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
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Ulysses 8. Ornnl and Robert E.
Lee meet hero once a month.
. Ornnt Is chairman ot the fleet
Hnfoly Assn. of Niagara Falls, and
l.ee. ol nearby Lcwlston, Is a
member ol the group.
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art no worse than others. 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
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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".
"At tho same lime there was
Just one big wave after another ot
Red troops, wildly screaming,
guns and going lor their knlvaa
in nana-to-nand combat.
"Our troops almply couldn't hold
back such a mad aurge."
Dr. R. T. Lindley
OPTOMETRIST
510 Med.-Denr. Bldg. Ph. 4215
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