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Show IMl(PSWJiliH: Vnom? SUICIDE SQUADS STAND GRIMLY IN PATH 0FF0E-AS 0FF0E-AS CHSEFALL BACK Retreat Becomes Near Rout as Invaders Seize Control of All Sectors; Fires Peril City; French 'Dig In' By JOHN B. MORRIS SHANGHAI. Nov. (UP) While the main Chines columns fled westward from Shanghai at a pact that was almost rout, ' a comparative handful of their comrades grimly stood their rround in the Pootung area tonight, apparently forming another "doomed battalion." Flrea painted a weird Bight , seeae nteag Meeawst oreefc, a Use southwestern earner of the Fressea iiacisslsa. la tho wake of Mm Chinas retreat from She achat, white Japanese artillery a i in 1st ated the Calais! I street Flaming bridges and bargee threatened te set fir to near-by buildings. French troops war furiously fu-riously digging tranches la anticipation anticipa-tion of pressure against ths concession. con-cession. Chinese troops, definitely threatened with Isolation and nonchalantly non-chalantly smoking clgarete. steed by their blockhouses. J. pan see Central CKy Japanese troope," driving down from Soochow creek, won eontrol of the western side af ths atty. They already controlled It sa she aorta and east sides, and the Chinese were believed to be withdrawing rapidly from the remaining strongholds la Nnntao and Pootung, an the south side. Cracking after days of resistance which astonished foreign military experts, ths Chinese began a general gen-eral withdrawal on ths city's west side this morning. As they did a the Japanese ferried tanks across Soochow creek and sent them ahead of Infantry on a drive that took tho Japanese Una to ths southwest of Shanghai proper. Foreign military experts said that . unless ths Chinese eould hold soon their retreat might become a tout Defense Una Crumble At first ths Chinese had hoped to base a new line of defense oa Sunkiang, IT miles south of Bhang- -hal; Tsinpu, It miles west-aouth-weet; Nansiang, sight ml lee west-northwest west-northwest and on up to ths Tangtas river, near IJuho. But ths Jspaness captured Sunkiang Sun-kiang today and observers believed thst ths new Chinese lino must start wsstward of thsrs and pass through Kiatlng, four miles west of Nansiang, on ths way north, because be-cause Nsnsiang seemed untenable. Chinese Insisted that they were maintaining troops both la the Pootung Poo-tung and Nantao sections of Shanghai, Shang-hai, and that their tinea of retreat extended from there. But foreign experts ex-perts believed thst only suicide squads eould be retained la either section. Jspaness reported that ths Chinese Chi-nese already were retreating from Nansiang and that they had set firs to buildings In ths town. Japanese Take Airdrome Jspaness had taken ths Hungjaa airdrome eouthwest of tho city and the Lungwha airdrome te the south. Regarding the complete isolation iso-lation of ths Chinese from all of Shanghai as certain, ths Japaaess talked of opening the western suburbs sub-urbs to civilians many foreigners have homes there as soon aa they cleaned out-Chinese land mines. Japanese burled airplane bombs and artillery shells mercilessly, hop- ing to aemorsuzs we nueau Three hundred wounded Ounce soldiers were admitted Into ths French concession from ths southwest south-west gstes this afternoon. There was a minor crisis there when hundreds hun-dreds of refugees clamored for admission. ad-mission. French authorities called out reserves to hold them, but admitted ad-mitted them after searching them for arms. Isolation Appears Sara So precipitate waa ths retreat foreign observers said.' that It waa likely to take the Chinese entirely away from contact with Shanghai on the west and southwest, la that event the Japanese would bo able to draw a "sanitary cordon" of troops around the city and then decide whether to push on westward west-ward toward Nanking, ths national capital, 233 miles up ths Taagts river. ' The Chinese retreat began at et (Costtitwe ee rs Twos I Col una five! SHANGHAI FALLS TO JAPAN ARMY (Continued rrum Pa On) derly manner. At dawn, foreign military observer, going out to th British line just west of th International In-ternational Settlement, found with surprise that the Chinese machine 1 gunners and snipera who had been posted in strength south of Soochow creek had disappeared. Their numerous placement! along the Hang chow railroad, which extends along the western aide of the suburbs, sub-urbs, were deserted. ' Took Revere Bombsvrdme hi Tor more than a week the Chi-' nese west of the city had stood up under a terrible bombardment from I artillery and airplane. The for-i for-i eign military experts observing the j battle said that no European army, as seen during the World war, i would have been able to stand up against such fire. Not only were the Chineae blasted night and day by a terrific fire, but they were almost completely without artillery artil-lery and antiaircraft guns. They Just stood and took It. i PEIPING. China, Nov. (UP) Japanese military authorities asserted as-serted today that the ancient walled city of Taiyuan, capital of Shansi province, had been occupied. This gives the Japanese control of all northern Sfmnsl province in" xtdt-' tion tp Hopei, Chahar and Suiyuan provinces. Taiyuan was said to have been defended by the communist aol- diers of General Chu Teh, but, according ac-cording to Chinese sources, the "red Napoleon" presumably made a strategic retreat in line with his policy of using guerrilla tactics. TSINAN, China, Nov. IPi Squadrons of Japanese war planes were on scouting or bombing forays today throughout Shantung province. prov-ince. Observers believed the aerial operations op-erations preaaged extension of the war into this proaperous and peaceful peace-ful coastal province of China's northeast There were considerable troop movements on the northern front. Ten trainloads of Japanese soldiers arrived from Pingyuan. Japanese planes flew over Tsinan. the provincial pro-vincial capital, several timea, but dropped no bombs. |