Japanese Ballon Bombs - On A Wing


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Japanese Ballon Bombs - On A Wing & A Prayer

English | Xvid | 352×288 | MP3 | 128kbps | ~500MB





From late 1944 until early 1945, the Japanese launched over 9,000 ballon bombs, of which 300 were found or observed in the U.S. Some guesswork gives the total number that made the trip at about 1,000.



Japan released the first of these bomb-bearing balloons on November 3, 1944. 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 known discovery of a functional fire balloon in north America was in 1955 - its payload still lethal after 10 years of corrosion. A non-lethal balloon bomb was discovered in Alaska in 1992.



The concept was the brainchild of the Japanese Ninth Army Technical Research Laboratory, under Major General Sueyoshi Kusaba, with work performed by Technical Major Teiji Takada and his colleagues. Theballoons were intended to make use of a strong current of winter air that the Japanese had discovered flowing at high altitude and speed over their country, which later became known as the jet stream, & at thetime was unknown to the allies.

The jet stream blew at altitudes above 9.15 kilometers (30,000 ft) and could carry a large balloon across the Pacific in three days, over a distance of more than 8,000 km (5,000 mi).



The preparations had consumed much time because the technological problems were acute. A hydrogen balloon expands when warmed by the sunlight, and rises; then it contracts when cooled at night, and falls.



The engineers devised a control system driven by an altimeter to discard ballast. When the balloon descended below 9 km (29,500 ft), it electrically fired a charge to cut loose sandbags. The sandbags were carried on a cast-aluminium four-spoked wheel and discarded two at a time to keep the wheel balanced.

Similarly, when the balloon rose above about 11.6 km (38,000 ft), the altimeter activated a valve to vent hydrogen. The hydrogen was also vented if the balloon’s pressure reached a critical level.



The control system ran the balloon through three days of flight. At that time, it was likely over the United States, and its ballast was expended. The final flash of gunpowder released the bombs, also carried onthe wheel, and lit a 19.5 meter (64 ft) long fuse that hung from the balloon’s equator. After 84 minutes, the fuse fired a flash bomb that destroyed the balloon.



The balloon had to carry about 900 kg (1,900 lb) of gear. At first, the balloons were made of conventional rubberized silk, but there was a better way to make an envelope that leaked even less. An order went out for ten thousand balloons made of “washi”, a paper derived from mulberry bushes that was impermeable and very tough. It was only available in squares about the size of a road map, so it was glued together in three or four laminations using edible konnyaku (devil’s tongue) paste. Hungry workers stole the paste and ate it. Many workers were teen-aged girls, whose fingers were nimbler than any other classof people. They were told to wear gloves, to keep their fingernails short, and not to use hairpins. They assembled the paper in many parts of Japan. They had no idea of the purpose of their work. Large indoor spaces, such as sumo halls, sound stages, and theatres, were required for the envelope assembly.



By early 1945, Americans were becoming aware that something strange was going on. Balloons had been sighted and explosions heard, from California to Alaska. Something that appeared to witnesses to be like a parachute descended over Thermopolis, Wyoming. A fragmentation bomb exploded, and shrapnel was found around the crater. A P-38 Lightning shot a balloon down near Santa Rosa, California; another was seen over Santa Monica; and bits of washi paper were found in the streets of Los Angeles.



Nobody believed the balloons could have come directly from Japan. It was thought that the balloons must be coming from North American beaches, launched by landing parties from submarines.



Some of the sandbags dropped by the balloons were taken to the Military Geology Unit of the US Geological Survey for investigation. The sand could not be coming from American beaches, nor from the mid-Pacific. It had to be coming from Japan.



In the meantime, the balloons continued to arrive in Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, British Columbia, Manitoba, Alberta, Northwest Territories, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, Nevada, Colorado, Texas, NorthernMexico, Michigan, and even the outskirts of Detroit. Fighters scrambled to intercept the balloons, but they had little success; the balloons flew very high and surprisingly fast, and fighters destroyed fewer than 20.



The geologists continued their studies and ultimately determined the precise beaches in Japan the sand had been taken from. By this time, it was mostly irrelevant, since by early spring the balloon offensive was almost over.



The expense was large, and in the meantime the B-29s had destroyed two of the three hydrogen plants needed by the project. With no evidence of any effect, General Kusaba was ordered to cease operationsin April 1945.



On March 10, 1945, one of the last paper balloons descended in the vicinity of the Manhattan Project’s production site at the Hanford Site. This balloon caused a short circuit in the powerlines supplying electricity for the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but backup safety devices restored power almost immediately.



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