Results: uncertain...
Giant Lancasters, attacking the northern industrial heart of Italy, left "colossal" fires blazing at Turin and made their first swoop over Mussolini's naval base at La Spezia. R.A.F. bombers by night, U.S. Flying Fortresses and Liberators by day, flew over western Europe. They gave Hamburg its 95th plastering. They roared through the valley of the Ruhr. They swarmed over the U-boat base at Lorient, where ten acres of the naval arsenal have now been reported destroyed. Apparently unable to pierce the eleven-foot roofs of the concrete sub pens, the Allied bombers have concentrated on softer targets...
...asked S. K. if his friend Pinelli could put the necessary transfers through the war ministry. Pinelli stared out the window a while, then said yes. Soon his fine Italian hand had set off the biggest of the Matteotti's explosions: of the buried oil reservoirs at the Spezia naval base...
This feat had several importances. It was an insufferable taunt at the Italians. It drew not a single ship from Italy's main naval base at La Spezia, not 60 miles away. It was an unequivocal warning to the Germans not to try to launch a seaborne expedition to North Africa either from Genoa or from French ports...
Europe raced last week toward another dictator-manufactured international crisis. Italy called out 60,000 men for training, stationed 30,000 troops at Genoa and La Spezia. France virtually doubled her mobilization speed, decided to call up 80,000 recruits in April instead of October. Britain took the first step toward conscription (see p. 16). From Germany came alarming reports of troop movements: five new mechanized divisions had been created, two whole divisions, equipped for "desert operations," passed over the Brenner Pass into Italy headed presumably for Italian Africa, trucks were requisitioned and "spring" maneuvers were scheduled to start February...