The following information was obtained from recovered American military personnel; who were interrogated upon arrival in JAPAN from KOREA by Central Interrogation Center, ATIS.
ATIS INTERROGATION REPORT NO 3177 5 February 1951
The following information was obtained from recovered American military personnel; who were interrogated upon arrival in JAPAN from KOREA by Central Interrogation Center, ATIS. Interrogation was conducted at Camp Drake by Lt FUSCO.
HAYWOOD, Norman E., Cpl, RA-15229734, Co A 185 C Eng Bn
Subject was on jeep reconnaissance with three (3) other enlisted personnel of Co A on 11 Jan 51 when fired upon near TANYANG. In attempting to escape, the jeep was overturned when it struck a land mine. The men scattered and took cover. Source was separated from other three men when they scattered. He took off towards friendly lines but after proceeding a short distance he was surrounded and captured by a patrol of 8 North Koreans. They looted him of his valuables and outer clothing. His captors then led him after a march of 3 to 4 hours to a hut which was the CP of a small unit. The officer in charge of this CP was wearing the rank and insignia of a NK Airforce Captain. The officer, when asked in sign language, admitted he was an Airforce Captain. In the CP there was a North Korean corporal who spoke broken English and who acted as interpreter. Source was asked some questions which ordinarily would take just a few minutes but the interrogation lasted for over an hour, because of the interpreter’s very poor command of the English language. The questions asked were:
1. What is your rank?
2. Where are the other three men who were in the jeep?
3. What is your outfit?
However nothing was written or made a matter of record. The interpreter drew a sketch of a jeep to show that he wanted information concerning it. He did not know the work “jeep.” Source was given one of his own cigarettes which had been taken from him and then allowed to sleep. During the short interrogation there were four (4) people in the room including source, the Captain, the corporal interpreter and a sergeant who was on guard.
The next day he was taken to another CP where the officer in charge was a first lieutenant, who could not speak English. However he did have a card with approximately 18 English questions and another card with the translation in Korean of the 18 questions. Therefore he could interrogate the source although not too efficiently. Some of the questions asked were:
1. What is your rank?
2. What Army were you in?
3. What division were you in?
When the source replied that he was in the X Corps, he befuddled the North Korean officer who had no idea what a Corps was. Here for the first time, source was assured that he was not going to be killed and that he was going to be released.
Source was then taken to a larger CP which was located 11/2 hours walking distance to the North. There were 3 North Korean officers, two captains and one senior Lieutenant, in the section of the CP where the source was held. These men were obviously propaganda officers. They interrogated and attempted to indoctrinate the source for a period of 6 hours. During this session, source was given four (4) propaganda leaflets written in English. These propaganda sheets contained the following sentiments:
1. If you hate war come to Korea! The Korean People’s Army and Chinese Volunteers’ Army will treat you warmly and send you home safely.
2. You are here in Korea for no reason at all.
3. Why were you not at home at Christmas time with your family?
4. Why do you fight?
On the leaflet which referred to Christmas there was a picture of Santa Claus carrying a loaded bag on his shoulder and on the bag was printed the word, “DEATH”. That was the only picture on all four of the leaflets.
The officer seemed to be very proud of the weapons used by the North Korean Army stating that such and such as weapon was a “NUMBER ONE” weapon. Most of the weapons bore 1944 dates. Those that were singled out as superior weapons were brought into the CP and shown to the source. Their operation was explained with a good deal of pride. Most of the weapons brought in were identified by the source from the DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY PAMPHLET NO 30-2 on the SOVIET ARMY. These included:
1. The PPS M1943 SMG (Tommy Gun)
2. The PPSH M 1941 SMG (Tommy Gun)
3. The TT M 1933 TOKAREV PISTOL
4. THE M1895 NAGANT REVOLVER
5. The MAXIM HEAVY MACHINE GUN M1910 (on S■■OLOV Mount)
6. The DP LIGHT MACHINE GUN
The interchangeability of the small arms ammunition was pointed out as being a definite advantage.
