The Strange Case Of 1945 Jap Balloon Bomb Attacks On U.S. Mainland

[wacojoe]

I thought I was up on WWII weird weaponry, but this one I missed —

https://amp.freep.com/amp/4111349002...mpression=true

A lot more sophistication involved here than on first sight. Not launched from submarines but from Japan utilizing the jet stream which they had discovered in the 1920’s. Thousands were launched and maybe 10% made it to North America.

[Truckman]

Not much is known about the innovators of the balloon bombs, but they were mostly ineffective...The majority of those that did not go down in the Pacific Ocean were lost in the PNW forests...It was at least forward thinking, but mostly a waste of resources...

The Japanese planners, being mostly desperate for help, looked at the jet-stream as a reiteration of the Divine Wind that saved their feudal empire from destruction from Kublai Khan's seaborne Mongol hordes twice in the 13th Century......Ben