1950-12-19 — Page 3

THE HONGKONG, TELEGRAPH, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1950.

REDS FEELING FOR WEAK SPOT Naval Guns Keep Up Heavy Barrage In Hungnam Beachhead

Methodical Arc Around Ilse Feigning

Dutch Troops

In Training

In Korea

Seoul, Dec. 18. The Netherlands detach-

American Lines

tore

Tokyo, Dec. 18.

into the massed

Shells from Allied warships Chinese Communist troops pressing against the shrinking United Nations perimeter around Hungnam in North-East ment to the United Nations United Nations perimeter around

Korea.

forces in Korea has been attached to the United States Second Division for training and preparation for combat, it was an... nounced today.

The detachment is carrying out patrol operations as part of the training in Korea to be pre- pared against condition which they will face later in combat.

The Dutch detachment, some→

what less than a battalion size, is composed mainly of veteran soldiers but with a few recruits In the ranks. They include para troops, artillerymen, engineers and sailors moulded into an effective infantry fighting unit through special training.

During their voyage from Rotterdam to Korea, the Dutch troops were trained with wea- pons by special instructors who had served with the Dutch army. Since their arrival in Korea they have been given additional training with new and special will infantry weapons which enable them "to give the enemy some unpleasant" things.

The commanding officer of the Dutch detachment is Lieut. Col.

Ouden M. P. A. des

of the

Hague. This is the second Dutch

contribution to the United

Etna Still Erupting

Catania, Sicily, Dee, 18.

Army planes which plunged into the heavy clouds of steam and smoke encircling the Mount Etna crater, were forced to turn back on Monday because mist reduced visibility to zero.

The planes attempted unsuc- cessfully to photograph the vol- cano's crater which has been belching lava and are for the past 18 days.

On the ground, rain slowed the new stream of lava which poured out of the volcano during the night, The tips of the new stream were still about 10 miles

the villages from

OF Milo Fornazzo and Rinazza which have been almost completely evacuated for more than week.-United Press.

Nations effort in Korea. The first Police

was

the destroyer "Eveten” patrolling in Korean waters-United Press.

now

Close

On Gangsters

Trains Collide closing

Prague, Dec. 19. Three were killed' and 35 in- jured-17 of them seriously-in a collision between a passenger train and a goods train on the outskirts of Prague last night, it was officially announced, Reuter.

a

In

Rome, Dec. 18. .Italian police are

slowly a widespread net thrown across Italy in which they hope to catch the leaders of an underworld gang which specialised in stealing travellers

The big guns of the United States warships standing offshore laid a curtain of fire around the hard-pressed and isolated American garrison maintaining a deadly No-Man's-Land of flying steel between the thin Allied line and the over- whelming enemy forces.

On the other fronts Allied air observers reported that the Chinese Communist armies fac- ing the Anglo-American defence line in the North-West were massing north of Seoul, the Southern capital..

But frontline reports indicated that the Communists had called a halt at least temporarily to their crushing onslaught against the outnumbered United Nations

forces.

The Communists launched light probing attacks in the past 24 hours, but there was no sign of any big-scale winter offensive.

The biggest assault of the battle for Hungnam, in the North-East, came today from a Communist- Chinese

company three miles southeast of Ham- hung, which was abandoned to the enemy on Saturday-

The Communists were report ed only four miles northeast of the port itself.

Insanity

Augsburg, Dec, 18. Two German psychia trists told the Court today. that Ilse Koch, former mis» tress of Buchenwald, wan "completely normal ajui should not be transferred to an insane asylum to escape trial,

Drs Rudolf Engler and Gerhard Sieghart said Koch feigned insanity to "gabot- age" her trial on charges of mass murder and bruta- lity.-United Press.

"Ladies' Bracelets" Selling Well

Sydney, Dec. 18. Labelled "Ladies Bracelets," a war disposals store here is offering Army leg-irons at four chillings a pair.

Third Division troops. The Reds They are selling well-most- ran and scrambled close enoughly to lorry drivers who like to to United States positions to lob find their tyres where they left hand grenades into the Ameri-them-Reuter. can lines. But stubbom infantry

and artillery fire blunted the assault, and the front was quiet at midnight.

Offshore cruisers hurled dead-

ly three-foot shells through the clear cold night in a methodical are around the American lines. Howitzers added, their thunder to the Navy's eight-inchers, and present, was that, for the enough to keep at bay several thousand Chinese and North at the American lines since their Koreans who have only jabbed

first major attack was turned

back in a vicious day-long be

the heavy quisers Rochester and St Paul and supporting des-on Friday, troyers, pinpointing Communist concentrations and road junc- tions with the aid of spotting planes, were lobbing shells over the perimeter all day long.

Carrier-based planes pounded troop concentrations, buildings and railway installations, Ham- battered. was heavily hung

cheques from visitors and cash-Naval units also bombarded strafing ing them at local banks.

Several members of the gang had already been arrested.- Reuter..

-

A WINTER WARMER FROM PARIS. “Masked Bandit" would be an apt title for this new collar style by O'Rossen of Paris. It is an original styled funnel- shaped collar on a biege raglan winter coat (Central

Press)

THE VIGIL

Meanwhile, carrier-based Navy and Marine planes which hacked at the Reds from clear skies all round the perimeter yesterday, reported sighting Chinese

of flight bombers reported artillery for the first time, A

and bombing trucks and "several camouflaged field guns ten miles west of Ham- hung. Another flight bombed WELL NORTH

troops and four mortar positions Ronald Batchelor, Reuter's five miles north of the city. correspondent in Seoul, reported The lull in the fighting today. that the main Chinese brought no letup in the vigil of Communist forces massed in the American riflemen manning North-West Korea were still the bitter cold outposts around ranged along the 39th Parallel, the front. runnisg through Pyongyang, the

other Chinese installations further up the east coast,

battered North Korean capital. The Chinese are stalking the The 70-mile wide area be-front feeling for a weak spot; tween them and the United and staff officers know that once Nations are defending Seoul was they have found it, there will be occupied exclusively by re- another major attack.-United grouped and lightly armoured Press. North Korean mits and guerillas.

They had no. artillery and Little transport. Their immediate orders appeared to be to probe across the vital 38th Parallel, separating the two Koreas, seek- ing out the strength and weak- ness of the Allied line.

The enemy were met in clashes in the Haeju, Kaesong and Yonchon areas at each end of the Eighth Army positions and had all been identified as Koreans.

No contact with, the main Chinese Communist forces been made for the

maintaining anki impro

night. The Eighth

positions throughout in

sector along the 38th

General MacArthur, announced today.

British and Commonwealth *naval units were patrolling the

West Coast.--Reuter,

HEAVY BARRAGE

With The Third Division,

Dec., 19.

Christmas Spirit

Schuettorf, Lower Saxony, Dec. 18.

A German dressed as Santa Claus was seriously burned in the face here When young boys showered him with in- flammable material Which ignited his beard and set fire to his clothes — Reuter.

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THE DECISION OF CHRISTOPHER BLAKE SERAS

Blazing naval and field güns sent tons of booming shells crashing outside the American defence ring around Hungnam: GECK. this morning, as the siege drag- ged into the fourth day without a major attack.

The Communists,, who ham- mered at the front's right flank Yesterday morning and at night, pulled back into the Killa after a brief but vicious fight with

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