The attempts to propagandize and indoctrinate followed the usual lines. Stalin was referred to as the greatest man living, while President Truman was regarded as “just like Hitler”. It was pointed out that the Americans were the real aggressors in Korea because they were the first to “invade” the country. The use of the term “invade” seemed to the source to be overdone. An outline of the Korean peninsula was drawn on a sheet of paper with a small arrow drawn from North to South Korea crossing the 38th parallel. A large arrow going through INCHON and SEOUL and extending into North Korea depicted the American “invasion” of Korea. A third and the largest arrow was drawn from MANCHURIA through all of Korea to show how the Americans were going to be driven out. An extension of this last arrow directed towards Japan indicated that after the Korean campaign the next step would be an attack on Japan.
That night source was moved to another village where the other three Americans who had been in the jeep on recon patrol were being help captive. These three men had already been given passes to return to friendly lines and were waiting for source to get his pass and accompany them. Source, who had been interrogated separately and who had not given correct answers to all the questions, was obviously nervous when greeted by the three Americans. He had previously said in one of his interrogations that he had not been in the jeep and knew of no other Americans in the vicinity. He had also given his rank and his unit incorrectly. An officer who was wearing the insignia of a NK Senior Colonel and who was in charge spoke excellent English and interrogated the source once more. In this room were the Colonel seated at a table, a guard and the 4 Americans who were sitting on the floor. No forms were filled out, but for the first time everything that the source said was written down.
The Colonel who was wearing an officer’s green field uniform was described as follows:
Age: 50
Height: 5’ 7”
Weight: 160 lbs
Hair: Black, receding
Eyelashes: Black
Forehead: High
Glasses: Black rimmed
Source stated that this officer was by far the most intelligent of all the captors. During his interrogation the Colonel would check the answers given by source with the 3 other Americans. The interrogation of the source with some of the actual questions and answers given follows:
Q What is your name, rank and serial number?
What source answered, the colonel turned to the other 3 Americans and asked, “Is that right?”
Q Where did you meet these three boys?
A At Pusan when I had a pass during the Christmas holidays.
Q When did you leave the States?
A August.
Q From where (what port) did you leave the States?
A New Orleans.
Q Did you go to Japan first, or come straight to Korea?
A Came straight to Korea
Q Where did you land and when?
A October 1st, at Inchon.
Q Where did you go from there?
A Yongdongpo.
Q From there, where did you go?
A To Pusan.
Q Then where did you go?
A I stayed at Pusan until 1 January.
Q What did you do after that?
A I was a part of a truck convoy going to Chongju.
Q Why didn’t you stay with the convoy?
A A sniper fired at us and we got out to look for him. The other vehicles took off.
Q What happened to your weapon?
A While looking for the sniper it fell off a cliff and was lost.
Q What outfit do you belong to?
A 185th Infantry.
This was what he had told the other interrogators and in spite of the fact they had not written anything, source was afraid that they might have told the Colonel verbally or in a message that he had said he was in the 185th Infantry. The other three men had previously stated that they were in the 185th C Eng Bn. The fact that source answered 185th Infantry instead of 185th C Eng Bn could have put him in a very dangerous position. Source tried as much as possible, without being seen by the Colonel to warn his buddy next to him by nudging him with his elbow whenever an answer contrary to what the other three might have said was about to be made.
Q How large was the 185th Infantry?
A Size of a half of a Division.
Q Where is this outfit?
A Chongju.
Q How many troops were there in Chongju?
A Including troops just North of Chongju and South Korean units, about 7 divisions in all.
At this point, the interrogator suddenly switched from questions of a tactical nature to those of a personal nature. He asked the following questions which seemed to be irrelevant to source:
Are you married?
Is your mother living?
Is your father living?
Is your grandmother living?
Is your grandfather living?
How many brothers and sisters do you have?
After the interrogation, the Senior Colonel made several statements such as:
“The Americans invaded Korea.”
“The Koreans were fighting for Korean civil rights.”
“The Koreans were fighting for a “United Korea”.
“Korea is very poor and we need all of Korea to get along.”
The Colonel wrote out a pass in Korean for the source and told the four Americans not to leave that night. He assured them that they would be sent home to America when they got back to their units. He kept one of the dog tags of each stating that the dogtags were to be sent back to “your government”.
The 4 Americans started back at 1030 hours on 14 January with their passes but without a guide. When they arrived close to the fighting zone they sent a Korean boy through to the UN lines with a message describing their location and predicament. The following day they made contact.
For the CO, TIB:
WEELDREYER
