Columbus (CA 74) - Naval Cruise Book

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Bvl- X Seege- SVBE The Casbah Tunis, Tunisia Local ialeni ,. jd T T 1 Moslem women in +he cify Some peirol Joe? ,fm

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an our TirsT Trip To BizerTe, SepTember I95O, CapTain E. R. McLean Jr. was relieved by CapTain J. H. Wellings. In The morning various emergency drills were conducTed, which gave CapTain Wellings his 9 TirsT chance To waTch The crew in acTion. AT T300 The crew Tell in aT divisional parade and aT l3I5 CapTain McLean and CapTain Wellings inspecTed. lmmediaTely Tollowing inspecTion, all hands Tell in on The Tan- Tail Tor The oTTicial change oT command ceremonies. CapTain McLean Then leTT The ship To reporT To Commander DesTroyer Forces, U. S. ATlanTic FleeT Tor duTy. The ciTy oT BizerTe had liTTle To oTFer The liberTy parTy, excepT a Tew bars and limiTed souvenir buying, buT recreaTion parTies Took up The slaclc, and iT wasn'T Too bad. Tours To Tunis, The capiTal, and The ancienT ciTy of CarThage, one oT The leading ciTies oT The Old World, were conducTed daily. BizerTe began as a Roman colony, which was capTured by The Arabs in The 7Th cenTury. The French Took con- Trol in I88I. when all oT Tunisia became a French ProTecToraTe. When The Allied armies swepT across NorTh ATrica in I943, iT was used by The Germans and ITalians as a major supply depcT. WiTh The Tall oT NorTh ATrica. The Allies Took conTrol oT BizerTe, and used iT as a iumping-OTT place Tor The Sicilian invasion. We leTT BizerTe on The I3Th. joined The FleeT, and headed To-r Oran, Algeria. A Tew hours aTTer sunrise on The I5Th Tound The TleeT Tied up aT The breakwaTer aT Mers-el-Kebir, The French naval base. Taking The family ouT 'For a ride Swabby geTs Taken for a ride mg.

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OR , ALGERIA 0ran was seTTled loy The Arabs in The lOTh cenTury, and was capTured, pil- laged, and rebuilT by The various con- querors ThaT Tollowed. ITS ever-changing leadership ruined Orarfs prosperiTy, and Mers-el-Kebir became a piraTe , , sTronghold. Spain conquered lvlers-el- Kelair in l505, and Oran in I509, and massacred a Third oT The populaTion. The inquisiTion was inTroduced, TorTiTicaTions resTored, and Oran loecame a Spanish penal seTTlemenT. ATTer The devasTaTing earlrhguake of I79O. The Arabs again Took conTrol, buT aTTer Algiers had Tallen To The French, The Aralos surrendered Oran, and The French Took Tormal possession in l83l'. LiberTy in Oran wasn'T load, and The horse-Traders, who by now had learned The Tine'arT oT bargaining, picked up quanTiTies of leaTher goods and rugs. Tours were conducTed To Sidi-loel-Alobes, base of The French Foreign Legion. The men were shown selecTed parTs OT The base, including a small museum depicTing cam- paigns in which Legionnaires have ToughT. ATTer seeing The base The men goT a chance To go Through The local casbah, or naTive disTricT. ' The swabby soon learned how To bargain wifh The sTreeT salesman, and ofTen came auf ahead wiih a good deal.