Posted on 02/04/2023 12:01:52 PM PST by Antoninus
One of the best kept secrets of the war involved the Japanese balloon bomb offensive. Prompted by the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo in April 1942, the Japanese developed the balloon bombs as a means of direct reprisal against the U.S. mainland. The balloons, made of paper or rubberized silk, carried anti-personnel and incendiary bombs.
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 off the coast of California. Japan launched some 9,000 balloons 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 United States, but some balloons traveled as far east as Michigan.
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 United States during World War II as a direct result of enemy action.
Actual damage caused by the balloon bombs was minor. However, the incendiaries that these balloons carried did pose a serious threat to the northwestern U.S. forests during dry months. These balloons also offered a vehicle for germ warfare if the Japanese had decided to employ this weapon.
The balloon attacks began after air defense facilities in the United States had been deactivated. To counter this threat, U.S. Army Air Forces and Navy fighters flew intercept missions to shoot down balloons when sighted. Army personnel and USAAF aircraft were also stationed at critical points to combat any forest fires that might occur. In addition, supplies of decontamination chemicals and sprays to counter any possible use of germ warfare were quietly distributed in the western United States. Before detailed USAAF defensive plans had been put into effect, the attacks ceased.
Indeed. There were no saints in Europe. Oh those poor Belgians, oh you mean the ones who were committing atrocities in the Congo?
Good point. But remember those horrible German apes, bayoneting Belgian babies...
By the way, something I read recently. Great Britain’s first act of war on August 4, 1914 was to cut the two trans-Atlantic cables that connected Berlin to New York City so all traffic from Europe to America had to go through England.
Nordstream is right out of the Brit playbook.
The thing is, Britain could have stayed out of it, and most likely would have preserved their Empire. I assert if in fact, Germany and England could have made a deal before WWI, the world would have been spared a whole lot of grief.
Why ally with France? Weren’t they the same country that was Englands traditional foe, and they themselves were the last country to try to take over the entire continent with Napoleon?
I remember seeing somewhere claims that there were biological agents on at least some of the Japanese balloons—but the government kept that very secret to avoid panic.
“I assert if in fact, Germany and England could have made a deal before WWI, the world would have been spared a whole lot of grief.”
That is my take as well.
The inbred royal families of both countries were deeply stupid and allowed their arrogance to rule their decision-making.
My grandfather’s logging company found one of these on Latour Creek in Northern Idaho about 30 miles ESE of Coeur d’Alene. It was an incendiary type but hadn’t ignited. They reported it and the military retrieved it and told them to stay quiet about it because they didn’t want the Japanese to gather any information.
To see just how insipid the ruling class and diplomats were in Britian, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Russia were at the time, read Ken Follet’s “Fall of Giants”.
Sure, Arch-Duke Franz Ferdinand was in line to succeed his Dad who was in his 80’s in 1914, and yes, a Bosnian nationalist plugged him and the missus, but these were the days of emperors and peasantry; the common man was treated like easily-disposable crap and was thrown into the pissing contest of wounded national prides as cannon-fodder without a second thought.
A pox on all their houses, starting with Woodrow Wilson’s.
My grandfather would later serve as a sergeant in the US Army with a unit that used poison gas. He was wounded by the filthy stuff in the Meuse- Argonne in 1918.
The history channel had an excellent series on World War I.
When I saw the old films of the naive British young men (boys really) get on the trains to “fight for their country” with big smiles on their fresh young faces it was enough to make me cry—and I am not an emotional person.
They had no clue what a meat grinder awaited them in the trenches in France.
They were so betrayed by their royal family—I have a serious attitude towards anyone who defends the British Royal Family. They destroyed a formerly great empire with their stupidity and arrogance—and made their young men suffer for it.
That is a special kind of crime against their own country—and they remain unpunished to this day.
I don’t mean to pick on the British royals—except they are still around. The other royal families involved in that horror have gone to the dustbin of history.
What was always telling was the enormous explosion in what should have been an other wise empty hold or one certainly not carrying munitions and how quickly the ship sank, in just some eighteen minutes.
And they wondered why Marx, atheism and socialism appealed to the downtrodden and abandoned masses.
One went off in the Dundee area in Omaha. There’s a commemorative plaque at the location.
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/tip/3171
Looks like the plaque is still there:
Ping
Ironic that you posted that picture. Paul McCartney and Warren Buffett sat & visited on those benches a couple years ago. McCartney went into the ice cream shop to order a cone.
Didn't know that. Interesting that those two met up there. It's nice to learn a little color for different places - looks like a quaint neighborhood. I'll have to stop by myself next time I pass through Omaha.
Back in 1945, one of those jet-stream incendiary bombs landed and exploded on a farmer's field in Colorado, about 2 miles from where I live.
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