Fire balloon

The Fu-Go bombing balloon was a ball-shaped apparatus with a diameter of about 10 meters. Filled with hydrogen, it had a volume of about 540 cubic meters. The shell of the balls was originally made of rubberized silk, but in conditions of severe oil shortages, Japan was forced to abandon the use of synthetic rubber in the project. Instead of silk, as a result, they began to use “ washi ” paper, which had good gas impermeability. The production of this paper in Japan was carried out only in the form of relatively small square pieces, so the balloon shell was glued from many fragments.

A gondola with a barometric autopilot, combat load and ballast was fixed under the balloon. The gondola had the shape of a four- spoke wheel and was made of aluminum. Bags with ballast - sand were suspended around its perimeter. The total useful weight was 454 kilograms.

The ball was controlled using a barometric autopilot. The device held the balloon at an altitude of 9-11 km, where the air flow was most effective. When the balloon rises above 11 kilometers, the altimeter, responding to changes in air pressure, opened the valve and blew hydrogen from the shell. When the ball drops below 9 kilometers, the altimeter closed the contacts of the electrical system, which actuated the squibs , dropping bags with ballast. In order to stabilize the ball, ballast bags were dropped in pairs from opposite ends of the gondola.

The ball was designed to fly at an altitude of up to 11 kilometers for three days. According to the calculations of the designers, this time should have been enough to overcome 8000 kilometers and get to the territory of the United States. A special timer device counted 72 hours and, after them, dropped the bomb load along with the remaining ballast. The bomb dropping igniter simultaneously set fire to the cord of a small incendiary bomb located in the shell of the balloon to completely destroy the balloon after dropping the bombs and leaving Americans unaware of the nature of Japanese weapons.

Apart from the pilot small-scale production of rubberized silk balls by Kokka since October 1943, the first meeting of scientists and engineers involved in a project to develop this type of weapon was held in May 1944 at the Imperial Arms Administration of Japan in Wakamatsucho , the area of Shinjuku , chaired by major General Sueosi cusabo, the main ideological inspirer of the project and the use of unmanned military theorist balloons horizon for major bombing hell inistrativno and industrial centers of the enemy. Professor Masaiichi Majima of the Tokyo Imperial University was appointed chairman of the commission for the management of research and development . After scientists and engineers prepared technical documentation , including drawings and standard recommendations for organizing serial production of aeronautical bombs, they were hastily arranged for their production, in which a large number of Japanese civilians participated - many thousands of volunteers who were involved in whole families and courtyards making dense gas-tight paper at home . After delivering the paper to the collection points, it was sent to one of the seven pulp and paper mills located in the vicinity of Tokyo , four of which were private enterprises - branches of Kabushiki-gai-gai , and the remaining three were state-owned enterprises, were run by the Japanese Navy and were located directly in the territory of naval arsenals. In factories, balloons were assembled from separate pieces of paper and a light frame. Imperial naval arsenals were responsible for equipping ball bombs with explosive charges and incendiary mixture ^[3] .

The leaders in production were the chemical companies Kokusan-Kagaku and Tyugai-Kako, each of which accounted for about a third of the total production indicator (about 9300 units), the remaining third was made by state-owned enterprises of the Navy. Small-scale production of rubberized silk balls was set up at rubber plants producing car tires . The following is production information with production calculations:

The first tests were carried out in September 1944, satisfactory results were demonstrated on them. By this time, the heavy B-29 bombers had already begun to bombard Japanese territory, and the Japanese bombing program was perceived by the Japanese as "retaliation."

For the first time, a combat balloon was launched across the ocean in early November 1944. The Japanese deliberately delayed launches until late autumn, because at that time the air currents over the Pacific Ocean were especially strong. At the same time, however, they did not take into account that cold and humid weather in winter virtually nullified all hopes for forest fires arranged by aerostats: the forests of the USA and Canada were wet and covered with snow, small incendiary bombs had practically no chance to produce the intended effect.

Balloons were launched from launch sites on the east coast of Honshu . The manufacture of the shell of balls, due to its large size, was carried out at non-specialized enterprises - in sumo halls, theaters, etc. Adolescents were usually involved in gluing the shell of balls .

At first, the Americans did not pay attention to the Japanese bombing campaign. Only at the beginning of 1945, when reports of mysterious balloons and the sounds of explosions that were heard all over the country began to come more and more, did the authorities suspect that something was amiss. Balloons were observed over Oregon , Kansas , Iowa , Yukon , Alberta , Nevada and even Detroit . From many places, they reported on discovered craters from explosions in which fragments were found.

Several balloons were intercepted in the air by patrol fighters: for example, one ball was shot down by a P-38 fighter over the city of Santa Rosa in California . But in general, flying relatively high and fast, invisible on the radar screens of that time, balloons were unexpectedly difficult targets: aviation managed to intercept no more than 20 balloons.

