AIR BATTLE

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28700, 25 September 1958, Page 13

AIR BATTLE

“Biggest Since Korean War”

NEW YORK, Sept. 24. Nationalist Chinese jet fighters shot down 11 Communist M.1.G.17’s and possibly, damaged six others in a battle with more than 100 Communist planes over the Formosa Straits today, the United r>ross Internationa] reported Jrom Taipeh The news agency said it was by far the biggest aerial battle of the Quemoy war and the biggest bag fo the Nationalist pilots who were believed to have used new American air-to-air guided missiles in what the Nationalists called a major victory.

The Nationalists had downed only 17 M.I.G. jets in the months of aerial battles over the Formosa Strait since the Communist high command rushed hundreds of jet fighters and bombers to the coastal airports opposite Formosa in July and August. The air clash, which seems the biggest since the Korean war, was said to have involved more than 100 Communist planes and 32 Nationalist F.B6’s, the DirectorGeneral of the Nationalist Air Force Intelligence said at a press conference.

Correspondents At Quemoy

(Rec. 8 p.m.) TAIPEH, Sept 24 Four weeks of Communist shelling have made the 50.000 civilians on Quemoy jittery and war conscious, says an A.A.P.Reuter correspondent, Bruce Russell, in a dispatch from Kinmen City in the Quemoy Islands

A planeload of 23 foreign and nine local newspapermen had a pre-dawn flight to the embattled islands today. The flight was the first authorised by Nationalist authorities who clamped down on newspaper coverage of the Formosa Straits “little war” a week ago A Nationalist Air Force C 46 flew low over the sea and made a quick landing at an emergency airstrip behind Quemoy’s landing beaches.

The newspapermen sprinted for cover as the pilot raced his engines, swerved the aircraft around, and took off again immediately. The plane was heavily shelled as it landed. •The Nationalists announced today that between midnight and 6 a.m. a total of 902 shells were hurled into the Quemoy Islands by Communist batteries on the mainland. There has been no* announcement of any convoy reaching the islands.