Evening star., 1950-07-11
By WiIIiom R. Moore
As.oeio,ed Press War Correspondent

NEAR THE FRONT IN KOREA,
July Ill saw two dead Amer
lean soldiers yesterday. Their
hands were tied behind them.
They had been shot through the
head.
The two soldiers lay just off a
main road which carried the vital,
frantic traffic supplying frontline
fighters. They had been there
since yesterday morning, I was
told later by infantry officers at
read command posts.
These officers said three Amer
leans had been tied and shot in
the head, but saw only the two
bodies.
Finds No Witnesses.
yesterday 1t. D. c. Gates,
bonneville, Tex, reported seven
American soldiers, their hands
tied behind, had been shot to
death by North Koreans. There
was no indication whether the
three reported today were some
of those, or additional atroci-
ties.)
I found no one who witnessed
these slayings. Based on what
was known of the fighting at this
point early yesterday, the belief
was held generally that the
soldiers, riding in a jeep in the
morning mist. suddenly found
themselves only 20 yards or so
from a North Korean tank. With
the tank guns raised upon them,
they jumped out and surrendered.
Their bodies showed what hap
pened afterward.
One of the green-clad corpses
lay face down, the other on its
side. Cloth bands about three
inches wide. like the bandages
each American soldier carries in
his f1rst-aid kit, were tied so
tightly around the wrists of each
that the hands showed purplish
brown, the arms above the thongs
much nghter.
Cuts Through Ridge.
The gravel road at that point
cuts through a small ridge. Be-
low each approach to this small
hill lie green rice paddles which
stair-step steeply down to a small
river.
Two Russian-built tanks were
said to have pushed through the
morning fog to the top of this
ridge, retreating after "a hot sun
burned away the fog.
I reached this hill late in the
aboard a tank retriever
an armored tanklike vehicle
hat pulls disabled tanks back to
safety.
Almost Immediately the deadly
;rescendo of fighter planes dive,
which sounded as if it were COM
ng toward us, caused all abroad |
10 hit the ground. The plane had
another target-a stalled or dam
aged enemy tank. 1t was a few
hundred yards from the foot of
the hill on the side toward the
front line. The road makes a left
turn at the foot of this hill. An
American tank was just off the
road at this bend.
Crew Heads for Tank.
We had halted at the top of
the rise beside another American
tank. While recovering from the
confusion of the false air attack, I
probably said something senseless
to the tank crew. The tank re-
triever bucked forward without
me.
We're going down to get that
tank" one of the crew
shouted back. .--.-
It was then I saw the two bodies
on the opposite side of the road.
Probably it was the dead soldiers
ieep that we had found crosswise
on the hill coming up. The re-
triever smashed into it once, then
showed it off the road. Tankmen
want clear road
Almost at the top of the hill was
another jeep. it's front caved in
and good part of it blown away.
A tank firing at close range could
do that kind of damage. I as
sumed the jeep belonged to soldiers
whose gun position was off to the
right, near the ruins of a Korean
house, its thatched roof now black
and smoking on the ground.
I hoped the crew had seen the
ong gun of the enemy tank when
t poked through the fog and had
led through the small leafy trees
behind the house to safety.
Had Plenty to Say.
The tank men had plenty to say
about the North Koreans who
killed the two men in the road. 1t
vas in terms soldiers use when
ordinary words fail.
Some of the men who drove
over this h0 or