Word: tonner
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...Last year the keels of the new heavy cruisers (Baltimore, Boston, Pittsburgh, St. Paul) were laid. Before Fahey, few laymen realized that the Baltimores were probably enlargements of the Wichita, a heavily armored, heavily protected 10,00-tonner...
...convoy sailed around North Cape and along the coasts of the remote, mineral-rich territory called Lapland, dive-bombers and submarines kept up the attack. Berlin, reporting the last one near the entrance to Murmansk harbor, claimed a total bag of eight ships, including a 10,000-tonner loaded with tanks and ammunition. The British said that the entire convoy entered Murmansk, admitted some damage and deaths, claimed the probable destruction of three U-boats with depth charges...
...British convoy in the North Sea. Again British destroyers blew two E-boats to flotsam, but this time the Germans fought back, spitting torpedoes. One torpedo punched the frail hull of the Vortigern, a 1,090-ton oldtimer, and she went down. The British patrol sloop Guillemot, a 580-tonner which can do little better than 20 knots, spotted an E-boat lying in ambush, crept up within 50 yards before the German crew woke up. The Guillemot sent a 4-in. shell into the E-boat's water line and hosed its deck with machine-gun bullets...
...swift motor torpedo boat commanded by Lieut. John D. Bulkeley slipped into Subic Bay one night and sank a 5,000-ton Jap ship, got away clean. A week later Bulkeley returned, this time in a torpedo boat commanded by Ensign George Cox, to knock off another 5,000-tonner. Meanwhile more than 200 miles north of Manila a band of Philippine guerrillas burst from the hills and slashed at a Jap airdrome at Tuguegarao on Northern Luzon. They reported (presumably by radio to Corregidor) that they had killed no Japs, routed 300 more...
...that time there wasn't a Navy Yard in the U. S. big enough to handle a 70,000-ton battleship-let alone an 80,000-tonner. And Naval authorities doubted the wisdom of concentrating so much fighting power in a single hull. Such a giant ship would lack speed, maneuverability, would offer a much bigger target to air attack, would be unable to get through the Panama Canal. And its loss would be a staggering blow to any fleet. Nevertheless, the U. S. Navy has always believed that in a showdown between speed and gun power, gun power...