Death Train

The U.S. troops who shot their way into Pyongyang last week were hot on the track of a Communist train loaded with 250 to 300 American prisoners. A few bearded and emaciated G.I.s, who had been hiding in Pyongyang, told Brigadier General Frank A. Allen, deputy commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, that other G.I. prisoners had been loaded on a northbound train. Allen got into his jeep and set out in pursuit. Inside a railway tunnel ten miles north of Sunchon, a South Korean soldier pointed out the bodies of seven American soldiers who had starved to death. Then, on the bridge above the tunnel, appeared five haggard, hysterical G.I.s. They guided General Allen to a small gully where a heap of 17 bodies lay hidden by underbrush. Another pile of 15 lay sprawled in a cornfield. Others lay in a mass grave by the railroad tracks. General Allen counted 68 dead. There were 21 survivors, who were immediately flown to Japan.

Among the survivors was Pfc. Joseph Mistretta, 28, of Brockton, Mass., who said that about 250 American prisoners left Seoul on a forced march about Sept. 18. Said Mistretta: "Things began to get pretty bad then. They kept us moving in marches of 15 to 20 miles every day. Some of our buddies died every day. Those who couldn't keep up the march were shot or bayoneted. When a man began to stumble we always carried him along as far as we could but that usually wasn't far enough. I was put in with a group of 47 sick men and allowed to ride in an oxcart. Twenty of these 47 guys died before we got to Pyongyang."

Mistretta escaped several times, was recaptured and beaten. The prisoners were then put on a train headed north from Pyongyang. The train traveled only at night and there were many delays while the Reds repaired the tracks. Said Mistretta: "They let us scrounge in the fields for dry corn and old beans. We made some soup out of snails.Some of the men caught cats and ate them. I chased a cat for 15 minutes but couldn't catch it.

"A couple of nights ago we stopped in the tunnel. At dinner time they told us we were going for chow in groups of 30. I was in the first group. They marched us up the track and made us sit in a little straw. Then I watched the guard throw the safety on his burp gun. I thought he was just doing it to scare us. But when he started firing I fell over and played dead. I prayed too. In the confusion I ran across a field. In the field I picked up four radishes. I jumped into another gully and stayed there, eating the radishes. I heard the gooks shoot the other groups of prisoners." U.S. investigators tried to track down reports of another trainload of prisoners taken north from Pyongyang. But at week's end they were convinced that the bulk of the Americans held in the North Korean capital had been shot.

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