ALLIED ADVANCE IN KOREA

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26399, 18 April 1951, Page 7

ALLIED ADVANCE IN KOREA

Enemy Abandons Reservoir

(Rec. 12.30 a.m.) TOKYO, April 17. The enemy appeared to-day to have abandoned the huge Hwachon reser voir dam in Korea. Allied troops advancing cautiouslv failed to find Communists, who previously had fought bitterly for the vital barrier, heavily censcAed dispatches reported. A United Pfess dispatch from Bth Army Headquarters said that the United Nations forces ignored opportunities to score spectacular gains through the Chinese front lines. Lieutenant-General James van Fleet, the new commander, was continuing Lieutenant-General Matthew Ridgway s policy of pushing ahead slowly and maintaining a solid front to prevent the Communists from breaking through at any weak spot. The dispatch added that the retiring enemy s rearguards screened an apparent regrouping of the Chinese Communist armies farther north. On the west front there was only patrolling action. A South Korean naval spokesman said that a South Korean frigate yesterday shot down a Communist Yak fighter and damaged another off the Korean west coast 60 miles south of the Manchurian border.

ALLIED POSITION HELD SAFE

T . , . „ TOKYO, April 16. Lieutenant-General J. A. van Fleet the new commander of the Bth Army I said to-day that that there was no chance of the Chinese Communists launching an offensive which would seriously threaten United Nations positions in Korea.

.u 1 a front-line interview he said that he would welcome a new Commumst offensive “because that would give us an opportunity to kill more of them. He declared that he had inherited an experienced and a competent fighting machine from his predecessor, Lieu-tenant-General Matthew Ridgway.