"Bridges of Toko-Ri".....a future mission to consider.

[WWGeezer]

Early in James Michener's career he wrote "The Bridges of Toko-Ri".  It is a thin 83 page book and was based on his observation and research during the Korean War.  The attached article describes the actual events that his novel was at least partially based on.  If you read the article it lines up very well with the future DLC plane sets.  Would make a great future carrier based mission.

https://historynet.com/real-bridges-toko-ri/

[Captain_Trips]

We need certain DLC first to do it properly.



 

[BlitzPig_EL]

As I have posted in other threads, there is no spot on the map we have that has anything like what is described in the real mission. No triple bridges anywhere in the target area.  

[gabuzomeu]

As I believe we can add bridges thhrough the mission editor, this shhuld be manageable to find a look alike terrain on this big map and add the bridges and road ?

[WWGeezer]

I'm with you Gabuzomeu.....lots of time before we have the carrier and plane sets to do this justice.  Ideally you would find part of the map that has train tracks and roads next to each other.  I am sure its not historically accurate, but there are some nice candidate locations between Wonsan and Pyongyang.  Lots of narrow river valley possibilities with bridges already, just needs some beefier objects (like the dams) to place there ( may already be some in the mission builder).

Edited September 3 by WWGeezer

[FuriousMeow]

Bridges are supposed to be near Samdong-ni - near toko-san and poko-ri - and Majon-ni. The real op area the book used is supposedly west of Wonsan.

Edited September 3 by FuriousMeow

[BlitzPig_EL]

The names on our in game map do not match the village names in the after action reports, or the names on post war maps.  

[Jaegermeister]

On 9/3/2026 at 11:03 AM, BlitzPig_EL said:

As I have posted in other threads, there is no spot on the map we have that has anything like what is described in the real mission. No triple bridges anywhere in the target area.  

I am interested in doing an F2H-2 Campaign, so I have already been doing some reading on the subject. CVG-5 including CV-9 USS Essex had Banshees on board and was the carrier is question during those raids. According to my research so far, there were 2 different missions that inspired the Toko-ri story.

The bridge raid was on December 12, 1951, and the rescue mission which was actually a Skyraider crash and rescue was on February 8, 1952.

The bridges were located in the mountains in the center of the peninsula, almost exactly in the spot @WWGeezer posted an image of above. It looks like this on the map…

The rescue mission is what took place at Samdong-ni, which according to the internet is by the coast. Just throwing that out there, while we wait for the new content to be finished. 😀

Edited September 8 by Jaegermeister

[Jaegermeister]

4 hours ago, FuriousMeow said:

Bridges are supposed to be near Samdong-ni - near toko-san and poko-ri - and Majon-ni. The real op area the book used is supposedly west of Wonsan.

From what I have seen, Majon-ni apparently just means “settled village” and applied to various locations at the time. The real ops area was directly west of Wonsan, but closer to the center of the peninsula than people (and the internet) seem to think.

 

[FuriousMeow]

54 minutes ago, Jaegermeister said:

From what I have seen, Majon-ni apparently just means “settled village” and applied to various locations at the time. The real ops area was directly west of Wonsan, but closer to the center of the peninsula than people (and the internet) seem to think.

 

Yeah I saw some stuff like that too last night when I looked it up. The only real concrete info seems to be the Wonsan bit, otherwise the areas of inspiration appear to be either some mystery location or an amalgamation of places. 

[Jaegermeister]

I read The Bridges at Toko-ri  yesterday, and the locations are vague. Mr. Michener was mainly specific about the single approach in and out of a steep valley with a lot of AAA and large ammunition dumps. In the book, there were 3 flights of 4 Banshees, and no other planes involved. The crash site was reached heading east just before the last set of ridges surrounding Wonsan on the coast. The actual location is unimportant since they all died in a sewage filled ditch in a field near a small village anyway. Very atmospheric for sure.

I will watch the movie again this weekend and see how much different it is from the book.

[Husar]

Toko-Ri itself was fictional, James Michener combined several real locations and missions into the story.Samdong-ni, near Yangdok, Majon-ni, west of Wonsan, Carlson's Canyon, near Kilchu. IA research - can't be trusted without confirmation.

Edited September 5 by Husar

[WWGeezer]

Just to be clear, this is definitely a mix of reality and fiction, so mission builders should have some creative license.  The cool thing is the that the map and the future DLC package give you all you need to build a mission or a campaign that hits the mark both historically and fictionally.  Some of my best flying experiences in combat sims are when that combination of simulation and history overlap just enough that you feel like you got to experience a little bit of history while sitting at your desktop. 

[MJones]

The author pulled the same maneuver as Jones' 'The Thin Red Line.'  Real battles; fictitious place names.  As an author, you don't want readers thinking your characters are literal stand in's for the actual historical soldiers and pilots who were there.  

[WWGeezer]

It also gives you a bit of cover in case your descriptions are not 100% accurate.  Military history fans ( and aviation fans) are such sticklers for detail if an author gets anything a little bit wrong they get pestered for life from readers reminding them that they got it wrong.  

[JG14_Jagr]

For the record, in the real bridge strikes, the AD-4's dropped the bombs and the F9F's did Flak suppression and escort.

[migmadmarine]

Next if we ever get a WWII Heavy bomber DLC we will have to next get into where Altgarten is and how to set up a mission on 31st June...

[Jaegermeister]

On 9/8/2026 at 11:05 PM, JG14_Jagr said:

For the record, in the real bridge strikes, the AD-4's dropped the bombs and the F9F's did Flak suppression and escort.

True, but with the addition of F4Us also doing flak suppression and F2H Banshees provided high altitude air cover in the unlikely event of enemy fighters trying to interfere.