Luding quake toll rises to 82

Soldiers of the Central Red Army marched an exhausting 120 km in a single day on May 28, 1935, and upon reaching the bridge on the west bank of the Dadu River, they found that the planks had been removed and only 13 iron chains remained.

Under cover of cannons and machine guns, 22 soldiers clung to the iron chains of the bridge, laying planks under intense machine-gun fire from Kuomintang troops on the other side of the bridge.

Although several soldiers were injured and fell into the Dadu River, others crawled ahead on the planks they had laid, firing gunshots and launching grenades until they finally took control of the east bank.