Balloon Bombs: What are they?
Balloon bombs were hot air balloons with one 15 kilogram antipersonnel bomb and two incendiary devices attached. They were launched by Japan during World War II to wreak havoc on American cities, forests and farmlands. They were called the Fu-Go Weapon, supposedly a revenge bomb for the 1942 Doolittle raids on Tokyo. Only partially filled with air to compensate for different altitudes across the Pacific, they looked like giant jellyfish. The incendiary bomb was the biggest concern. During the dry season it could turn forest areas into an uncontrolled holocaust.
The balloons were 32 feet in diameter, made of 600 separate pieces of laminated paper, stitched and pasted together and sealed with a potato paste. High school girls provided the major part of the work between October 1944 and February 1945. The balloons were partially filled with 60 pounds of hydrogen gas to allow expansion in the thin upper atmosphere where the Jet Steam carried them across the Pacific Ocean. Each balloon carried 32 sand bags as ballast to be released to regulate altitude differences between day and night-time temperatures. The last two ballast positions were taken by a 26 pound termite incendiary bombs. The central weapon was a 33 pound high explosive bomb. 9,300 balloons were launched between November 1944 and April 1945.
Where did they hit?
It's estimated that nearly 1,000 bomb bearing balloons reached North America. They were found in Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Michigan and Iowa, as well as Mexico and Canada. The last one was launched in April 1945. The last one found in North American was in Alaska in 1955 - its payload still lethal after 10 years of erosion. Picked up by a 74th Air Rescue Squadron H-5 helicopter crew from Ladd Air Force Base near Fairbanks, Alaska, it was sent to Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, for closer inspection.
Who did they kill?
On May 5, 1945, a balloon bomb killed five children and a woman near Lakeview, Ore., when it exploded as they dragged it from the woods. Taking some local kids on an outing, Reverend Archi Mitchell watched in horror as his wife, Elsie, and the five children, ages 11 to 13, were killed. Those six were the only known victims of the balloon bombs. However, dangers of the balloon bomb still may exist. Hundreds were never found and may still be detonated with the slightest contact.
Mission accomplished?
The bombs actually caused little damage, but their potential for destruction and fires was awesome, not to mention their psychological effect on the American people. U.S. strategy was to not let Japan know of the balloon bombs' effectiveness. Cooperating for national security reasons, the press showed great restraint in not publishing balloon bomb incidents. As a result, the Japanese only learned of one bomb reaching Wyoming, landing and failing to explode, so they stopped the launches after less than six months.
Source: "Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America" by Robert C. Mikesh, Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973.
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