AIR WAR: An Old Lesson

In the vapor-trailed sky over Schweinfurt and Bremen and other German targets eight years ago, U.S. airmen learned—the hard way—an inescapable fact about daylight bombardments. Unless designed to outfly their opposition, bombers must be escorted to & from distant targets by long-range fighters, fast enough and numerous enough to stand off enemy interceptors. The alternative: prohibitive losses. Last week over North Korea, where U.S. pilots are still flying World War II 6-29 Superforts that lesson was underscored again.

In a strike at the Red airstrip under construction at Taechon, 45 miles...