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| Han River Bridge During Korean War |
By Robert Neff
In the early morning of June 28, 1950, the road leading to the Han River Bridge was packed with thousands of Korean families ― women toting bundles on their heads, men carrying household goods in wooden frames fastened to their backs and bewildered children trying to fathom what was happening ― fleeing the rapidly advancing North Korean army.
Yet, despite the desperation, order was maintained by the Korean military police. But, at 2:28 a.m., the calm was transformed into shocked confusion.
Frank Gibney, a foreign correspondent trying to get across the bridge in a jeep with two other correspondents ― Keyes Beech and Burton Crane ― wrote:
"Without warning the sky was lightened by a huge sheet of sickly orange flame. There was a tremendous explosion immediately in front of us. Our jeep was picked up and smashed back 15 feet by the blast."
Stunned, the correspondents made their way to a small knoll overlooking the bridge and were shocked by what they saw.
"Lit only by the glow of the burning truck and occasional headlights, was apocalyptic in frightfulness. All of the soldiers in the truck ahead of us had been killed. Bodies of dead and dying were strewn over the bridge, civilians as well as soldiers. Confusion was complete. With the cries of the wounded and the dying forming the background, scores of refugees were running pell-mell off the bridge and disappearing into the night beyond."
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| Han River Bridge During Korean War |
For about 10 minutes the correspondents sat on the knoll, resting and planning on how to cross the river. It was at this time, according to Gibney, that they "first noticed the pathetic trust that the Koreans had placed in Americans … men with bloody faces would come to us, point to their wounds, and say hopefully in English, 'Hospital, you take hospital.' All we could do was point to our own bloody faces and shake our heads."
Eventually the correspondents made it across the Han River aboard a small boat. At this point they were still unsure what had happened. Had the bridge been destroyed by a North Korean bomber? Had the North Korean tanks zeroed in on the bridge? It wasn't until later they learned that the bridge had been destroyed by the South Korean army in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent the North Korean army from crossing the river. Some 800 people perished in the explosion.
Who was ultimately responsible for this disaster is unclear but Colonel Choi Chang-sik, 29, the engineer in charge of the bridge, was chosen as the scapegoat and hastily executed by a South Korean firing squad on September 21, 1950. A subsequent investigation revealed that Choi had merely followed orders and, in fact, had saved many people by clearing them from the bridge before the explosives were detonated. He was posthumously exonerated in 1962, making him one of the countless numbers of innocent victims of the Korean War.
