phl@druhi.UUCP (LavettePH) (10/05/85)
We were off the net for a while so I don't know if my original posting
made it or not. Forgive me if I'm repeating myself.
So many people were interested in the Japanese balloon bomb attack on the
United States that I figured that I might as well post the info on the net.
The Japanese referred to this first intercontenental missile as the "Fu-Go
Weapon."
There were two basic balloon materials. The paper composite that could carry
a 60 pound payload and the rubberized silk version that was capable of deliv-
ering a 77 pound payload. There were three basic pieces of ordnance: 5 and
and 12 kg thermite incendiaries and a 15 kg high explosive aerial bomb. The
main intent was to start forest fires in the Pacific northwest and grass fires
in the prairie states. The HE bombs were intended to demoralize the population
with incidents like the one in Oregon when a woman and five children were killed
when they fooled around with an unexploded bomb while they were on a church
picnic near Bly on May 5, 1945. These six people:
Mrs. Elsie Mitchell Jay Gifford, age 12 Eddie Engen, age 13
Sherman Shoemaker, age 12 Joan Patzke, age 11 Dick Patzke, age 13
were the only Americans to die on the American continent as a result of hostile
enemy action during WWII. The site is now part of the Mitchell Recreational
Area.
There is documented evidence of 285 landings that took place between Nov 4,
1944 and Aug 8, 1945. Were it not for the total news blackout that at least
in part was responsible for the deaths described above the Japanese had planned
to launch many more than the 1900 balloons that were actually released in 1944
and the 7400 launched in early 1945. Pieces of the balloons, bombs and bomb
fragments were found everywhere from the Aleutians to Mexico with the largest
numbers landing in the Canadian northwest and the adjoining part of the United
States. You can win bar bets any time by remembering that site #180, fragments
of a 5 kg incendiary, was discovered in Farmington, Michigan, on March 25, 1945.
(Pieces of a balloon and some shroud lines were found at site #71 in Grand
Rapids on Feb 23, 1945.)
The design and manufacture of the balloon bombs was one of the great scientific
and engineering achievements of WWII. It was right up there with the German
development of the jet fighter, the V1 buzz-bomb and V2 rocket. Hundreds of
fighter planes had to be diverted from the fighting in Europe and the Pacific
to deal with a weapon that was built in emptied-out movie theaters by school
girls and capable of making a three day 6200 mile trip with all the problems of
changing temperatures and altitudes controlled only by crude barometric timers
and slow-burning chemical fuses. I think those who rant and rave so much about
our use of the atomic bomb should consider what the effect would have been had
we given the Japanese time to start using the results of their biological
warfare experiments instead of incendiaries for payloads. Thanks to the self-
censorship of the American news media and the fact that the great north American
forests were relatively damp at the time most of the balloons were launched the
attack was a military failure.
If anybody is really interested they should try to get a copy of:
THE SMITHSONIAN ANNALS OF FLIGHT NUMBER 9
"Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America"
by Robert C. Mikesh
I got mine from the Government Printing Office when it was first published in
1973 for $1.50. The price has probably ballooned since then. |-) The GPO's
catalog number is 4705-0009.
The booklet is an 8 1/2 x 11, 85 page, paperback with lots of illustrations
of the balloons, the altitude controls, the ordnance and maps showing all the
known landing sites. It should be fascinating reading for anyone into free-
flight models, ballooning or WWII trivia.
- Phil