Warbird Information Exchange

watched a great documentary on the military channel today re: ww 2 spys / attacks on the u.s. mainland. great show!!! they did a segment on the aerial launched japanese balloon bombs launched from japan that traveled on the upper stratosphere jet stream. i'm well familiar with these weapons, & i've done extensive reading on the topic. over 700 were launched, & around 300 were found on u.s. & canadian soil, including 1 that actually killed 6 people in oregon. my question is this........ of the 300 found, did the u.s. govt. retain any after studying them that survive in museums??? a footnote of caution.... according to robert mikesh of the ones not found there are probably a fair quantity still out there in remote wooded areas of the northwestern u.s. & canada with live ordinance still attached. so if your hiking in these regions & find some weird object, use caution!!! fyi....... michigan is the farthest east a balloon bomb was found during the war

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

This suggests that remains may still exist.

http://www.militarymuseum.org/Alturas.html

_________________
It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

The New England Air Museum has the wooden Balloon ring, risers that held the bomb, and timing mechanism of one of the Japanese Balloon. It's not currently on display, but I have actually seen it when I was an associate curator there.
Jerry

_________________
"Always remember that, when you enter the ocean or the forest, you are no longer at the top of the food chain."

It's amazing to think that they have still been discovering these balloons as late as 1992 and that they travelled as far East a Michigan.

Anyways I recall years ago seeing one of these Balloons on display at the NMUSAF. Near where they had the German Parachute bomb on display.

Shay
____________
Semper Fortis

Tom--

The new Canadian War Museum in Ottawa has the complete "gondola" of one of these kite balloons hanging menacingly from the ceiling in one of the WWII galleries. Quite a sight, really.

S.

There used to be parts of one at the army musuem in the Halifax cidital along with a fairly complete V-1.and some WW1 aircraft engines.The display was removed oin the early 80,s

thanks guys!!!

_________________
tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Hi I saw a complete one at the Admiral Nimitz /pacific war museum in Fredricksburg Texas!! A must see if your into the war in the pacific,excellent displays you will see no were else. Thanks Mike

_________________
IF YOU CAN FIND IT WE CAN FIX IT

There was one at the National Air & Space Museum in DC (downtown on the Mall), several years ago. With their exhibits changing all the time, I'm sure that its been moved and placed in storage by now. If I have pictures, they would need to be found and scanned (finding them in all the pics I have is a LOT harder than scanning them).

I can say I looked at it and it was something else. A lot of thought went into building the thing. Kind of like looking inside a Toyota engine, you can see that these people were serious about their designs.

Mark H

Yep I saw it there as well a fews back.

Colorado got hit by these things 7 times in WWII...some guy around here in Greeley still has a crater on his property he never filled of from where it detonated...

As I recall, a woman and 5 kids were killed in Oregon when they began poking at one that landed there...

Mark

_________________
Mark Morris