A thundering 21-gun salute from an unseen man-o'-war rumbled in the fog off Barcelona harbor. Ancient Spanish cannon in the fort protecting the harbor bellowed their reply. Out of the mist loomed two U.S. cruisers and three destroyers. It was the U.S. Sixth Fleet's first operational visit in Franco's day, to Spain's well-sheltered Mediterranean ports. All told, 30 U.S. warships, including the 45,000-ton aircraft carrier Franklin D. Roosevelt, the carrier Tarawa (27,100 tons) and three heavy cruisers, steamed into eight Spanish ports last week.
The Spanish, anxious for U.S. aid and hospitable by nature, worked hard to make the fleet...
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