Word: stillness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1940-1949
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...were driving along the mountain road on which Mrs. Aurora Quezon, widow of the Philippines' first President, was assassinated by the Communist-led Huks* last spring. For miles the road was deserted. Stray pieces of rotting cloth and bullet-ridden luggage still mark the site of the ambush. Soldiers for our party, clutching their carbines, fanned out to survey the scene; one flushed a parrot from a high fern. "I knew three of the dead," said their lieutenant, and idly fired four rounds of ammunition at a towering lawan tree. "In memory of Mrs. Quezon and my three friends...
...order of grog for all hands. In Shanghai, the Communist press ignored the Amethyst's escape completely. Shanghai British celebrated discreetly. "We're glad they're out of it," said one, "but there's no point in crowing over it. After all, we're still here...
Ever since her duel with Chinese Communist shore batteries off Rose Island (TIME, May 2), the shell-pocked British frigate Amethyst had been blockaded 140 miles up the Yangtze River from Shanghai, with 86 men of her original crew of 192 still aboard. The Communists kept 105-mm. howitzers constantly trained on the Amethyst at a murderous 400-yard range. The colonel commanding the batteries had warned the Amethyst's captain: "If you move, I'll sink you instantly...
...steamer ahead of her was challenged by flares from the shore. The Communists opened up with heavy artillery and machine-gun fire. The Amethyst returned the fire. In London, the Admiralty received a message from the Amethyst: "Am under heavy fire and hit." Ten minutes later she messaged: "Still under heavy fire." At midnight the moon set, giving the Amethyst an advantage of 7¼ hours of darkness. About 1 a.m., Communist batteries at the Kiangyin forts opened up on the Amethyst. Kiangyin was the critical point. To get past, the Amethyst had to crash a blockading boom across...
...Trasteverini could remember few finer fiestas. Only the Communists still grumbled dourly that they could have done it better. At Romolo's wineshop, a Communist stronghold, the potbellied Cricket argued sharply with the Poppy, a Red. The Poppy had just remarked snidely: "Someone is getting fat from the festa this year." "Had you your way," said the Cricket, "the walls would have been plastered with newspapers, the Madonna would have been ashamed to show herself in your presence, and the Bersaglieri would have stayed where they were...