THE AIR WAR: Something Big

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In a desperate effort to throttle Red supply lines and impede their tank and troop movements, Major General Emmett O'Donnell's big B-29s joined Allied fighters and tactical bombers in an "interdiction campaign"—striking enemy communication lines in South Korea. It was a measure of the critical stage of the war in Korea last week, for B-29s were never designed to do the work of tactical aircraft.

The Superfort crews were more at home in a 50-plane attack on the Chosen Nitrogen Co. plant at Hungnam, on the east coast of North Korea. Operated in World War II by the Japanese, the Hungnam plant was a major producer of glycerine, nitric and sulphuric acid. Huge quantities of explosives were presumed to be stored in the factory area.

Bombing by radar through a heavy overcast, the B-29 crews, flying at 15,000 feet, felt the shock of a great explosion. "Somebody," commented "Rosie" O'Donnell, "must have hit something big." Later photo reconnaissance showed 30% of the plant's area "wiped out" and another 55% damaged.