The Waterbury Democrat., 1946-07-17
Angry GIs Seek Ambushers
Jeep Riders Are ShotAt In Trieste
Driver Killed; Two Others Hurt In Gun Attack

Trieste, July 17-(UP)- Six hundred angry American soldiers in full battle equip- ment, with rifles and machine guns cooked, today searched the countryside for the am- bushers who last night killed an American soldier and wounded two others.
 Riding in jeeps mounting 80 caliber machine guns and with two light tanks spear heading the drive, the G1s reached Slovene homes and stopped and searched all traf- fc on highways in the Lago del Bardo area today.
 A U. P correspondent rode in & jeep through the search area to- day and found the Americans uni- verSally cursing the assailants who killed the driver of a jeep wound- ed a second soldier, and caused in- juries to a lieutenant when the jeep crashed into the roadside.
 Swampy Area
 The Lago del Bardo is swamp area located a few miles from the nearest Slovene village Of Jamie, three miles south of camp con- taining 2,o00 Jugoslav partisans.
 The assailant fired from behind bush and a cement wall On the left side of the Gorizza- Trieste Highway
 Twenty empty nine -millirneter au- tomatie weapon shellcases were found at the site of the ambush.
 The jeep was going from Trieste to Gorizia when it ran into the Sailant.
 Driver Hit In Head
 One of the bullets hit the driver in the head, killing him. He was believed to be Walter L. Kugawa of the 351st Infantry of the 88th Division.
 As the d1-iverless jeep careened into the side of the road, a second soldier was hit by bullets. He was believed to be Jack Kleinman, also of the 351st
 The lieutenant, who was believed to be William T. Van Atten, of the 35Ist, was injured when the jeep struck the side of the road.
 Kleinman and Van Atten are re- covering in Udine Hospital.
 Other Allied troops were alerted for possible trouble today as denl- onstrations were organized protest ing the decisions of the Big Four on Trieste.
 Approximately 160 women dem onstrated before Allied Military Government headquarters today de- manding the release of 50 men jails ed by the Allies during disturbances of the past two weeks.
 The women shouted we are starving" and sent committee in to confer with Col. Alfred Bowman, A. M. G. commandant.
 The jeep was ambushed about 4S miles south of the spot where two Yugoslav soldiers were killed last Friday night in a patrol clash along the Morgan Line dividing the An- glo-American and Yugoslav occupa- ton zones of Venezia Giulia.
 50,O00 Demonstrate
 Tension was increased by news from Belgrade that 50000 persons demonstrated outside the American and British embassies against the "big 4" decision to internationaize Trieste
 Dispatches said the demonstra- tors were well organized. They cried down with imperialism" and carried Communist and national flags and banners in torchlight procession to the embassies.
 It was 11:30 P. M. when the U. s. Army jeep was ambushed as it sped along Highway 55 between Gorizia and Trieste. Automatic machine gun fire splattered the vehicle, sending it careening out of control with the driver dead and another soldier nicked by a bullet.
 Search Under Way
 The bullet-wounded soldier and the lieutenant who was injured in the crash were taken to the 88th Division Hospital at Udine, west of l Gorizia.
 The 18th Divisions announce ment said the area was being searched and patroled by units of the division, but as yet no further details are available"
 Four days earlier two Yugoslav soldiers were killed in a border clash. The 88th Division said Sat- urday that the Yugoslavs crossed the line into the Anglo-American zone. Yugoslav army quarters claimed that the Americans were the border transgressors, and fired the first shots.