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Japanese Balloon Battle
mw2040 writes "Slate reports on a little-known method used by the Japanese during WWII - hydrogen-filled paper balloons with deadly payloads floated without a guidance-system across the Pacific. Both amazing low-tech warfare and a cautionary tale about censorship during wartime. More links (even one for our neighbors to the North) (shamelessly stolen from the article)."
Unless you actually read a book or watched Discovery channel in the past 20 years. I've seen that on there tons of times. And I read a story about it in high school which was almost 6 years ago. Maybe little known if you only know a little?
The BBC (or it may have been Channel 4 in the UK) did a programme about these balloons, explaining how the Japanese used the Jet Stream, and a clockwork mechanism to drop sandbags allowing the balloon to drop out of the stream once over the States - I believe many ended up in Canada.
I heard about this in my world history classes in high school and college, in my Japanese history class (well no shit I'd hear about it there), and on several occasions since, and I've never once gone actively looking for this information.
I think it's more well-known than most minor elements of WWII.
Interestingly, one of these was also found in California.
(That page says the device was taken to Moffetf Field in Sunnyvale CA, but Moffett is and always has been in Mountain View. I believe it was sometimes described as being in Sunnyvale because the military guys were sensitive to the perception of 'Mountains' being anywhere near their airship base. No reference, just remember this from many an airshow..)
I'm sure I read somewhere (or saw on Discovery) that the only mainland US casualties from WW2 were caused by the bombs carried by these balloons.
They managed to cross the pacific by using the jetstream IIRC.. at a time when that particular weather system was relatively unknown.
Bum, I can't log in.. I'm normally MegatronUK... too many damn passwords...
The Japanese had created an interesting bio-weapon during WWII, though they only "tested" it on the Chinese. They figured out a way to create a bomb that would explode scattering plague infested fleas everywhere. It was quite an engineering marvel, even if the results were sickening(to this day, parts of rural China will still periodically get outbreaks of the plague because of these weapons labs), they figured out how to make a bomb explode without killing the fleas. However they never really used it against the Americans, maybe in fear of what the retribution would be.
As the case with Nazi scientists, the head Japanese scientists who worked on Japan's bioweapons during the war avoided war crimes prosecutions by coming over to the US after the war to help in the new "war" against the Soviets.
photos and more info here and an interesting photo of them being shot down from a plane.
Intersting stuff.
I saw a documentary about this as to why the AK-47 beats the M-16 in real combat. It basically came down the the fact that the M-16 was a rifle with autofire capabilities, while the AK-47 was a machine gun with rifle capabilities. The AK-47 worked much better in real combat, because it almost never jammed, and was quite easy to use, which is good if you don't have time to train soldiers. The AK-47 was also a lot heavier. Which allowed it to be used much more effectively at very close range. (AKA, using it to club the guy over the head)
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I'm also fairly certain that not many Japanese learn about the fact that Between 1932 and 1945 Japan experiments included testing biological weapons on humans, and attacked 11 Chinese cities with biological weapons.
John McPhee wrote about this in The New Yorker, 29 January 1996, 52:60. It's a really neat story on how Geologists figured out where exactly in Japan the balloons were being produced based on the sand used in the ballast the ballons held to make the long float across the Pacific.
This is how we first learned about the jet stream as well.
I'm pretty sure the story is in Annals of the Former World, a 1996 book by McPhee, all about geeky geology stuff, but it's a really interesting read.
Not that it worked out very well, but I still think the American's bombing method was much more interesting, and probably a little less well-known. (Though not at all arcane. The last time I mentioned it at least one fourteen-year-old already knew of it.)
The plan you speak of was to send out explosive-laden suicide pigeons to crash into searchlights and outposts. Undoubtedly more bizarre (though more off-topic) was B.F. Skinner's Pigeon -based Guidance system.
Only by coincidence did the Yanks discover that the bombs really were coming from Japan. The sand used in the sandbags was analysed and turned out very unique. However, as the Americans had done a complete survey of Japan's beaches (your granddad's tax dollars at work), they were able to narrow it down to a sand composition at a single beach in Japan.
