Japanese Balloon Bomb Found in British Columbia

[CampX]

I just saw this on the news, a WW11 Japanese Balloon Bomb and bits found in B C Canada.

WATCH: Historic balloon bomb discovered in the Monashee Mountains | Globalnews.ca

Dean O
Canada

[Gunny Hartmann]

Cool link, i wonder how many others there are out in the woods!....

[Mark K]

Thanks for posting Dean I watched it on the news also here is a map I found on the net gunny with known locations were these types of incendiary bombs have been found on the North American continent.

It must be assumed that of the 9,000 “Fu-Go” ballon bombs launched from Japan, roughly 10% reached North America. Even 65 years later, less than 300 have been found. In all probability the bombs from some of the missing 200 of so balloons are still out there, hidden in the underbrush, tangled in tree branches and still capable of killing people, even those who think the Second World War is over and ancient history.

Regards Mark

[Alan M]

Thank you for the link Dean and the education , i never knew about these bombs !

[CampX]

I think out of all of them, only 3 people were killed by them ( maybe "only" is the wrong word as if you were one of them, it would really matter)
And as I remember it happened when 3 hikers found one during the war, and did not know what it was, so they picked it up or something like that
Their job was to start large forest fires.

Glad you liked the like.

Dean O
Canada

[Mark K]

Hi Dean I found a little information on the type of bombs that were on the balloons and the casualties list .
Once the balloons had flown long enough to be over North America they would then drop their cargo of 33-lb fragmentation and incendiary bombs.
On the morning of Saturday, May 5, 1945, 27 year old Reverend Archie Mitchell and his wife Elsie, who was five months pregnant, were accompanying children from their church on a fishing outing to Leanord Creek, at the foot of Gearhart Mountain, five miles outside of Bly, Oregon. The children's parents were all working overtime to produce lumber and food for the war effort, and the couple was trying fill in for the parents and restore a small piece of a normal childhood lost to the war. Archie dropped his wife and the children off at a bend in the road and drove a mile ahead, to the river bank. He unloaded the fishing gear, and had just returned to the car to unload the picnic supplies, when he heard Elsie and the children approaching. He heard Elsie call out that one of the children had found a weather balloon.
Archie just had time to shout a warning when an explosion ripped through the forest. By the time Archie had reached the scene, his wife and unborn child and all five of the other children were dead Sherman Shoemaker, age 11, Jay Gifford, age 13, Edward Engen, age 13, Joan Patzke, age 13, and Dick Patzke, age 14; these were the only American civilian casualties during the Second World War, giving the Japanese balloon bombs a kill rate of just 0.067%.

Regards Mark

[CampX]

THank you for Correcting me, I was just going by Memory.

Dean O

[Adam M]

A great rare find

[qualicumwind]

Here's a link to a newspaper story about this find:

Military unit blows WWII-era Japanese balloon bomb to 'smithereens' in B.C. mountains