It's like this giant cover up, i can't find a thing on it. The best i have is this:
On 3 July 1950, eight F-51s of No. 77 Squadron RAAF strafed and destroyed a train carrying thousands of American and South Korean soldiers who were mistaken for a North Korean convoy in the main highway between Suwon and P'yongtaek, resulting more than 700 casualties. Before the attack, the Australian pilots had been assured by the United States 5th Air Force Tactical Control Centre that the area under attack was in North Korean hands. However, 20 minutes prior to an attack, the 5th Air Force Tactical Control Centre received intelligence that the area might be under American hands and told the Australian pilots to hold their fire. One Australian pilot ignored the order, believing the train was carrying North Korean forces. The pilot then strafed the train and his squadron followed the lead as well.
But i want to know more! Are there any books dedicated to this? Any reports or investigations i can read? The Australian War Memorial seems to enjoy leaving out the fact that 20 minutes before, Australian pilots were told to hold fire and just blame the Americans for the whole thing and everywhere else iv looked seems to pretend it didn't happen or just gloss over it. Anyone got anything to help me?
Thanks :)
700-1000 seems like an exceptionally high number of casualties?
The date doesn't make a lot of sense for US troops to be involved. The war wasn't even two weeks old at that point, the only sizeable US troop formation in Korea was Task Force Smith, which by the 3rd was already deployed in defensive positions near Osan. Their artillery was still en route, but that's only 100-odd men, and there are no reports of it being damaged in transit. The TF Smith debacle (a small, ill-equipped American unit being overrun by North Korean armor) is infamous and heavily studied and documented, and it seems implausible that the loss of a significant number of American reinforcements to friendly fire could have remained hidden this long.
Curious, where did you get your info? Might provide more context or hints.
I looked for a while and all I found was a few scans of newpaper articles. Don't know if this works for y'all though.
http://gimlets4ever.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/d23a376b7f813e8701422d8bc2817e6c.jpg
Marguerite Higgins is a well known war reporter. So if someone knows where the originals could be found it would be a good start to the investigation.
Peter Kalischer is much less well known.
If somebody has access to Australia in the Korean War 1950–53 by Robert O'Neill, that might give us more info.
With a bit of searching I brought up this article in Korean which describes an attack at Seojeongri, which is midway between Osan and Pyeongtaek.
ROK 17th Regiment soldiers deployed digging trenches along banks to protect Seojeong-ri were hit by 5(?) bombs from the Australian Air Force 4th base (sic -- maybe a reference to where they were stationed). Casualties were 200 soldiers (killed or wounded), 30 trucks burned, with one colonel treated for a puncture wound on the leg. There's something in there about how they were replacing or backing up Task Force Smith, which was "lost in the geography of Korea" or some such.
Milton Cottee 77 Squadron RAAF refers to the incident by fellow pilots, but seems to think it was done early on the 6th. The incident he describes seems to tally with the other info here.
"We did not know at the time that earlier that day two sections of four Mustangs had strafed a train near P'yongtaek, believing the train to be North Korean. It was a terrible blunder. The train was carrying reinforcements for the small US force trying to delay the advancing tanks. Fortunately the Mustangs concentrated on destroying the engine and the casualties amongst the US Army soldiers were light.
Another account refers to the incident, but also other friendly fire incidents by USAF on July 3 including one on the Suwon railroad station that killed 200 ROKA soldiers. Perhaps these incidents got conflated into one account?
During the evening of July 2, Smith and his men, including the medical platoon and Overholt, moved by train north to Pyongtaek and Ansong, about 15-20 miles south of Osan. The train ride was during the night. One company dug in at Pyongtaek, another at Ansong. Smith set up his CP at Pyongtaek, and while there, observed an Australian air attack against a friendly ammunition train pulling into the Pyongtaek station, destroying the train, the ammo and the train station. It was a mistake.
This was a terrible time for USAF air. USAF air attacked the ROK air base at Suwon and a South Korean truck column. The ROK replied with fire and damaged one aircraft, forcing the American pilot to land at Suwon. Suwon was attacked by friendly air five times on July 3. USAF air also attacked the Suwon railroad station, and thirty South Korean trucks, killing 200 ROKA soldiers. New rules were set out limiting air attacks to the region around Seoul and north.