Curious, a couple planes were sent to investigate...
So until 1940-whatever... No idea the jet stream existed.
:wq
I thought the balloon bombs were pretty famous, simply because they caused the only casualties (from enemy action) on the mainland USA during the whole of the war. A picknicking family found one of the bombs, which hadn't gone off, and er...tampered with it until it did, killing them.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
Sticking your head up, sighting along the barrel and aiming at the target then gently squeezing the trigger and adjusting as neccasry also means you spend a lot of time being a target, a non-moving target.
Look at historical movies of engagements in vietnam and you will that often the soldier just aims his gun in the general direction of the eneme and shoots. Not very accurate but a lot safer for the soldier involved and just maybe it will keep the enemey down.
The AK-47 has the advantage here. Its bullet has more of a change to travel through cover then the M16 had. Simply put an M16 soldier shooting at an AK47 soldier behind wood cover would be very likely to only hit wood. The AK47 soldier on the other hand would shoot straight through the wood and kill the M16 soldier or at least wound.
It says enough about the M16 that a lot of american troops in vietnam switched weapons when they had the change. If the soldier in the field prefer the weapon of the enemey (wich has the risk that your own side might identify you as the enemey in confused situations by the sound of your gun) then you done something badly wrong.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
As for land grabs, while there were a number of prominent Americans that advocated annexing Canada in those days, President Madison wasn't one of them. Rather, it was rabble rousers west of the Appalachians and south of Mason-Dixon.
Luke, help me take this mask off
The Germans ran operation Bernhard which attempted to flood the UK with counterfeit 5 pound notes.
The US applied economic sanctions on Japan prior to Pearl Harbor. Some in the US government in 1931 were in favour of actions in response to the invasion of Manchuria, but Hoover decided against them. In July 1939, the Roosevelt administration abrogated the Japanese-American Treaty of commerce, and in July 1940 introduced a licensing system for exports of petroleum and scrap iron to Japan. In July 1941, the US froze all Japanese funds in the US, and suspended all trade.
Last days of Berlin? Soviets were doing the work there...and unguided bombs? When, exactly, were guided bombs used during WWII?
As an aside, "carpet bombing" was never a military term. It's a loaded word used by journalists.
A WWII submarine would never get within 100 miles of an aircraft carrier before being sunk by a helicopter or another sub. You could do some damage against cargo ships, assuming they'd even notice that they'd been torpedoed. A modern container ship is nothing like a Liberty ship of '44.
Either this was a halfassed troll or a profoundly ignorant individual. If it's a troll, more effort should have been put in to it, really.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=sant a+barbara+submarine+attack
Looks like it happened in February of 1942.
You know nothing about history. Stop pretending you do. Japanese Imperial aggression was legendary in the mid to late 30's. Only after Japan had to fight a war on two fronts (sound familiar) and its military blunders at Midway among other places did the tide turn in favor of the United States. Japan's interest in world conquest as an imperial power was more than well known, it was practically trumpeted. Considering their pact with the Germans, it was only a matter of time that it would've been a desperate fight for our very survival. Why wait until that happens? You seem to think it'd be more "honorable" or "moral" to wait until we were the last free nation on earth to stand against the Nazis and Japanese. That's stupid. Thank your grandparents for not being as dumb as you, or you'd be speaking German right now and praising the fall of the zionist state of America.
My rhetorical question is, how can you know nothing about the size and scope of Japanese aggression in the Pacific? In 1945, the Japanese were sitting on their island, defeated by the Allies, refusing to surrender. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were their incentive.
Your view of history sickens me. Creep.
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
Germany also looked into a suborbital "Amerikabomber." It would skip across the atmosphere, and attack, say, New York.
Another concept was built by the Japanese. A floatplane bomber was to be launched against the West Coast from a submarine. One sub was built, with three aircraft. The war ended before it could be launched.
Scattering Bible verse covered plastic bags is littering. Beside being unsightly, plastic bags can also be deadly to wildlife. Littering Korea (either North or South) with plastic bags is not constructive.
