Word: torpedo
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Readers will find Tarawa the work of a crack reporter, the most vivid book on the Pacific war since Ira Wolfert's Torpedo 8. Many will find it stomach-turning in its horrifying depiction of battle. That was Author Sherrod's prime objective: "Our information services [have] failed to impress the people with the hard facts of war. . . . There is no easy way to win. . . . [There will] be many other bigger and bloodier Tarawas...
They nuzzled past more torpedo nets, pressed to within 200 yards of their quarry, the proud 45,000-odd-ton German super-battleship Tirpitz...
...range, fired broadsides from formation. To the U.S. crews, the battle at this stage had a weird naval quality. A Fortress gunner watched a group of 18 twin-engined Me-110s circle from the rear, fly up in line three-quarters of a mile away; then, like torpedo boats, execute a superb 90-degree turn and lob their rockets simultaneously-"a broadside of rockets that seemed to burst in an unending line of red and yellow fire." Some bombers were under continuous attack for as much as 90 minutes; 24 hours later the men were still tense and grim-eyed...
...Nazis' secret weapon is a huge gun which fires massive air bombs (about 40 ft. long, 4 ft. thick), each one twice the length and thickness of a submarine's torpedo. Five or seven rocket installations in the tail keep the projectile going, outer rockets firing in pairs after a large central one has burned out. It is guided to its target by radio, and causes a tremendous explosion when it hits. The rocket gun even has a name: Urania...
...attacked at once. After two engagements, in which both sides scored hits, the Scharnhorst fled southward only to be intercepted by the Duke of York and a task force somewhere above the North Cape. Hits by the British battleship gave the destroyers a chance to slip in for a torpedo attack, after which the Duke of York pounded the Scharnhorst to a helpless hulk, and a final torpedo attack by the cruiser Jamaica, the Belfast and four destroyers sank her. One destroyer picked up 30 survivors, another six-apparently the only men saved from the Scharnhorst's crew...