Word: tracers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Main fact about the projectile, which is fired from a .50-caliber machine gun, is that it can blow up an enemy aircraft's self-sealing gasoline tank. Earlier in the war the self-sealing tank was good insurance against old-style tracer bullets. By preventing leakage of fuel and formation of explosive vapor, the tank nullified the tracer. But the new bullet explodes in the pierced fuel tank, starts a chemical fire of intense heat and spreads a sheet of flame several feet in diameter...
...Company in an assault on the lower slopes of this ridge. On our left was another hill, half green where grape vineyards had been planted and half yellow where wheat was planted. Up this slope Morehouse and K Company were now attacking, and we could see their red tracer bullets shooting very prettily into the green of the grape vines. Thrush! Wham! a shell with terrific velocity flew over our heads through the pass...
Around the Clock. Not until the tracer bullets flew out toward the eleven o'clock angle could I spot the tiny black speck moving toward us. Quickly it became a plane with wings, bigger & bigger, then streaked out of sight to the left. The only sounds were the roar of the Fortress' engines and the shrill clatter of the .50-caliber machine guns. We clapped on our tin helmets. My knees felt as though someone had removed the bones...
From transports standing between the destroyers and the battleships came swarms of landing boats, dashing through the hot red tracer fire from enemy shore batteries and machine guns, grinding to a halt on the steep shores, discharging their men, then hastening back to the transports for another load. Engineers and assault infantrymen led the way ashore, scurried to cover, set up machine guns, charted underwater obstacles at the landing points, then started clearing away barbed wire with Bangalore torpedoes...
...East Anglia town Joan Smee was sitting in a municipal office "when a tracer bullet came through the window and went through my hair, setting it on fire." Somebody in the office put the fire...