Evening star., 1950-12-02
On Operating Table,
Gl Tells Of Escape
From China Troops
By Tom Stone
Assoeioted Press War Correspondent
Bv the AS<o,ioted ppexs

0r me ASSoeiofeu FfeSs
NORTHEAST FRONT, Korea
Dec. IA young soldier lay on an
1mprovised operating table in an
evacuation hospital today and told
how he and a handful of other
soldiers broke out of q Chinese
Red trap.
The dark-haired, 21-year-old
soldier said those in his company
who did not escape were slaugh-
tered for sure" by the Chinese.
Wounded, he cannot be named be-
cause his relatives have not yet
been notified.
He was one of dozens of
wounded soldiers and marines
flown out of the fighting zone
around the Changjin reservoir on
the northeast front.
The soldier is a private first
class. He was with the 31st Regi-
ment of the 7th Infantry Division
fighting on the east side of the
lake.
Clothes Cut OF.
A medic with hunting knife
began cutting clothes off the
wounded man.
You'll be warm in a minute"
the medic said
Thank you, sir" the soldier
said, and then went on with his
story.
I'VE got trapped the other day.
Every day it became the same
continuous pounding. They did
it day and night and they kept
us tackled up"
The doctor peeled field BAN
dage from the soldiers face. There
was fresh wound on the left
side of his chin. The medic asked:
"That's shrapnel, isn't it?"
"I believe that's right" the SOL
der said, "but I'm not sure"
Wounded Twice.
A medical corpsman began to
cut away the clothes around the
soldiers waist. The wound was
bleeding and the corpsman began
to swab the wound with fresh
bandage.
Better give him some blood" s
the corpsman said. Y
II was wounded twice" the
soldier said, seeming to talk in {
order to keep his mind off the {
pain. "One down there and one :
on my face.
1T happened the day we started I
fetreating. The Chinese had {
plenty of mortar. grenades and !
Thompson (machine) guns. I {
DON'T know where the hell they +
got those tommy guns, but they
really had them.
They came running at us, s
yelling and shouting. We made t
for the last lake that was frozen s
over. Some of us crawled and {
some of us ran. I wasn't going to {
get killed there. But something s
hit me. I kept going.
Others Killed. ,
Those of us that got away
finally got back on ground and to ;
some railroad tracks. We knew {
If we followed them we would {
reach the Marine. You don't t
know how happy we were to see '
them this morning" i
The soldier declared that after
planes and hellicopterS rescued S
him and his comrades "the Chi S
nese just murdered the daylights il
out of those left behind"
Navy Comdr. William S. Fran 7
els, Marion, Va, executive officer
of the Medical Battalion of the
1St Marine Division, said Those
boys coming in here really had it
tough"
Its even worse than it was
at Inchon." he said There they 1
had chance to fight back. Here n
they were just so greatly outnum- q
bered there wasn't any chance n
at all" a
Enemy Keeps Coming.
Another private, aged 10, looked q
over from a nearby litter. /
Those chinks were all around !,
u.s." he said. Wed come to a e
road block and they'd cut us down. .
They're not scared. They'll walk =
right up to you. You'll shoot them
and others will take their place. ="
A Marine sergeant, his face cov- I
cred with bandageS, spoke up. y
They kept coming from the
hills" he said. Il don't know u
where they could have come from. /
Mortar was falling all around. {
That's what hit me-
That's what it was like in the |
battlefield of ice and snow. {
Maine is nearly as large as the I
other five New ENGLAND States .