古德明《征服英语》之英语军事故事,古德明,香港英语教育作家,他开了一个《征服英语专栏》,在专栏中专门用英语写了世界近代史上的军事小故事,用英语讲述历史中那些惊心动魄的战争。
天风散战云
"it is an ill wind that blows no good." a typhoon that struck the pacific islands of samoa 120 years ago helped illustrate this saying.
civil war broke out in samoa in the 1880s. as both the united states and germany had commercial interests in the islands, three american warships were dispatched to samoa when germany intervened in the war in 1889. conflict seemed unavoidable. on 19 march, though the weather was visibly threatening, the warships from the two nations would not sail to safety and relinquish their positions in apia harbour.
soon afterwards a savage typhoon broke. ships collided with each other or were driven on to the surrounding coral reefs and sank. in these horrendous conditions, the ships' crews came to each others' rescue. the natural disaster eased political tensions, and a diplomatic solution was agreed upon.
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