On this day, 26 July 1950
the No Gun Ri massacre began, when the US military murdered up to 300 South Korean civilians, in one of the biggest mass killings by US ground forces.
A large group of refugees were travelling south after being ordered to leave their villages by US troops, consisting primarily of women, children and the elderly. First they were strafed by US military aircraft, possibly killing around 100, then as they sought refuge under a bridge ground troops attacked for three nights.
One GI, Norman Tinkler, later reported to the Associated Press "We just annihilated them"; another, Hermann Patterson, recalled "It was just wholesale slaughter". One of the survivors, Chung Koo-ho, later recounted her experiences: "People pulled dead bodies around them for protection… Mothers wrapped their children with blankets and hugged them with their backs toward the entrances… My mother died on the second day of shooting."
A large group of refugees were travelling south after being ordered to leave their villages by US troops, consisting primarily of women, children and the elderly. First they were strafed by US military aircraft, possibly killing around 100, then as they sought refuge under a bridge ground troops attacked for three nights.
One GI, Norman Tinkler, later reported to the Associated Press "We just annihilated them"; another, Hermann Patterson, recalled "It was just wholesale slaughter". One of the survivors, Chung Koo-ho, later recounted her experiences: "People pulled dead bodies around them for protection… Mothers wrapped their children with blankets and hugged them with their backs toward the entrances… My mother died on the second day of shooting."
36-40, F
