Possible Clues:

• Half-heartedly holding back cool old city
• Old city street and a girl on the loose
• Last daring manoeuvres in battle
• The 1942-3 battle of ____ is possibly the bloodiest in history
• Old city that's cheerless, in which sailor eats fish
• A swimmer in game doing the backstroke? That's a battle!
• Name of city once recollected in a grand list
• Rushes around carrying a fish, where food was short during siege