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About Herald and news. (Klamath Falls, Or.) 1942-current | View Entire Issue (May 17, 1954)
MONDAY. MAY 17, 10M IIKRALD AND NEWS. KLAMATH FALLS. OMKGON PAGE NMB Defenders Of French Fort Fought On To Bitter End lly I.Alt It V AI.I.IIN HANOI, Indnehlnn Wi-The val 1 ii 1 1 1 French Unlun defenders u Dion lttcit I'lm loughl llinlr Coin-munlnt-lrd nsMtlhiuls fmlnunly nnd without letup until nil tliolr ammu nition wns iioiio. Then, nn ono by one their guns loll silent over tlu remnant ol tho fortress bunkers, they curried out llrig. (Jen. Clirlnllnn de Castries' la.it order "Olvo up when you win no longer Unlit." This account uf the lorlrcH' lonl hours on May 7 wns given to news nirii I" it night by three bndly wounded survivors at the rule Urge, purl ol thn contingent ol 11 csnunlllcs released by the Viet in Inh rebels brloro tho alrllll evao uatlnn was suspended Hitturday, At Hunol'a overcrowded Lune aan Military Hoipltnl thry aald both lli'lll. Un. Christian do Cas tries, their heroic gurrlson com mander, and the only woman In tho torlroiM, air force nurse Clone vlevo do Clalard Torrnube ol Par In. both were cnpllvoa ol the Vlet mlnh. NelUicr mi wounded, the trio nld. . AH throe men luy badly wounded Willi some 1.4U0 others In thn bat. torod, shell-lorn fortress' under ground hospital while thn huinun tidal wavoa ot rebels swept over In the linn! engulfing blowa. Ilia right led badly shattered by Vielinlnh lire, I'lc. Marcel Cham pougny aald he thought the last hours of lighting would never end. "It teemed like there were thou aanda ol shells and machine-gun bullela hilling agaliut Die hoipllal bunker. "Homo ol them burled aome ol I he wounded alive a the Vletmlnh Junt llred over everything they hud. "From outside we could hear the wild screaming ol the Vletmlnh nnd Iho answering crlo ol the l"i rncli an everybody fought vl' clounly, hand to hand. "At limes a soldier would tunv ble Into the hospital bunker, budly wounded, nnd any he waa out ol ammunition," Thnt waa the wny every defend er lought, aald Chnmpougny until he no longer had anything to light Willi, "De Castries' lat order to the men In his bunker," Champougny continued, "waa 'Dive up when you can no longer light.' To do anything elite would have been butchery." The private anld about t o'clock thnt Friday night the aliooling eua donly died out on the battlefield and "then everyone knew the bat tle waa over," Miss do Oalard, he continued, waa allll bravely mlulaterlng to the wounded In the hospital bunker n the rebels rushed In. There waa no attack nuido on the wounded men, he continued. Instead, tho Vletmlnh announced all were capllvea ol Ho Chi Mlnh, the rebels' Moscow-irainca coiei. Their canton, aald Champougny, were almost apologetic. One Vlet mlnh officer declared In French: "Ho Chi Mlnh and we are light hie lor our country. There are things worse than that, end we Five Killed In Car Smash Up TRENTON, III. I-A car carry ing alx young people home from a. dnnce smashed Into a fast Unlit nuiio and Ohio passenger train yesterday, killing five of the oc cupants and critically Injuring Uie other. Dead were Raymond L. King, 23: Marlm J. Oolf, ID: Horace H. Hooks. IS: and Kenneth Ray Stewart. IS. all ol Edwardsvllle, III., and Eleanor Clark. 19. 81. Jacob, III. The only other occupant ol the car. Donna Reed, 18, Highland, III. waa In a critical condition. Bherlll Henry Klulho aald wit nesses In another car told hnn they had alopped for the railroad cross ing aa tiw train, bound front St. Louis to New York, approached. They aald the victims' car, trav eling at high speed, awerved around their automobile and into the path ot the train. Mil: TING NIAGARA KALU). N Y. Wl Ulysses 8. Ornnl and Robert E. Lee meet hero once a month. . 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You are now prisoners and will get tho at tention prisoners of wur deserve." Dome of the rebel soldiers In their mud-caked uniforms were laughing hysterically, but none at tempted to mistreat any uf the French wounded. Nor did Chnmpougny, niter he was carried out to tho battlefield, tee any rebels mlstrenl any of the unwounded reportedly 8,000 thoy rounded up. , Champougny suld Miss do Oal ard disappeared for awhile, nfler the Invndera entered the hospltul section "but I saw her como back to help the wounded, nnd Inter she was taken away by the Vielinlnh." "She looked as brave and un afraid and courngeotu as ever." Later, Champougny said, he was curried out of the bunker to the battlefield. There "I auw (Jen. de Cnstrles In bis mud-stnlned bnttledress, still wen ring his red Bpnhla overseas cap, Jauntily and calmly walk be tween two heavily armed Vletmlnh soldiers to a Jeep. "Ha climbed Into the jeep which the Vletmlnh had captured from the French and waa taken away,". Champougny anld for three days after the fall ol the fortress, the Vletmlnh had held the garrison's score or no of French army doc tors captive, away Irom the wounded, but then permitted them to return and treat their men. , Meanwhile, Vletmlnh doctors had tried to caui the French, The rebels made Umts for tbem out of captured pnrnchutes, and the French air force began psrnchut ng food and medical supplies to them, Another of (lie men evacuated, Foreign Legionnaire Nicolas Nel ler, had lost his left leg In the explosion of a mortar shell. He, too, told ol seeing De Cas tries being taken to a Jeep and driven away by the Vletmlnh. Champougny, Neller and the third returnee, But. Andre provost, said as lar as they knew, the general had offered no resistance when the rebel soldiers charged Into his headquarters bunker, They said they had heard that De Cas tries asked only thnt his wounded be treated well and the French prisoners In accordance with In ternational law. They said that In the short time they were held, their captora lost no time In starling; "Indoctrina tion" lectures and other attempts to show them the "glories ol the Communist way of life." All three D-FROST-O-MATIC Itsvs Automstle Derrmtlns An your prrtcnt refrlsvrstor. II2.SS. for fr trial, pbons UStt. ARIA ENTERPRISES ' 2U1 ReelamatloB men agreed they wanted only "to be able to light again lor France and the Iree world against the Keds." Frcvost had been In the thick ol the battle as the eastern string of French defenses collapsed. He snld the Vletmlnh at aome points "threw more than 2,000 grenades to smash our lines." It waa there the sergeant waa wounded, by mor tar (hell splinters. It was the collapse ol these eastern defenses, he said, that re sulted In the fall of Dlcn Bien Phu. "They gave the Vletmlnh the dominating hill positions and from there their artillery and mortar, j hurling grenades, firing machine) pumped over thousands of shell". 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