Just a Chance

Between long-range attacks on rear-area strategic targets, U.S. B-29 Superfortresses have often been used in small groups for close-in tactical bombing—a task which they do indifferently, because they were not designed or armed for such work. Last week, for the first time in the Korean war, the 6-293 were turned out to make a mass tactical strike. Ninety-eight Superforts of Major General Emmett O'Donnel's Far Eastern Air Force Bomber Command hit Red positions along the west bank of the Naktong River near Waegwan.

Before taking off on the mission with his men, "Rosie" O'Donnell met newsmen at his headquarters in southern Japan. He was under no illusions as to the probable effectiveness—or the economy—of a tactical strike by strategic bombers against an area which might or might not be occupied by enemy troops. "It's just the chance that it might help," he told newsmen. "It's going to be beyond the scope of our book, but we're trying."

Next day, Rosie O'Donnell's Superfortresses went out and did their best. In two hours over the target, the Superforts dropped 850 tons of bombs on an enemy area 7,000 yards wide and 13,100 yards long. Air Force planners had worked out a bombing pattern of one bomb to each five acres.

All in all, the strike was a precise job of planning, for a massive delivery of bombs. It made a lot of noise, it may have done some damage, and it may have provided a healthy morale boost for hard-pressed U.S. ground troops, who cheered the big bombers. But the effect on the North Koreans was negligible. Presumably it scared the wits out of them for a while, but next day the Communists launched a major attack (see Battle of Korea) through the area just pulverized by the B-29s.