On June 24 1943, the English fishing port of Grimsby was bombed with experimental "butterfly" anti-personnel bombs. A total news blackout on this raid caused the Luftwaffe to abandon butterfly bombs after one raid, since they thought that the devices were ineffective. Quite the opposite was true -- many people were killed or injured by the butterfly bombs. Unexploded devices were still being found in and around Grimsby until quite recently.
In March 1941, the Scottish town of Clydebank was razed by German bombers. The first news that people in the nearby city of Glasgow heard of it was when survivors started walking in from Clydebank.
This is /., so I'll trot out the trite quotes.
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Of course, the Canadians didn't have the same level of resistance on their beach that the Americans experienced on Omaha beach - so your point that the Canadians were somehow 'better' is false.
However, they would have their own trial taking Caen (was supposed to be taken on D-Day - but wasn't secured for 6 weeks, I believe) - running up against SS Panzer units in a drawn out slugfest that ended up leveling the city and bloodying the Canadians badly.
Later, the Canadians would make a name for themselves during intense fighting in Holland, earning the 3rd Canadian division the name 'Water Rats'.
Everyone who fought on the Allied side in WWII should be commended for their sacrifices, regardless of what country they come from. Taking some isolated situation out of the context of history, and trying to use that to bolster a falacious argument does not do them justice.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
Interesting! There is also an annual NATO competition which typically involves an amphibious landing followed by a two day trek through snow (all of these events happen at a high latitude like Greenland, Iceland, or Scandanavia) to "rescue" a hostage being kept at a base in the mountains.
En route to, or at the base, the teams are met with full on resistance (every once in a while someone is killed and just about every time someone is seriously injured). Once the hostage has been "rescued" there is another two day trek back to the pickup rendez-vous which requires swimming over one mile from shore in freezing water and strong tides to a vertical recovery point.
The U.S. SEALS have never failed to win this competition!
There's a great synopsis in a book review here , and the book looks pretty good too.
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
As one who has contributed significantly to the Wikipedia article on the War of 1812, I need to clarify this. It was the British forces, not Canadian militia, who landed in Maryland, defeated the DC militia at Bladensburg, burned the public buildings, and then moved to take Baltimore. At Baltimore the landing force was soundly defeated at North Point, and the ship force could not crack Ft. McHenry, so they withdrew.
The Canadian militia performed very well, but they, like the American militia, faced problems when dealting with regular soldiers. General Winfield Scott and Jacob Brown led a regular US column into Ontario in 1814, mauling both Canadian and British forces at Chippewa. The British victory at Lundy's Lane in July 1814 was due more to Scott and Brown's wounding and the horrific casualty rate on both sides. The American forces actually took the Canadian and British guns, but were too weak to stay. They then mauled the Canadian militia at Fort Erie, Ontario, and moved back over the Niagara, guaranteeing a stalemate in the Northern campaign.
The War of 1812 was one of those rare wars where both sides accomplished much of their war goals. The US did not annex Canada, but the gateway to the Southwest opened up, enabling us to move westward into Spanish/Mexican territory. The British began to give American positions more respect internationally, including a preference to negotiate agreements rather than fight. Canada became a nation, though Quebec and the Red River settlements were both problematic. There are reasons why both nations celebrate it as a victory, though technically it was a draw.
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Oh hell, mod this guy down. This is factually dead wrong and they apparently know exactly nothing about terminal ballistics and its relation to cartridge design.
The AK47 has lousy penetration and short effective range due to the cartridge selection. The very low sectional density combined with relatively low velocity of the 7.62x39 makes it one of the poorest penetration performers of any military cartridge in common use today. The M16 cartridges that have been in use for the last decade or two (M855) will actually out-penetrate most everything else, particularly through hard materials, including the 7.62x51 (.308) NATO cartridge.
Sectional density * velocity = penetration, with some bonus points for bullet design. The 7.62x39 has neither sectional density nor velocity, the 5.56x45 has moderate sectional density and high velocity.
I can't believe the drivel that is being modded as informative. It is a big steaming pile of urban myth nonsense.