ATIS INTERROGATION REPORT NO. 3477 21 February 1951
FIELD REPORT (Sup. To ADVATIS Sp. Rpt 024) 10 February 1951
(Ref To: ATIS Rpt No 2358, 2475, 3447 & 3448)
| PW NAME: | CHANG, Shun I (張順義) |
| PW NUMBER: | T 100030 |
| RANK: | Pvt |
| INTERROGATOR: | SFC LEONG (ATIS) |
Fairly intelligent and cooperative but validity of PW descriptions is questionable. Possibility exists that much of information given concerning characteristics of tanks was obtained from sources other than those mentioned by the PW.
O/a 23 Sep 50, while on a ration detail, walking on a trail about 500 yds from the railroad tracks in the area between K’AIYUAN (開原) and TIEHLING (鐵嶺), PW saw three separate trains come by from the direction of MUKDEN at an approximate interval of 15 minutes. The three trains came to a stop at a point almost opposite where the PW was walking. Just then, the PW group also came to a halt and waited at a spot approximately 50 yars from the standing trains while his officer went ahead to effect some sort of negotiation concerning rations. This gave the PW an opportunity for a close inspection of the trains. He counted about 160 tanks loaded on the flat cars of these three trains and was told by his officer that these were Russian tanks. He did not notice any markings on these tanks except that they were painted a dark OD color. (Interrogator compared PW verbal description with the tank drawings in DA Pamphlet #30-2 entitled “The Soviet Army” and noted the similarity to the Russian JS-2. PW sketches, however, clearly show and angled front, which is unique to the JS-3).
These three trains stopped there for about ½ hour and then backed up in the direction from which they had come. After an interval of between 1 to 1½ hours, these tanks reappeared but were loaded on four separate trains instead of three. PW believed these to be the same tanks he saw a couple of hours earlier because the locomotives and the people on them looked familiar to him. This time the trains did not stop but passed by slowly, headed towards T’IEHLING (鐵嶺).
A few days later, one of the officers in PW company told him that he had seen more than 500 tanks loaded on trains during the past four days.
JAPANESE TANKS
Around seven o’clock in the evening, o/a 21 Oct 50, while marching in the area opposite MANP’OJIN (麻浦鎭), KOREA towards the YALU River to cross the border into KOREA, PW saw seven or eight tanks standing by the highway near the bank of the river. PW noticed these tanks were painted a dark tan color. A red star was painted on the gun turret of each of these tanks. Other than this, the PW did not notice any other markings on them. He was told by his squad leader that these were Japanese tanks.
For the Commanding Officer:
ROBINSON
