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Wood, William (William Charles Henry), 1864-1947

"Flag and Fleet How the British Navy Won the Freedom of the Seas"

There was many a weird sight as scurrying cruisers and
destroyers suddenly showed up, ominously black, against the ghastly
whiteness of the searchlit sea. Hunters and hunted raced, turned, and
twisted without a moment's pause. "We couldn't tell what was
happening," said the commander of a dashing destroyer. "Every now and
then out of the silence would come _Bang! bang!! boom!!!_ as hard as it
could for ten minutes on end. The flash of the guns lit up the whole
sky for miles and miles, and the noise was far more penetrating than by
day. Then you would see a great burst of flame from some poor devil,
as the searchlights switched on and off, and then perfect silence once
more."
_Next Day_. Dawn comes early on the 1st of June at 55 degrees North.
But the mist veiled everything more than three or four miles off. At
3.30 A.M. a huge Zeppelin flew across the British battle line,
wirelessing down to any Germans still to the westward the best way to
get home. By nine the light craft had all come in after scouring the
sea for Germans.


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