USAF Museum
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Korean War

Night Attack

Close Support Operations

Interdiction - RAZON Attacks

While the bridge interdiction program had been quantitatively successful, FEAF recognized that it was unnecessarily expensive in ordnance and effort. One officer computed that the Seoul west railway bridge, counting expense of munitions and flying hours, had cost at least $781,080 to destroy. Desiring both to conserve effort and test the ordnance, early in July FEAF asked the USAF for radio-controlled RAZON bombs for use in the B-29's of the 19th Bombardment Group which had racks large enough for the purpose. A detachment from the Air Proving Ground reached Okinawa early in August to prepare the bombs, but practice missions, begun on 23 August, soon showed that employment of a RAZON bomb from a B-29 presented numerous problems which had not been met in experimental development in which B-17 aircraft had been used. Getting the 19th Group into routine RAZON operations thus proved technically difficult and the first tactical results were disappointing. Three B-29's dropped 15 RAZON bombs on the Pyongyang railway bridge on 23 August, but control was managed on only one bomb hit. Hovering in the area for 40 minutes during the sighting process, one of the B-29's was hit by enemy flak. Technical difficulties of this mission were attributed to storage deterioration of the RAZON radio receivers. On 3 September RAZON bombers made two hits, taking a, span out of a bridge north of Pyongyang. By 27 September the 19th Group had flown 10 combat sorties and 8 test missions, dropping 120 bombs, of which 42 had been completely responsive. Six subsequent missions expended 108 bombs, of which 68 were satisfactorily controlled. Thirteen direct hits destroyed six bridges and damaged four others. Although initial results were somewhat disappointing, FEAF hoped that it had found a more efficient method of bridge destruction. Control problems, however, would continue to plague RAZON bombing techniques.

* - United States Air Force Operations in the Korean Conflict 25 June - 1 November 1950 was prepared 1 July 1952 as USAF Historical Study No. 71. The study was researched by Air Force Historian Dr. Albert Simpson and Dr. Robert Futrell. Dr. Futrell wrote the 115+ page report along with several follow-up studies leading to the comprehensive "The United States Air Force in Korea." originally published in 1961 and reprinted in 1996 (ISBN 912799-71-4).

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