WANTED!!!

[evangilder]

They were called balloon bombs. There is little written about them, but some of the things I have seen about them is that some of them were loaded with incindiary devices with the purpose of causing forest fires in the northwest. They also were looking at it as a way of creating fear. ALot of the incidences of successful balloon bombs were classified to prevent the US population from panicking.

 

[Brunner]

DO you know by chance how long did this operation last and how many of them were "launched"?
All I know about them is that one was shot down by p63 kingcobra over Oregon, nothing more.
Shame, as it is quite interesting subject...

 

[Wildcat]

I heard somewhere that they were planning on sending chemical weapons on these ballons as well. Is this true or was someone feeding me s**t!
Also with the ballon bombs I read somewhere that most of them crashed in the ocean and didn't even make landfall.

 

[evangilder]

The information is sketchy as the government kept the operation under wraps to prevent public panic. From what I have seen, most did indeed not make it to the US mainland. I did hear rumors about using chemical weapons on them, but I have nothing concrete about it. I will have to ask around the museum and see if anyone else knows more about the balloon bombs. It is indeed interesting and rarely mentioned.

 

[Brunner]

and do you have any idea how big this operation was? how many of them were sent, etc.?

 

[FLYBOYJ]

HERE YA GO! \/

One of the best kept secrets of the war involved the Japanese balloon bomb offensive, prompted by the Doolittle raid on Tokyo on April 18, 1942 as a means of direct reprisal against the U.S. mainland. Some 9,000 balloons made of paper or rubberized silk and carrying anti-personnel and incendiary bombs were launched from Japan during a five-month period, to be carried by high altitude winds more than 6,000 miles eastward across the Pacific to North America. Perhaps a thousand of these reached this continent, but there were only about 285 reported incidents. Most were reported in the northwest U.S., but some balloons traveled as far east as Michigan.

The first operational launches took place on Nov. 3, 1944 and two days later a U.S. Navy patrol boat spotted a balloon floating on the water 66 miles southwest of San Pedro, California. As more sightings occurred, the government, with the cooperation of the news media, adopted a policy of silence to reduce the chance of panic among U.S. residents and to deny the Japanese any information on the success of the launches. Discouraged by the apparent failure of their effort, the Japanese halted their balloon attacks in April 1945.

On May 5, 1945, six picnickers were killed in Oregon when a balloon bomb they dragged from the woods exploded. The U.S. Government quickly publicized the balloon bombs, warning people not to tamper with them. These were the only known fatalities occurring within the U.S. during WWII as a direct result of enemy action.

Actual damage caused by the balloon bombs was minor. However, the incendiaries which they carried did pose a serious threat to the forests of the northwestern U.S. during the dry months. These balloons also offered a vehicle for germ warfare had the Japanese decided to use this weapon.

The balloon attack began after U.S. air defense facilities had been deactivated. To counter this threat, AAF and Navy fighters flew intercept missions to shoot down balloons when sighted and AAF aircraft and Army personnel were stationed at critical points to combat any forest fires which might occur. Also, supplies of decontamination chemicals and sprays to counter any possible use of germ warfare were quietly distributed in the western states. Before detailed AAF defensive plans had been put into effect, the attacks ceased.

Japanese bomb-carrying balloons were 32 feet in diameter and when fully inflated, held about 19,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. Launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

 

[Nonskimmer]

I've been told that one or two of these baloon bombs may have come down somewhere in the Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains, but that may have been just so much BS. Then again, maybe they did.

 

[DaveB.inVa]

There is a lot of info out there about the Fugo offensive. http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/jbb.htm

Heres gun camera pics of P-38's downing one.
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/jbb-2.jpg

Heres another good one.
http://amh.freehosting.net/japanese.html
http://www.seanet.com/~johnco/fugo.htm


They were very ingenious I think consisting of much more than bombs strapped to a balloon. They required timers, pressure sensors, altimeters and other instruments to regulate their altitude and when to drop their load. They also transmitted signals that were tracked by the Japanese to help further calculate travel time, performance and general location tracking. The US in Hawaii finally ended up tracking them as well.

Their operation basically kept them in the jet stream. When they got too low as registered by the altimeter a charge was detonated, dropping a sandbag. The lighter balloon would rise back into the jet stream. Should it rise too high relief valves vented hydrogen to lower them. This also took care of the balloon during expansion due to solar heating and contraction at night. After the last sandbag the next to be dropped was the incendiary cluster plus an antipersonnel bomb. A wick was also ignited at that time to destroy the balloon. When they finally started making landfall the US Geological Survey was able to pinpoint launch points and confirm that they were from mainland Japan by examining the sand in the bags.

The sandbags were mounted on a ring of sorts that also suspended the main load in the center of the ring with the controls resting on top of the ring. I remember a few years ago where one of these rings was found out in the woods somewhere. I'd say there is a few of them still around too, just waiting to be found!


The Japanese could have very easily turned their balloon bombs into a viable weapon by loading them with biological agents. The Japanese were no strangers to dropping infected fleas all over China. With the balloon bombs they could have really done some damage had they been employed in the right manner. I have no idea why that didnt happen but my guess would be out of concern of their own as there are a few accounts of the balloon bombs coming down in Japan (not after travelling around the world though).

 

[HealzDevo]

Interesting idea the idea of the balloon bombs. Certainly a pre-Civil War or so idea turned into a modern WW2 idea. Ah, what might have been if that had been done.

 

[Versatile]

There you go Brunner what did I say. I told you the guys on here always come up trumps with requests I bet if you asked what the tyre pressure for a B29 was they could tell you in (PSI please you smart arses)

Don't know what the tire pressure was but i do know that the mains used 56 SC tire. I have sold a few of them in the past.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

Interesting idea the idea of the balloon bombs. Certainly a pre-Civil War or so idea turned into a modern WW2 idea. Ah, what might have been if that had been done.

i believe atleast one made it across, didn't do any damage though..........

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Interesting idea the idea of the balloon bombs. Certainly a pre-Civil War or so idea turned into a modern WW2 idea. Ah, what might have been if that had been done.

i believe atleast one made it across, didn't do any damage though..........

Several made it. One actually killed somone

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

i can't help but wonder what they put on the death cirtificate........

 

[FLYBOYJ]

i can't help but wonder what they put on the death cirtificate........

Death by Japanese Terrorist Balloon

 

[Erich]

the balloon killed a familie on an outing in the forested hills above Brookings Oregon. I live approx 70 miles east of the coastline. there is a rather large article in the Brookings newpaper back during the war and it is brought up nearly every year with locals paying their respects to the familie monument and pieces of the balloon/explosives lie in the museum in the coastal town

 

[GT]

Update.

 

[Erich]

correction the familie was not killed at Lakeview but above Brookings on the coast where the monument lies. One local has written a book about the bomb/ballooon in very lenghty detail some years ago.

 

[plan_D]

Most of those that did make "landfall" actually ended up in Canada - but no where harmful.

 

[Nonskimmer]

Mostly in the Rockies. Actually, I think they all landed in the Rockies.

 

[Smokey]

On March 10, 1945, one of the last paper balloons descended in the vicinity of the Manhattan Project's production site at the Hanford Site. The balloon landed on a power line that fed electricity to the building containing the nuclear reactor producing plutonium for the Nagasaki bomb, and shut the reactor down.