BRITISH SOLDIER SHOT IN BACK BY RUSSIAN GUARDS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22823, 18 December 1948, Page 5

BRITISH SOLDIER SHOT IN BACK BY RUSSIAN GUARDS

(N.Z.P. A.- Reutor —Copyright.)

(11 a.m.) LONDON, Dec. 17. Soviet guards shot and severely wounded a British soldier on the Russian zone border near Ilelmstcd, where the blockaded highway to Berlin enters the Soviet zone, says the Daily Herald’s correspondent in Frankfurt.

The victim was Private C. Knill, of Cornwall, who received wounds in the back from tommygun bullets fired by a Russian soldier at what is described as very close range. The spokesman at British Army H.Q. said that Private Knill was still alive.

The Russians are also holding eight British soldiers and a German policeman from the British zone.

The trouble began when Soviet guards fired warning shots at _ three British soldiers and a German civilian who were chasing hares near the frontier.

The Russians captured one soldier. The other two reported back to the British lines.

A British captain, with a nine-man patrol, and two German policemen set off to talk to the Russians. A Russian sentry fired a warning shot as they approached. Other Soviet soldiers, emerging from their post, opened fire. They wounded the British soldier. Only he and the captain, dragging him, and one of the German policemen, regained the British side of the frontier.

British and Soviet officers are now meeting at the border to discuss the release of the eight other British soldiers arrested by the Russian patrol. “Frontier jitters” now grip all the foreign forces in Germany, says the Associated Press correspondent in Berlin. The Russians have taken increasingly severe measures in the past few months to seal the frontier across which thousands of German refugees had fled from Eastern Germany. This illegal immigration, has included hundreds of Soviet Army deserters. Russian frontier patrols are known to have orders to shoot trespassers. British Army headquarters in Germany announced the release of the soldiers detained in the Soviet zone says the Associated Press correspondent in Hamburg. Their release followed hours of negotiation by senior British officers who went into the Soviet zone.

The British Military Governor, General Sir Brian Robertson ,said that although the case was regrettable he did not consider it of great importance. “If it is properly handled, I don’t think that it will stir up trouble between us and the Russians,” he added.