RUSSIAN VERSION OF WOUNDING OF BRITISH SOLDIER

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 22824, 20 December 1948, Page 5

RUSSIAN VERSION OF WOUNDING OF BRITISH SOLDIER

(11 a.m.) LONDON. Dec. 19. The Moscow radio, broadcasting the Russian version of the German zonal border shooting incident last Wednesday in which a British soldier, Private C. Knill. of Cornwall, was wounded, claimed that the British colonel had apologised for what had happened.

The radio claimed that a British corporal. who first crossed the border near Teistungsen, accompanied by three privates and several German policemen, fired at a Russian lieutenant who approached him, but was disarmed and detained Later 29 British soldiers tried to encircle the Russian outpost and one of them was wounded when he tried to seize hold of a Russian who opened fire. The radio said that “under examination the British soldiers testified that their company was sent with instrucions to secure the release of the detained corporal. The colonel of the British military mission attached to the staff of the Soviet occupation troops in Germany admitted that the actions of the group of British servicemen were wrong and expressed apologies to the Soviet command for what had happened.”