Word: torpedos
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...craft were Philippine "Q-boats," 65-foot torpedo carriers which Douglas MacArthur had ordered years before, when he first became the Commonwealth's Field Marshal. The four boats should have met before dawn, then hidden near the shore until the next night. But the Q-boats had taken a beating since Dec. 7 and their tired engines could not do their rated 39 knots. The two parties had to risk a daylight voyage and did not meet until nearly noon...
After dark on the day of the Channel skirmish, the Germans sent another pack of speedsters against a 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...
...British radio announcement that Swordfish torpedo planes were being based in Cuba to aid United States naval and army air forces was confirmed by an official British source in Havana...
...torpedo caught the Gulftrade squarely amidships, neatly halved her. Blessing the heavy sea that extinguished the fire before it could spread to the oil-slicked water, Torger Olsen and six of his crew took to a boat, were rescued 30 minutes later. Nine elected to stay with the half-ship; they were taken off by rescue vessels. Eighteen of the crew were unaccounted for. The attacking submarine cruised insolently for several minutes between the floating halves of the ship...
First U.S. warship ever torpedoed in her own coastal waters, the Jacob Jones was the second U.S. destroyer named for the Commodore Jacob Jones who captured the British brig Frolic in the War of 1812. Her predecessor was the only U.S. destroyer lost to enemy action in World War I: in the winter of 1917 she was torpedoed 400 miles out of Brest by U-boat Commander Hans Rose, who hit her at 3,000 yards, the longest successful torpedo shot on record. The Navy, which does not believe in ill omens, will no doubt soon launch a sleek...