Definition of "open fire" verb third-person singular simple present opens fire , present participle opening fire , simple past and past participle opened fire
(idiomatic) To begin firing (weapons ) at something or someone . quotations examples
Quotations The Atlanta was swinging through her own turn to avoid a collision with the van when the searchlight , probably from the destroyer Akatsuki , lit upon her from abaft the port beam . Captain Jenkins reacted as commanders had been trained in peacetime : "Counter -illuminate !" he shouted . His gunnery officer , Lieutenant Commander William R . D . Nickelson , Jr ., preferred to respond with other hardware . At once he shouted into his headset mike : "Fuck that ! Open fire His assistant , Lloyd Mustin , was recording accurate ranges from the narrowcasting fire -control radar and didn 't need help from other wavelengths . "Action port . Illuminating ship is target ," he instructed his gun captains . Mustin , controlling the after trio of five -inch mounts , and Nickelson slewed their directors onto the lights and opened fire immediately .
2011, James D. Hornfischer, “28: Into the Light”, in Neptune's Inferno: The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal, New York: Bantam Books, retrieved 21 November 2022, pages 273–274