TROOP TRAIN BLOWN UP

Chronicle (Levin), 1 March 1948, Page 5

TROOP TRAIN BLOWN UP

(N.Z-P-A.-

4s Reuter -

'26 British Soldiers Dead In Terrorists' Reprisal Act

goyyrlght)

, Received Monday, 9.50 a.m. LONQON, Feb. 29. Twenty-six British soldiers are now reported killed, 85 seriously injnjred and seven sjightly injured following the blowing up by terrorists oi three- e.oaches of the Cairo to HaifaN train. A .number cjf soldiers are still • missing and it is feared that the 'deathroll might be heavier. The troops were learning from Leave in the train which was the norma! daily passenger express irom Egypt to Haifa. It had tliree military coqches attached an4 these r.eceived the . f iill f orce of the explo3ives which were fired as the carriages passed over. Craters showed that the terror-' ists had laid three mines, spaced so that one would explode -under each coach. Hagangh scouts who were flrst on the scenC, began the rescue work. Several hundred troops soon jained them. Ambulances converged on the scene over sniper-inf ested roads. The rescuers fou'nd splintered wod'd and twisted girders from the coaches strewn over nearby orange groves into which it is believed ran the cable tq the plunger which detonated the mines. The authorities said there were possibly civilian easualties as well as troops.

British engineers dealt with an unexploded fourth bomb found near the scene. The deathroll is the highest British casualty rate in any train attack in Palestine. Rescuers continued their operations at night. The Stern gang sent a message to Hebrew newspapers bqasting its responsibility for the train outrage which it said was a reprisal for the Benyehuda Street explosioii. Coaches Blasted To Matchwood Grim faced troops walked through pools of blood and tofe at the metal and wood with bare and bleeding hands to extricate the

I dead and wounded in the wrecki age, says a British United Press correspondent. The treble explosion of mines on Ihe track blasted two coaches to matchwood and hurled bo'dies in all directions. The authorities sealed off to traffic the entire Rehoboth area, while hundreds of troops launched an extensive sear-ch for the' perpetrators. Concentrations of troops were also rnoving towards Tel Aviv. Reuter's correspondent says the rescuers 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 limbs blown off. A number of survivors, although streaked with blood from their own wounds, worked heroically among the twisted coacnes to save comrades;