Chapter 38 3. The "strangling war" carried out by the United Nations Army

In August 1951, in order to cooperate with the negotiations, Ridgway put pressure on the Volunteer Army and the People's Army. While ordering the ground troops to launch a summer offensive, he ordered the Far East Air Force to act immediately to launch a large-scale air offensive to cut off the enemy's rear communication lines and block the The enemy's front and rear contact, suffocating the enemy's combat power.This air offensive became known as the "Aerial Blockade of Communications Campaign." After receiving the order from Ridgway, the new commander of the Far East Air Force, Otto Wieland, organized the headquarters personnel to formulate a plan for this operation, planning to destroy the North Korean railway system in about 90 days, and make its railway transportation fall into a trap as much as possible. At the point of a complete standstill, they attacked the transport trucks of the Chinese and North Korean troops at the same time.Blow up railroad bridges, destroy railcars, or damage rails and roadbeds.

The task area for the air blockade campaign is divided into: the naval aircraft is responsible for the trans-Korean railway line between Sanli and Gaoyuan, and the railway line from Jizhou via Xingnan, Wonsan to Pingkang along the east coast. blockade; the bomber command is responsible for bombing the main railway bridges in Pyongyang, Xuanchuan, Sunchuan, Sinanju and other places; the 5th Air Force conducts an air blockade of North Korea's main double-track railway line in the northwest of North Korea; the 5th Air Force's The light bombers put the main force on the transport trucks attacking the North Korean and Chinese troops.

In order to prevent the military and civilians from North Korea and China from transporting heavy railway equipment to repair the broken rails, the U.S. Far East Air Force also formulated a plan to blow up several major railway bridges in North Korea. When the officers of the 5th Air Force reported to the US Air Force Chief of Staff Vandenberg, they called the air campaign to block the communication line "strangle battle".Later, Vandenberg also used the code name at a press conference in Washington. At this time, the U.S. 5th Air Force commanded two brigades and three squadrons, including an aviation wing of the Marine Corps, with 900 aircraft of various types, all of which were based in the South Korean Army.Among them, six fighter-bomber brigades are equipped with 450 F-84, F-80 and F-51 aircraft; two fighter-interceptor brigades are equipped with 160 F-86 and F-80 aircraft; two light bombers The brigade is equipped with 96 B-26 aircraft.There are also tactical reconnaissance brigade and tactical control brigade.The Far East Bomber Command has three bomber brigades and one reconnaissance squadron, equipped with 115 B-29 bombers and reconnaissance aircraft, based in Japan and Okinawa.The U.S. Far East Navy’s carrier-based aviation often maintains three aircraft carriers to support operations, with more than 300 aircraft of various types.

On August 18, the "United Nations Army" began to implement the "Strangulation War". The 5th Air Force, in its daily combat order, assigned each fighter-bomber wing to blow up a section of railroad 15 to 30 miles in length.Under the cover of F-86, each fighter-bomber wing usually dispatches twice a day to bomb the prescribed railway line.Most wing leaders use a "group formation" of 32 to 64 aircraft, and change their activities according to the opponent's counterattack and weather conditions.They used bombing methods such as gliding and diving, and the hit rate of gliding bombing was higher.The 5th Air Force mainly attacked the double track line between Seoncheon and Sariwon, and also attacked the monorail line between Xichuan and Gunyuri to Suncheon.

At the same time, the B-29s of the Far Eastern Air Force Bomber Command also continued to bomb North Korean airports and bombed important railway bridges in Pyongyang, Sinanju, Sunchon, and Yichuan.After the bombing was over, the aerial reconnaissance plane was used to reconnaissance. Once it was known that these bridges were still usable, the B-29 of the Bomber Command would go to bomb again. In each mission to cut the railway line, two four-aircraft squadrons were usually sent to bomb two bridges.Each squad had its bombing lane and the axis of the bridge as perpendicular as possible, so that the bombers could use the long axis of the bridge as their aiming point.

On North Korea's northeast coast, air forces from the two aircraft carriers of Task Force 77 bombarded ten railway bridges and seventeen road bridges continuously. At this time, heavy rains fell continuously in the northern part of North Korea, and major rivers such as the Qingchuan River, Datong River, and Imjin River were flooded, and the river water surged 7 to 9 meters.In North Korea, a catastrophic flood, rare in 40 years, lasted until the end of the month, causing serious disasters. Ninety-four railway bridges on major rivers were destroyed, and the longest interruption of transportation lasted for one and a half months; 50% of road bridges were also washed away.

Flood hazards and the US Air Force's "strangling battle" have posed a serious threat to the transportation of volunteers' supplies.At that time, the Volunteer Army had to transport 2,500 carriages of supplies to the south of the Qingchuan River every month to maintain the minimum needs. However, in August, the Volunteer Army organized water crossings in areas where river bridges were destroyed by engineering troops, and organized reverse transportation by cars in areas where railways were destroyed. , using trains to make full use of the undamaged railways to scramble to transport materials, and only 1,134 carriages of materials south of the Qingchuan River were scrambled for a whole month, which is far from meeting the needs.Therefore, from the end of August to the beginning of September, there was a food shortage in front of the volunteers.