MORE READS MOVE INTO KOREAN WAR

Greymouth Evening Star, 2 December 1950, Page 5

MORE READS MOVE INTO KOREAN WAR

SEOUL, This Day (Rec 1 p.m.) —There was a lull in front of the United Nations main defensive line north of Pyongyang yesterday, although oh the right flank elements of the American First Cavalry Division returned smallarms fire on their forward positions at Songchon, 30 miles north-east of Pyongchon river under non-stop air attack as the Eighth Army consolidated its

new line. . . . The American Second Division was reported to have fought its way back to the main body of the Eighth Army. The division was cut off on Thursday by Chinese roadblocks north of Subchon, 30 miles north of Pyongyang. The Middlesex Battalion of the British Twenty-seventh brigade covered the escape of some men of the Second Division and the Turkish Brigade, who were trapped in a Chinese ambush on Thursday. Heavy Air Attacks

Heavy Communist casualties were claimed by pilots ’of the United Nations warplanes who yesterday continuously straffed Communist troops in force, crossing the Chongchon riv- ' er 20 miles north of the new United Nations defence positions. One air observer reported that the Communists appeared to be driving before them thousands of refugees, ,apparently in an attempt to complicate the situation by pushing them against the United Nations lines. An Eighth Army spokesman said that aerial reconnaisance showed a I Chinese Division of about 10,000 men i moving south below Kunuri, toward I the United Nations line.

Other reports told of enemy troops crossing the Chongchon river north of Kunuri, with some tanks. Still other fresh reinforcements were moving down from the Manchurian border under Allied air attack. Alert In Pyongyang The United Nations forces in Pyongyang were alerted last night for a possible parachute drop by the Communists. A security screen was thrown around the city. Guards were also alerted against the possibility of infiltration attacks by Chinese Communists. Pyongyang has had air-raids on the last two nights. In north eastern Korea, the United States Marine Division, infantrymen of the United States Seventh Division and British Commandos under a fiery umbrella of low-flying planes yesterday attacked in an attempt to break out of a trap. They are fighting their way southward through a hail of bullets from Chinese troops trying to block their retreat.