BOOBY TRAPS IN KOREA

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 26943, 20 January 1953, Page 4

BOOBY TRAPS IN KOREA

NARROW ESCAPE OF K FORCE GUNNER (N.Z. Army Information Service) KOREA, January 16. Luck is with Gunner Brian Cantwell, of Auckland. Today he stepped on an old isolated booby trap, but was unscathed by the explosion. Two seconds elapsed between the time he trod on the trap and the explosion and it was just sufficient time for him to dive for the ground. “It was a nerve-wracking experience.” he said. “I lay on the ground for nve minutes, not sure of what had happened.” A few pieces of shrapnel went in the direction of Sergeant N. S. Jones, of Invercargill, who was ahead of Gunner Cantwell, but did not go near him. A member of the survey section attached to the 16th New Zealand Field Regiment, Gunner Cantwell was working in an area of disused land. Just after crossing some barbed wire entanglements, he encountered some loose strands of wire raised slightly above the ground. He attached no significance to this as the ground was believed to have been cleared of danger and there was a lot of signal wire In the area. To avoid tripping, he stepped on the wire to cross over when he heard a hissing noise. “I sensed danger, looked down and saw smoke issuing from the base of a small tree,” he said. “At this I let go a yell at the sergeant ahead of me, ran two yards and then hit the deck. At that moment came the explosion.” Gunner Cantwell believes that the booby trap was a grenade because of the time he had to dive for the ground. Apparently the wire was connected to the pin of the grenade. That type of booby trap was quite common in the earlier stages of the war.