ALL-NIGHT BATTLE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 August 1938, Page 7

ALL-NIGHT BATTLE

FIGHTING AT CHANGKUFENG LITTLE CHANGE IN POSITION HEAVY RUSSIAN LOSSES REPORTED By Telegraph—Press Association. Copyright. TOKIO, August 10. Fighting raged throughout the night at Changkufeng. Two battalions of Russians were flung in at 9 p.m. under cover of a fierce artillery bombardment. It is reported that they were repulsed after heavy slaughter. The Russians returned to the attack at midnight, freely using hand-gren-ades. They strove until 7 a.m. to disloge the Japanese from Hill 52. Dawn revealed the positions largely unchanged. Forty-five Soviet planes bombed Kajo and Keijo, but the damage was slight. The bodies of a thousand Soviet troops were found in front of the Japanese position at Changkufeng, Shatsaoping, and Siliufeng Hills after four days’ fighting. Forests have been set on .fire at Keiko and Seikaku, in Korea, as a result of bombing. It is semi-officially stated that, since the outbreak of hostilities, the Russians have fired between 25,000 and 30,000 shells and aircraft have dropped an incalculable number of bombs. DEADLOCK DENIED MEETING OF WAR COUNCIL IN TOKIO TOKIO, August 10. A few hours after the breaking up of the conference of the Japanese General Staff, members of the Supreme War Council were hastily summoned to consider the border hostilities. Those present included the Emperor’s uncle, Prince Asaka, the Chief of the General Staff, Prince Kanin, and the Minister of War, Lieutenant-General Itagaki. A conference was held later with 24 generals. The Foreign Office spokesman confirmed that Japan is agreeable to a border commission with a fifty-fifty Russian and Japanese representation, which would fall in with Moscow’s demands. The spokesman added that the negotiations had not reached a deadlock/but that patience was required. .

RUSSIANS MASSING EXPECTATION OF MAJOR ENGAGEMENT. FURIOUS ARTILLERY EXCHANGES (Recd This Day, 10 a.m.) YUKI (Korea), August 10. A major ■'battle is expected on the five-mile Changkufeng front, along which the Russians are massing. They are coming up along a road commanded by Japanese guns, which are silent because the Japanese are not anxious to violate Soviet territory. Only five hundred yards separate the Russians and Japanese. The latter are strongly, entrenching behind barbed wire. Furious artillery and trench-mortar exchanges have continued since dawn.. Scores of Soviet planes are being concentrated at Hansh, thirteen miles from Changkufeng, and also on the shore of Possiet Bay.