European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 2, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Wednesday july 2, 1986 the stars and stripes Page 9 ., Vietnam step up Mia efforts Bangkok. Thailand up _  and vietnamese officials Mcl in Hanoi tuesday to step up efforts to resolve inc Fate of nearly 1.800 us. Servicemen still missing to action in Vietnam. The talks were the highest level Mia contacts since Vietnam broke off technical meeting after inc  Bombing of Libya in mid april. A lower level Mucci ing was held in Hanoi two weeks ago. There was no immediate word on the results of the talks which were Vej peeled to continue wednesday. The meeting was aimed at improving .-vietnamese cooperation on plans to Delcarmine what happened 1 i he .7l 2  still listed As Mia in Viet Nam. Rich ird Childress asian affairs director of the National Security . And Ann i us Griffiths executive director of tic National league of a Amiruz. Representing relatives of mias. Led the Mission Hanoi last year proposed a two car plan o investigate As Many Mia eases As possible in the next two years hut u has expressed Unhan Pincus that the United slates has so far declined to give formal written approval of the plan. Hanoi also complains bitterly about statements from  Legislators and officials indicating suspicion that Vietnam still holds american prisoners of War. Vietnamese officials vigorously deny the accusations and have offered to investigate rep Uris thai men cans Are still alive in Vietnam. Diplomatic sources say the Vietnam Ese foreign ministry has i me under in creasing pressure from hardliners in the government to produce some tangible Benefit from what the vietnamese see As confessions on the Mia Issue. Vietnam has made it Clear it would like to establish belter lies with the United slates that would Lead to More capitalist Trade and investment for their struggling Economy. Hut  Officials say the Mia Suc is strictly humanitarian with no political or economic strings attached. Diplomatic lies must await the withdrawal of vietnamese troops from Cam Bojia the officials say. The american delegation also included Lyall Bret inn director of the state department s office on Vietnam Laos and Cambodia and col. Howard Hill the defense department s principal adviser on my a mailers. Boeng delivers first Azacs Jet to saudi Prince Seattle us l a saudi arabian Prince has accepted the first of five Boeing Azacs airborne radar planes for use in protecting the desert kingdom s Oil Fields. I Rince Bandar bin Sultan saudi ambassador in the United states accepted the airborne warning and control system Jet monday at the Boeing Plant in Seattle. The plane will be flown by a  Air Force Crew to Riyadh saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia intends to use its Azacs jews to re place american planes and Crews that have been operating in that country since 1980. The Azacs is a modified Boeing 707 Jet that Fea Tures a distinctive Saucer shape radar housing mounted on a tripod on lop of the fuselage. The rotating housing allows the Jet s radar system to look Down on targets from As far its 350 Miles away. The Azacs jets can separate targets from the ground duller that confuses conventional radar systems. These planes Are the building blocks to Security in a troubled zone of inc world Bandar said. The $2 billion Purchase which also includes eight Jet tankers to support the Azacs planes Speaks Well of his country s Long standing relationship with the United slates he said. The kingdom s Purchase of  Military supplies for is defense purposes has been a significant development in this relationship he said. Despite Strong opposition from Israel Congress in 1981 approved the Sale of five Azacs to saudi Ara Bia. Israel feared the plane s sophisticated radar system would be used to peer into israeli airspace and select the Takeoff of warplanes in the event of renewed mid dle East  inc Reagan administration lobbied heavily for the Sale because of the growing conflict Between Iran and Iraq earlier this month the president certified to Congress As required that the Azacs planes would not be used against Israel and would not he allowed to fall into hostile hands. The jets arc lobe based near the persian Gulf Well away from israeli airspace. Survived in shark infested Waters Cape. Lovil Al Endrickson and his wife in Juvaki of Portland ore., Are Safe after surviving Seton Days in shark infested Waters in an open Dinghy. The Cou ple s ordeal began when their yacht inc adj Shajh ran aground on a reef near the Island of Fiji. They Here taken in Sydney Australia after being rescued. Britons Mark Battle of Somme anniversary London up Britain tuesday marked the 70th Irviv Crary of inc bloodiest Day in its military history the Start of the Bailie of the Sumii Iii in which 20,000 British soldiers were killed and 38,000 wounded in inc first 2-4 hours of combat. A series of recent newspaper articles and television programs remembered inc Somme. And a Small group of survivors now in their late 80s and Early 90s travelled to the world War i Battlefield in Northern France to Lake part in ceremonies led by the Duke of Kent. The Somme was supposed to be the Battle to end the War to end All  of the 143 British battalions involved in the Battle 97 were so called a s battalions made up of sol Diers who came from the same factory or neighbor hods and who volunteered under lord Horatio Kilch Esert Marmy Promise that those who join together will stay  battalions was a High spilled and Force. A week before the Battle started the British launched an unprecedented artillery barrage. For seven Days and seven nights icy pounded the enemy line with an estimated .5 million shells. The  was of course to kill and demoralize German troops but More importantly to flatten the barbed wire thai could hamper an Advance. The bombardment succeeded in destroying nearly every tree but it failed to Clear the wire. At 7 30 . On july 1, the bombardment slopped and a series of whistles sounded along the British trenches sending 100,000 soldiers Over the lop of the trenches. The Young soldiers known As mommies climbed out Ana then walked not ran across the open Fields and into the wire. The British generals had said that All they would have 10 do was March in Parade ground fashion across the open ground British military historian Tony Hunt said. Hunt said thai unbeknownst to the British soldiers the germans who had endured the Eccl Long bombardment in deep shelters had launched a race to set up their machine guns. The sad thing was that our soldiers were not entered in thai race by our generals because they were told to walk across hat  Hunt said so it was the germans who set up their guns and mowed Down the British army by Day s end. Nearly 20.000 were dead and 38.000 wounded. As the Battle dragged on for Days then weeks sol Diers who were nut shot by inc germans sometimes were killed by their own officers for refusing to go Over the top. The Battle of the Somme lasted five months with the men living in the mud with rats and being killed by bullets Gas and disease in a struggle for a piece of land Only about 70 Miles Square. It came to represent the senseless Slaughter often associated with world War i. Military casualties in the Battle were the highest of any Battle in history British led and French forces suffered 62-1,000 dead or wounded and inc German 420,000. Of he British dead More than 73,000 have no known Graves. J the Bauk Field is now mostly Farmland dolled Wiite cemeteries and it still produces a grim Harvest a Chi year of  shells Rusty weapons and remains of fallen soldiers