Interdiction

The Air Force described “interdiction” as ‘…any air action which prevents, or delays, or destroys enemy movements of men and supplies to the zone of a ground battle.”

(From Robert F. Futrell, The United States Air Force in Korea, 1950-1953).

The idea of interdiction was to denude the troops on the front line of all support, be it supplies or additional troops, in order to weaken their fighting ability. The picture above shows the destruction of a pair of railroad bridges north of Pyongyang on 27 July, 1950. One can easily appreciate that if the destruction of these bridges would stop rail supply to the North Korean Army until they were fixed. The North Koreans would then have to conserve their troops and supplies (or run out of both) until the bridges were fixed. Interdiction Campaigns No. 1 and No. 2, both fought out in the early months of the Korean War (July-October 1950) aimed to help the outnumbered United Nations ground forces in their fight against the North Koreans.

Home Interdiction Campaign No. 1 Interdiction Campaign No. 2