<p>Four interdiction campaigns were conducted during the first year of the Korean War. In addition, there were innumerable interdiction missions which did not come under the blanket cover of a campaign, but were in response to some immediate tactical need.
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<p>Interdiction Campaign No. 1 was a combined effort by FEAF's strategic bombers, Fifth AF tactical aircraft, and Navy planes from Task Force 77. Their mission was to halt the NKA advance that was driving the UN forces down the peninsula, and cover the UN retreat. The first strikes were on 2 August by B-29s of FEAF's Bomber Command against rail yards. They knocked out the main rail centers in eight days and then turned to the rail bridges north of Seoul, across which structures moved much of the NKA supply train.
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<p>On 16 August the Superforts were pulled away by MacArthur for a massive air strike against suspected NKA positions north of Pusan. O'Donnell, without convincing proof that the NKA was concentrated in the area, didn't favor the strike, but went along with the MacArthur request. So 98 B-29s dropped 1,000 tons of high explosives from a low altitude against a supposed 40,000 NKA troops along the Naktong river, near Waegwan. Post-strike reconnaissance showed no evidence that a single NKA soldier had been hit. The largest 'carpet bombing' attack since the invasion of Europe in 1944 had apparently been a complete waste.
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<p>In other missions, the light bombers and fighter-bombers in Fifth AF had been hitting bridges, railroads and roads on specific strikes and armed reconnaissance. One group of B-26 crews developed a makeshift night-intruder operation, and scored against truck convoys moving at night.
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<p>By 4 September, all the bridges on the target list of 44 had been destroyed except for seven, and those had been rendered impassable. It was the official end of the first interdiction campaign, and within a few days the Pusan breakout occurred and the needs of the ground armies changed.