The situation finally became clear only when the patrol fighter, which intercepted the balloon in the sky, was able, using only machine guns, to shoot through its shell and make the ball smoothly descend to the ground. The balloon was inspected by American engineers. Initially, the Americans did not assume that balloons were launched from Japanese territory: it was hypothesized that balloons were launched from submarines off the coast of the United States and even that balloons were secretly manufactured and launched in concentration camps for Japanese internees. To solve the riddle, sand from ballast bags of downed balloons was sent for analysis to the geological service. Based on a study of the mineral composition of sand and the presence of endemic microscopic organisms in it, geologists found that sand for balloons definitely comes from Japan, and even could name the region where it was most likely taken .

Of the 9300 balloons launched from November 1944 to April 1945, only about 300 were seen over the American continent. It was about three times less than the estimated Japanese minimum (the Japanese believed that about 900 balls would reach the United States). Several balloons were discovered on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, and at least two balloons were blown back and landed in Japan.

The bombs dropped from the balls caused virtually no damage and, with the exception of one case, did not lead to any casualties. Hopes for a significant number of forest fires did not materialize due to the timely actions of forest rangers and wet winter weather.

On March 10, 1945, one of the last launched balls hit the strategically important object the only time. An aerostat bomb disabled a power line in Washington State. Ironically, this power line energized the main Manhattan project complex, which had to switch to emergency power.

The only victims of the bombing were in 1945, Eliza Mitchell (pregnant wife of a pastor from South Oregon) and five children aged 11 to 14 years ^[9] . During a school picnic in the forest, children found a fallen balloon lying on the ground. When a woman and teenagers approached the gondola, a fragmentation explosion exploded that killed all six. A monument has been erected at the site of the tragedy.

Classification of results

The US military was very concerned about the launches of balloons. The Americans knew about the work on the creation of biological weapons that was going on in Japan before the war: if a ball with conventional high-explosive bombs represented practically no danger, then being equipped with biological weapons could turn into an undoubted threat. Although the advent of modern medications such as penicillin significantly reduced the risk of biological attack, nevertheless, the risk remained.

At the beginning of 1945, the main American newspapers and radio channels were instructed to refrain from publishing any material on balloons . The US authorities wanted to give the Japanese the impression that the bombing program had completely failed. As a result, the only report on Japanese balloons that entered the press before the end of the war was a note on January 1, 1945, about a balloon that landed in Wyoming and did not explode.

Disinformation succeeded. After analyzing the results, General Kusaba found that the program had completely failed, and six months after it began, ordered to stop the bombing . The assembly of balloons required a significant amount of manpower, which could be applied better. In addition, by this time, B-29 bombers had already destroyed two of the three main hydrogen plants in Japan, making maintaining the pace of launching balls impossible.

During the war, in 1942-1944, the British carried out a similar program of bombing of German territory using unmanned balloons. During Operation Operation Outward , about 100,000 small balloons equipped with wire to cause short circuits in German power lines or small bombs were launched. The design of the balloons was similar to the Japanese one, but much more primitive, since British balloons needed to cover a relatively short distance. ^[10]

After the war, Americans became interested in Japanese experiments. Based on Japanese experience in the 1950s, they developed an E77 bomber balloon to deliver cereal pests to enemy fields (in the event of a war) .

It was assumed that in the event of the outbreak of war with the USSR, the massive launch of such cheap balloons would cause serious losses to the bread crop and either provoke popular outrage or require the chemical industry to divert resources from military production for the mass production of chemical plant protection products. In the 1950s, balloons passed a series of tests over the territory of America (equipped with a harmless food coloring).

The very principle of high-altitude drifting automatic stratostats was later successfully applied by the Americans for aerial reconnaissance of strategic targets in the territory of the Soviet Union ( w: en: Project Genetrix )

• Aerial bombardment of Venice in 1849
• Bomb M115

• The Fire Balloons from Greg Goebel's AIR VECTORS
• Anna Farahmand and Michael webber, “Anti-aircraft mine & Intercontinental launching ball bombs through jet stream” http://www.scribd.com/doc/80947528/Anti-Aircraft-Mine-Intercontinental-Launching-Balloon-Bombs-Through- Jet-Stream-Fire-ball-Japanese-Balloon-Bombs-Terrorist-Handbook-on-a-wind-and
• Robert C. Mikesh, Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America , Smithsonian Institution Press, 1973.
• Cornlius W. Conley. The Great Japanese Balloon Offensive // Air Force Research Institute Air University Review: The Professional Journal of the United States Air Force. - Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama: Air University Review Division, January-February 1968. - Vol. XIX, No. 2 . - P. 68-83. - ISSN 0002-2594 .
• “Balloons Of War” by John McPhee, The New Yorker , January 29, 1996, 52-60.
• "Japan At War: An Oral History" by Haruko Taya Cook and Theodore F. Cook , New Press; Reprint edition (October 1993). Includes a personal account by a Japanese woman who worked in one of the fire ball factories.
• Utah Was Spared Damage By Japan's Floating Weapons www.sltrib.com. 1995-05-05. Accessed 2009-05-15.
• Bert Webber, Retaliation: Japanese Attacks and Allied Countermeasures on the Pacific Coast in World War II , Oregon State University Press, 1975.

• Mikesh, Robert C. Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America . - Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press , 1973. - 85 p. - (Smithsonian Annals of Flight; 9).