The Bridges at Toko-Ri

The Bridges at Toko-Ri is a 1954 film based on a novel by James Michener about a naval aviator assigned to bomb a group of heavily defended bridges during the Korean War. It was made into a motion picture by Paramount Pictures and won the Special Effects Oscar at the 28th Academy Awards. The Bridges at Toko-Ri closely follows the novel, emphasizing the lives of the pilots and crew in the context of a war that seems remote to all except those who fight in it.

Michener based his novel on actual missions flown against rail bridges at Majon-ni and Samdong-ni, North Korea, in the winter of 1951–1952, when he was a correspondent aboard the aircraft carriers Essex and Valley Forge. The rescue attempt at the climax of the novel and film was a composite of a pair of unrelated rescue attempts on February 8, 1952, both in the vicinity of Wonsan, with the second involving a propeller-driven Douglas AD Skyraider off the Valley Forge shot down bombing the railroad bridges at Samdong-ni. However, while the downed aviators in the second attempt were initially listed as "Missing in action", they survived the incident but were captured by North Korean soldiers.

In the attacks against the historical bridges, the jet fighters which form the basis of the story did not actually bomb the bridges, not having the capability of carrying the weight of bombs required, but performed the equally perilous task of suppressing anti-aircraft fire.