Word: u-boat
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...battle of the Atlantic last week narrowed toward a showdown. The Allies announced a plan for a transatlantic air umbrella to protect convoys "over every mile of the route from North America to Europe." Germany spoke of a "totality of U-boat warfare, which means that German U-boat warfare is equivalent to German naval warfare as a whole...
...weeks the Nazis had been forecasting an intensified U-boat offensive, a climactic effort to throttle the Allies' offensive plans in Europe. Submarines were indeed abroad in herds, but up to this week the offensive had not attained the promised scale. Now, or never, was the time for the effort. If Germany won, an Allied second front in Europe would be indefinitely postponed. If she failed -and her time was running out - the first great breach in the Atlantic Wall of Hit ler's Fortress Europe would be accomplished...
Flying Officer Brant Howell of Manitoba turned his Sunderland from a probable "kill" to attack a surfaced sub with his guns. The sub's deck gun fired back, When the U-boat crash-dived, Howell saw the abandoned Nazi gun crew floundering in the sea. They soon had their submarine for company. Reported Howell: "Four depth charges exploded within a few feet of the stern and the last we saw of the U-boat was six feet of the afterpart sticking out almost vertically from the water...
...searchlight bridge opens up now, and the wallowing hulk of the U-boat is clearly outlined in the glare. It shudders and rocks as the three-inch shells pour into it at the water line. Everybody on the cutter is yelling like a madman. Up forward you can see the Negro crew of number five gun, working like a machine, and grinning all the while. They throw the shells into the gun in a steady stream-the fastest gun crew on the cutter. And their lips move as they pour hot steel into the submarine. They're singing...
...Many an old-fashioned Navy man frowned: slow, small carriers (flight deck: 514 ft.) tote few planes, often must catapult them when there is no strong wind to help. And the pros felt no certainty that the small flat tops, even in droves, would be the answer to the U-boat...