It wasn't the Bridge that got them killed-it was the Train

If Shears hand't fixed the Radio-they would never have found out about the Train, and Warden wanted that Train, it was his chance to kill as many Japanese as possible and get revenge for the torture he received at the hands of the Japanese. Without the Train, they blow the bridge and make a clean escape.warden was in charge, if Shears was in charge he would have just blown the bridge and completed the original mission, there was no reason for any of them to die, but the insanity of War and the psychological ramifications of torture on the human mind led to an absolute disaster, good, brave men never went home to their families, they died in that stinking rotten Jungle, with not even a descent burial. And in Military thinking they were looked on as completely expendable. They destroy a Bridge that they knew not where it led, in a country they knew very little about, that would mean very little to the War effort. the only thing of true value in that whole setting were the brave men who died.