The Great Escape from Seoul
On the night of the escape, a vanguard unit of the North Korean People's Army, the 9th Regiment of the 3rd Division, had already entered the northeast corner of Han City with tanks. The South Korean army was still defending against the small hills at the edge of the city. The North Korean People's Army planes dropped flyers on the city, demanding an immediate surrender from South Korea.
The night of June 27th, 1950, was a hellish night for the people living in Seoul.
When the panicked citizens heard the news that the government and parliament had temporarily moved to Suwon, they finally knew that disaster was imminent. The citizens of Seoul rushed to the train station with their luggage. All the trains heading south were packed with refugees. Those who couldn't get on the train used bicycles, ox carts, and some simply walked. The civilians mixed in with the defeated army and fled south. According to historical records, there were 400,000 refugees who fled from Korea that day.
On this day, the American embassy was also in chaos. Ambassador Mu Qiao had originally held onto a glimmer of hope, believing that even if the rebels occupied Seoul, they could still declare that the embassy staff had diplomatic immunity. Thus, he was determined to persist until the end. However, after asking for instructions from the country, State Military Secretary Acheson firmly opposed it, on the grounds that " the US embassy personnel are likely to become hostages of the terrorists."
Hence, Mu Qiao decided to flee. The sound of gunfire was getting closer and closer. From time to time, South Korean soldiers would come to report that the North Korean army could enter the city at any time. The embassy staff hurriedly took out the safe and began to burn all the documents that they thought could not fall into the hands of the terrorists in the dark. The flames of the burning documents looked like the entire embassy was on fire, which increased the fear of the citizens of Seoul.
The security personnel of the embassy began to blow up the password machine. Ambassador Mu Qiao was on the phone with MacArthur, but the call was cut off after a few words. It turned out that the embassy staff had smashed the telephone switch with a sledgehammer.
In the end, the families of the embassy staff were sent to a temporary requisitioned ship called the "Lenholt" and left the South Korean coast, while the staff boarded the plane and flew to Tokyo. Mu Qiao returned to the embassy. He drove out of the jeep to look for the South Korean government, whose whereabouts were unknown.
When the jeep drove away from the embassy, Mu Qiao looked back and saw that the emblem of the United States was still hanging on the embassy. Mu Qiao thought of taking down the American emblem, but there was no time. What he didn't expect was that after the North Korean army occupied Seoul, they didn't care much about the American national emblem. weeks later, when Mu Qiao returned to Seoul with the attack of the American army, the national emblem was still hanging there intact.
According to the carefully formulated contingency plan for the defense of Seoul, every important bridge and highway north of the city should be blown up at the critical moment. However, not a single word of the plan was implemented in the face of the South Korean army's crushing defeat. The defense contingency plan was equivalent to a piece of waste paper. However, there was one bridge that was being blown up with extreme determination. This was the only bridge on the Han River south of Seoul, the Han River Bridge.
This bridge was the only route from Han City to the south. When a large number of refugees and defeated troops retreated south, this bridge was equivalent to a lifeline. Therefore, when he learned that the South Korean army was going to blow up the bridge, Wright, the chief of staff of the US consultant group, could hardly believe his ears. He told Kim Baekil, the director of South Korea's operations, that the bridge must not be blown up before the troops, supplies, and equipment had retreated across the Han River Bridge. Jin Baiyi did not listen.
Wright explained once again in embarrassment that even if the South Korean army retreated, they would have to rely entirely on the bridge. Moreover, there were thousands of refugees crossing the bridge. In the end, Wright found South Korea's Army Chief of Staff, Cai Bingde, and agreed on a principle: Make sure that the enemy tanks are near the bridge before blasting.
However, under the orders of the higher officials of the South Korean Ministry of Defense, the South Korean army decided to blow up the bridge immediately. The reason was that the important thing was not the lives of thousands of South Korean soldiers and refugees, but the tanks of the North Korean People's Army must not be allowed to cross the Han River.
The commander of the 2nd division of South Korea, who was guarding the city, protested. He said that his troops were still in the city and their equipment had not been withdrawn. The Han River Bridge could not be blown up now. When Chief of Staff Cai Bingde had already crossed the river, the Deputy Director of the South Korean Combat Bureau immediately ran to the bridge in an attempt to order a delay in the detonation.
However, his military jeep could not move in the middle of the refugees. When he finally reached 150 meters away from the bridge, he saw a huge orange fireball rising from the Han River Bridge, followed by an earth-shattering explosion. In the terrifying fire, the deputy director of the South Korean Combat Bureau saw the vehicles, refugees, soldiers, and debris of the Han River bridge fly into the fiery night sky.
The Han River Bridge was destroyed at: 28th, 2:15 AM.
At this time, the main forces of the South Korean Army, the 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 7th Divisions, and the Capital Division were still blocking the periphery of the Han River. The army vehicles crowded on the north bank of the Han River waiting to cross the bridge were lined up in eight rows on the road. The soldiers and refugees were crowded together and could not even move their bodies. All of this was left to the North Korean People's Army with the destruction of the Han River Bridge.
So far, it took only three days for the People's Army to capture the city of Han, and the victory ended the Battle of Han.
Frank gibney, a reporter from Time magazine, witnessed the hellish night in Seoul. He later recounted,
My colleague and I were in a jeep, and it took us a long time to get out of the streets of Seoul, which were filled with refugees and vehicles. Then, on the road, the refugees with bags on their heads walked south with difficulty. Finally, our jeep finally reached the bridge.
On the bridge, the jeep was stuck in a difficult position. In front of it was a convoy of six-wheeled trucks. I got out of the car and wanted to see why I couldn't move, but I realized that the bridge was so crowded with refugees that there was no place for me to stand at all.
I returned to the car and waited. Suddenly, the sky was illuminated by a sickly orange blaze, and a loud explosion not far ahead sent our jeep fifteen feet into the air.
At that time, his glasses had been blown off, and his face was covered in blood. He could not see anything. When he could see the objects around him, he saw that there were corpses everywhere on the broken bridge.
Destroying the Han River Bridge prematurely and throwing the US consultant team to the North Korean People's Army. Chief of Staff Wright managed to find a few wooden boats to transport the refugees, but the refugees ignored them. In the end, the Americans opened fire, meaning that they would either give the ship or get shot. The South Korean boatmen sent the terrified American advisors across the Han River under the American gunpoint.
The premature destruction of the Han River Bridge had brought "disastrous consequences" to the South Korean army. Some of the defeated South Korean soldiers fled south on rafts, while others simply swam. Many soldiers were swallowed by the river, and all their weapons and equipment were lost.
Later, it was confirmed that the North Korean People's Army only entered the city 10 hours after the bridge was blown up, and only reached the Han River 12 hours later. If the bridge explosion had been delayed by a few hours, the two divisions of the South Korean army and most of their supplies could have crossed the river.
According to historical data, when the war broke out, the South Korean army had a total of 98,000 soldiers. On the 28th, after the Han River Bridge was blown up, only 20,000 South Korean soldiers escaped the Han River. Although the South Korean military court later executed the chief of engineers responsible for blowing up the Han River Bridge on the charge of " improper method of blowing up the bridge," the psychological impact of this incident on the South Korean army would not disappear for a long time. As the History of the United States Army said: "From then on, the Han army collapsed at an astonishing speed.”
It was obvious that it was impossible to rely on the South Korean army to save the Korean War.
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