More Than 200 U.S. Prisoners Of War Shot By Communists

Wanganui Chronicle, 24 October 1950, Page 5

More Than 200 U.S. Prisoners Of War Shot By Communists

SEOUL, Oct. 23 (Recd. 6.5 p.m.)— Communist guards have shot more than 200 American prisoners of war after ordering them off a train heading for the Manchurian border, according to survivors reaching Pyongyang. Twenty-two survivors reached Pyongyang in an emaciated condition, haggard and filthy. They said the prisoners, who numbered between 230 and 240, were taken from the train while it was hidden in a tunnel 10 miles north of Sukchon to escape airbombing. The men were then marched in groups of 30 to 40 to a nearby field, where one guard shot at them with a Russian-type sub-machinegun. Another with a rifle picked off those who tried to escape. Several wounded escaped by feigning death and crawling away in the gathering darkness to hide in the hills, where American paratroopers picked them up. Seventy-five bullet-riddled bodies were found on Saturday. Seven other men had died through wounds and two from exposure. The total number of men killed is not yet definitely known.

Private S. Volture, of Oklahoma, who survived the massacre, said many prisoners on a train which left Pyongyang about six days ago had died of dysentery and exposure. Another survivor said he had been marching for two or three months since captured.

“To Seoul we were not treated too badly, but from Seoul Onwards we were forced to keep on marching whatever the men’s physical condition. If any fell out they were shot. American planes flew over many times, but veered off when we waved anything white we could get hands on.’’—Reuter.

Ar. American intelligence officer today reported a new atrocity by retreating Communists at Yongchung on the east coast, where 500 South Koreans have been found killed.

The report said the northerners shot and bayonetted the prisoners, then drenched the bodies in petrol and burned them. Five hundred were found scattered in groups of 15, some in Yongchung’s school-house and others in nearby trenches and guilds.