NEAR BORDER

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 71, Issue 35, 21 November 1950, Page 3

NEAR BORDER

AMERICAN FORCES ENEMY MAY BE ENCIRCLED , t!B.Z:P.A.—Copyright) (Rec. 12.10 p.m.) SEOUL, This Day. American infantrymen, riding on tanks, advanced to within two miles of the Manchurian border in north-eastern Korea yesterday as the Communist Army in NorthCentral Korea was threatened with encirclement. Seventh Division troops, anxious to be the first Americans to reach the Yalu river, were near the border town of Hyesanjin. They were meeting dwindling resistance. The division moved so rapidly that food and petrol had to be dropped by air. This drive to the Yalu river and the steady advances of United States Marines and South Koreans endangered the enemy’s eastern flank. A general withdrawal was reported in the northcentral area.

The 7th Division intend** to establish defensive positions at the main Yalu river crossing sites and then fan out along the border to east and west. Such a move also would threaten Communist armies of the east coast with encirclement.

The South Korean Capitol Division moving up the coast drove 14 miles north of Myongchon against heavy resistance yesterday. The main threat to the central Communist forces came from American Marines and South Koreans who drove north to the Chosin Fusen reservoirs and then began cutting west behind the enemy in the central sector.

The British Commonwealth Brigade on the extreme western end of the United Nations line carried out aggressive patrolling. The British killed all 15 men in one enemy patrol around Yongbyon. “Char” Helps Americans Escape Two American privates of the Ist Cavalry Division, wounded by a Chinese Communist grenade in the Korean fighting, got back to their unit on Saturday after 14 days behind the Communist lines—led by a Chinese private who threw the grenade at them. The Americans ran into a plump little Chinese “Call me Char” on a lonely hill. He got them with his grenade before they could draw their 45-automatics. Then, when Char saw their nationality, he dressed their wounds, fed and sheltered them and, after a hazardous 14 days, led them back to the American lines. When General Hobart Gay, commander of the Ist Cavalry, heard of the exploit, he said: “X will make Char my cook—if he can cook.” American Navy Panther jet planes beat .Russian-made jets on Saturday in the highest jet battle ever fought, the United States Air Force disclosed to-day. Ddg-fights took place at an altitude of 32,000 to 35,000 feet. No ’American carrier planes were damaged, but three M.I.G. 15’s were smoking and losing altitude when last seen disappearing over the Manchurian border.