The Great Korean Train Robbery
The Great Korean Train Robbery, when a group of U.S. Navy SeaBees robbed trains…. As in they stole multiple during the Korean War.
Now on September 15th, 1950, the United States Marines landed in Incheon and with them were the 1st Amphibious SeaBee Battalion. They would advance eastward and ultimately liberate the South Korean capital of Seoul, but something interesting happened in the final days of the advance.
The Mission to Capture the Trains
Aerial recon aircraft reported that there were 8 abandoned steam locomotives in a depot in a town outside of Seoul. Seeing an opportunity to acquire locomotives which could be used to move both men and material from Incheon to Seoul, a detachment of SeaBees was deployed to capture these trains before they were destroyed or captured by North Korean troops. So basically their mission was to strategically relocate equipment to an alternate location. Or steal them for short, and the SeaBees were known to do this when needed.
Behind Enemy Lines
9 men actually went behind enemy lines and were able to make it to the train depot completely unnoticed. But soon after they arrived, the group soon realized that the depot itself was located next to a fairly large brewery which surprisingly still had a lot of cases of beer. You can probably guess what the men did next. While half of the team got the locomotives ready, the other half began to “appropriate” cases of beer and loaded them onto the locomotives. When they were done, they steamed up the engines and took off with the beer.
Unexpected Obstacles
But things didn’t go completely well, as the now captured trains and beer came upon a section of track that had been sabotaged. So in a boss move, the SeaBees stopped the trains in the middle of enemy territory and proceeded to repair said tracks, before taking off again. They were then ambushed by North Korean soldiers but the SeaBees literally just outran them because locomotives are fast. But things almost went fubar when the trains made it to the front line and were almost attacked by their own side. As it turned out, no one had told the Marines out of Incheon that these trains were coming and thought it was the enemy trying to attack.
Reaching Safety
But thankfully, the Marines soon realized there were Americans on board and the trains made it to safety. Now officially it was reported that the beer was dumped soon afterwards as it was believed that it could have been poisoned. But I think we all know what actually happened to it, now don’t we? I say this because while in the process of taking the trains, the SeaBees said they were drinking it the whole time.
~NC
