Great account of something I never knew about.
There was another experimental WWII bombing campaign targeting the United States carried out by Japan, not by a sub-launched airplane, but by balloons. The Japanese launched hundreds of helium balloons up into the trade winds, arming them with automated incendiary bombs. They calculated that the balloons would descend on the US mainland at various places. As I understand it, about five of them were “successful”, or at least discovered. One of the successful ones detonated a couple of miles from where I now live in Colorado.
So they responded to Dolittle’s raid with “do-nothing” balloons. Well, I suspect that these balloons came before Dolittle bombed Tokyo, but I’d have to look it up.
They are certainly that! ❗
I have a book that describes the Japan balloon bomb effort. Quite a few have been found and one killed a teacher and some kids not far from here, in Oregon. One interesting effect is that those balloons came on the same trade winds that the radiation from the Big Fukushima followed a few years ago. I detected higher background about five days after the blow and it lasted for a month.
The book maps the places where balloon bombs have been found and the curious thing for me is the gaps. I’m always mindful of those gaps when I’m out in the country since there’s no way we’ve found them all. After the war the Japs told us how many they sent and we’re short a couple hundred. Some may or may not be in the Pacific? And the explosive they used is long-term stable.
Foo Fighters