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Paper balloon bombers of World War II
Because of the United State's location, protected as it is on both coasts by wide oceans, it is generally believed that there were no enemy attacks on America's shores by either the Germans or the Japanese during World War II. This is not entirely correct.
Even before the war, the United States was infiltrated by both German and Japanese spy networks. Good work by the FBI prevented wide-spread damage by these spies, who were rounded up and convicted be-fore they could get their operations under way. It was the same with German spies who were put ashore by U-boats with plans to blow up electrical facilities at Niagara Falls, and aluminum factories in Il-linois, Tennessee and New York. The attacks were thwarted before any damage could be done.
More damage, early in the war, came from German U-boats, which raised havoc with American ships off the East Coast, sometimes within sight of Boston and New York. As America geared up for war, with more planes and anti-submarine ships the U-Boat attacks shifted to the Gulf of Mexico and gradually to European waters.
On the west coast the Japanese attempted to build upon their Pearl Harbor gains with submarine shelling attacks on California targets.
One such attack occurred at Santa Barbara, which did less than $500 damage to a baseball diamond. Another Japanese submarine succeeded in assembling a small float plane off the California coast, which dropped incendiary bombs and started a few forest fires. But distances were too great for a few Japanese submarines to do any real damage.
The Japanese actually invaded the Aleutian Island of Attu in Alaska in 1942 and held that island until June 1943. The invasion was designed to divert attention from the serious Japanese offensive at Midway Island. It was the first time since 1812 that American territory had been in enemy hands.
After Gen. Doo-little's B-25 fire bomb raid on Tokyo in the spring of 1942 (purely a propaganda move designed to lift the spirits of the American people) the Japanese were determined to retaliate with serious attacks of their own on the mainland of the United States. The means they chose was quite ingenious.
The Japanese had discovered a prevailing wind current, which we now recognize as the jet stream, at altitudes of 30,000 to 38,000 feet. They reasoned that they could use this means to deliver unmanned balloons, carrying bombs from Japan to the USA. The flight would make the 5,000 mile journey from Japan to California in only three days. Knowledge about the jet stream was scant in those days.
At first no American would believe that the balloons could have come from Japan. Common belief was that they must have been launched from a ship or submarine close by American shores.
From the fall of 1944 to the spring of 1945 some 9,000 of these balloons were launched. Though less than 300 of the balloons were verified to have landed in the United States it is assumed that probably 1000 of them made it across the Pacific.
These balloons were about 33 feet in diameter and were filled with hydrogen gas.
At first, the Japanese used rubberized silk, which was the usual balloon covering, but soon switched to a paper cover, made from mulberry bushes, which they applied in layers, glued together with paste made from potatoes. (One problem with the potato paste was that hungry workers stole the paste and ate it.)
The balloons were engineered to carry a 1,000-pound payload, consisting of two bombs and 36 sandbags, suspended from a 4-spoke (bicycle like) wheel hanging far below the balloon. There was quite a sophisticated system for keeping the balloon within the 30,000-38,000 feet range during its flight. As hydrogen gas expands in the sun, an altimeter triggered a release of gas above 38,000 feet, and released sandbags below 29,500 feet.
The bags were to be released two at a time, on either side of the wheel, so as to keep the balloon straight. After three days, when the balloon would be over the U.S., a final flash of gunpowder would release the wheel, with bombs and any remaining ballast, and set fire to a 64-foot long fuse that would destroy the balloon itself after 84 minutes.
For several months, from November 1944 to May 1945, these balloons were sighted almost daily over a wide area -- California, Oregon, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, even on the outskirts of Detroit, as well as Canada and Mexico.
Attempts to shoot down the balloons were mostly ineffective. The balloons flew at very high altitudes (for 1945) and flew surprisingly fast.
Merrill Ream of McCook reports that sleuths from his old Army unit, The National Counter Intelligence Corps, had a hand in putting a stop to the fire bombs. As some of the balloons were recovered, the sand in the sandbags was examined by Army geologists, who were able to determine that the ballast sand came from beaches in a region of in Northeastern Japan.
By the Spring of 1945 our B-29s were having regular bombing raids on the Japanese mainland, and they were able to destroy hydrogen plants in that region, which were producing hydrogen for the paper balloons project.
Though the fire bombs generally did little damage, one balloon, which was shot down by a Navy plane at the site of the Manhattan project at Hanford, Washington did disrupt the war effort. As the balloon came down it came to rest across power lines going between Booneville and Grand Coulee Dam, causing a power failure that shut down that super secret facility for three days.
All through the fire bomb raids on the U.S., the government kept a strict secrecy lid on the sightings.
In those days the press cooperated fully with the government, and though there were rumors of strange enemy bombs coming into the U.S. there was no news coverage to that effect. The idea was to keep any information about the bombs from the Japanese, lest they would be encouraged to step up their operation.
A great concern in this country was that future balloons would be armed with biological weapons. It never happened
There were six deaths attributed to the fire bombs in the U.S. In May 1945, a Reverend Mitchell took his wife and five children from his church on a picnic and fishing outing to Oregon's Gearhart Mountain.
Mitchell let his wife and the children out of the car and drove off to find a parking place. As he looked back he saw one of the children tugging at one of the balloons caught in a tree. The tugging set off a bomb, killing Mrs. Mitchell (who was pregnant) and all five of the children.
After World War II the families of these six persons were awarded compensation by the United States Government. As the only victims to die of enemy fire on United States soil, they were treated the same as fallen soldiers. Today a Mitchell Monument, honoring these victims can be found near Klamath Falls, Oregon.
A sad note of interest: Reverend Mitchell later remarried and became a Missionary in Vietnam. In May of 1962 he was abducted by the Viet Cong and was never seen again.