TRAIN BLOWN UP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26709, 2 March 1948, Page 5

TRAIN BLOWN UP

TERRORISTS’ OUTRAGE BRITISH SOLDIERS KILLED SURVIVORS’ GALLANT RESCUE WORK \ N.Z.P.A.—Copyright Rec. 8 p.m. JERUSALEM, Feb. 29. Grim-faced troops walked through pools of blood and tore at metal and wood with bare, bleeding hands to extricate the dead and wounded in the wreckage of three coaches of the Cairo-Haifa train which terrorists blew up near Rehoboth, killing 26 British soldiers and seriously injuring 35, says a British United Press Association correspondent. The treble explosion of mines on the track blasted two coaches to matchwood and hurled bodies in all directions. The authorities sealed off to traffic the entire Rehoboth area, while hundreds of troops launched an extensive search for the perpetrators. Concentrations of troops are also moving towards Tel-Aviv. Fourth Mine Fails The army reports state that there were 110 soldiers in four military coaches attached to the normal passenger train. A fourth mine, which failed to explode, was under the rear coach. A Reuter correspondent says the rescuei’s finished operations shortly after nightfall. Most of the victims were privates. A British officer, who escaped injury, said the • soldiers were singing in the coaches when the explosions blotted out their voices. Blast killed many outright. Some had their limbs blown off. A number of survivors, although streaked with blood from their own wounds, worked heroically among the twisted bodywork of the coaches to save their comrades. Haganah scouts were first on the scene and began rescue work. Several hundred troops soon joined them. Ambulances converged on the scene over sniper-infested roads. The rescuers found splintered wood, and twisted girders from the coaches strewn over nearby orange groves, into which it is believed ran the cable to the plunger which detonated the mines. The authorities said there is a possibility of civilian casualties as well as troops. British engineers dealt with the unexploded mine found near the scene. Claim by Stern Gang The Stern Gang sent a message to Hebrew newspapers boasting responsibility for the train outrage, which the gang said was a reprisal for the Ben Yehuda street explosion. A delayed action barrel bomb rolled from an Arab lorry and blew up a Jewish house in a village south-east of Jaffa, injuring one Jew. An Arab ambush in Salame, an Arab village near Tel-Aviv, killed six Jews of a Haganah patrol. The police stated that Arabs attacked a convoy in the Judean hills and shot dead two Jewish passengers in the bus. , Another Arab force attacked an iron foundry on the fringe of Jaffa, killing eight Haganah men. In Jerusalem, a British army heavyarmoured car fired two two-pounder shells to silence Jewish snipers who were firing on two armoured police cars after they had rescued an army jeep. It is the first time the British have used weapons of this calibre inside the city. Armed Jews to-day entered the Gov•ernment public works departmental offices and stole explosives, surveying instruments, motor cycles and documents valued at about £IO,OOO. British Army Warning

The British Army is prepared to use powerful weapons to quell the Jew and Arab fighting in Jerusalem. Army headquarters proclaimed in English. Arabic, and Hebrew: “ The prolonged fighting makes life intolerable for the inhabitants. “ Such disturbances will not be allowed to contine. Force will be used to stop them. The Army will, if necessary. use weapons more powerful than those available to the Arabs or the Jews. . . “In encounters where it is impossible to decide which side is the aggressor, the Army will use weapons impartially against whichever side is firing to stop the fighting immediately with a minimum loss of life. “The only way to avoid clashes with the Army and resulting casualties is by not participating in battles in the Jerusalem area, because the Army will now intervene at every opportunity.