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'Balloon bomb shot down over NB'
By Lou Sennick, Senior Photographer
Wednesday, February 18, 2009 | 1 comment(s)
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It was on the front page of the Coos Bay Times on Feb. 22, 1945 — the battle rages on Iwo Jima.
“4,553 Marine Casualties on Iwo Jima” the headline said.
That the was time the Oregon Woolen Store advertised “100% Wool Worsted suits” from $32.50 to $45.00.
The Safeway store on Sherman Avenue in North Bend advertised Grade A ground beef for 29-cents a pound.
But what you couldn’t read in the Coos Bay Times, or any other newspaper on this day, or any other since, was that a Japanese balloon bomb had been shot down over North Bend.
One urban legend says it supposedly crashed through the roof of the Safeway store, but fortunately, the bomb did not explode.
Very few in the United States knew of the bombs floating over from Japan during the latter part of the war. Thousands were set to float across the Pacific to the North American continent to cause havoc and hinder the war effort.
The U.S. military kept reports of the random attacks secret, and those civilians who came in contact with them, kept the secrets, too.
Even here in North Bend.
The U.S. Navy, through the Technical Air Intelligence Center, developed a report in May, 1945, about the balloon bombs that were recovered. The report included a mention of the North Bend device, but also recorded details about fragments of one recovered in the Coquille-Riverton area on March 13, 1945.
The data on the North Bend device, and from a book published by Bert Webber titled “Retaliation: Japanese Attacks and Allied Countermeasures on the Pacific Coast in World War II” says it was “shot down by fighter plane at 12,000 feet altitude. Envelope, envelope destructor, and 19 shrouds recovered.”
The naval data also said the balloon was bluish white with bluish white seams.
Where it landed after being shot down remains a mystery. Of the thousands of balloons launched in Japan near the end of the war, only a relatively small number were found in the United States and Canada.
The military data records show the bomb that fell the farthest east was discovered on Feb. 23, the day after the North Bend incident. It apparently was discovered in Grand Rapids, Mich.
No one talked about it publicly. Newspapers carried no reports of them being found, until a balloon bomb exploded on May 5, 1945, killing five children and a woman out for a Sunday picnic in the woods near Bly in Klamath County. But that was all.
The headlines were filled with other war news from Europe and the big battle being fought on a small island called Iwo Jima.
“4,553 Marine Casualties on Iwo Jima” the headline said.
That the was time the Oregon Woolen Store advertised “100% Wool Worsted suits” from $32.50 to $45.00.
The Safeway store on Sherman Avenue in North Bend advertised Grade A ground beef for 29-cents a pound.
But what you couldn’t read in the Coos Bay Times, or any other newspaper on this day, or any other since, was that a Japanese balloon bomb had been shot down over North Bend.
One urban legend says it supposedly crashed through the roof of the Safeway store, but fortunately, the bomb did not explode.
Very few in the United States knew of the bombs floating over from Japan during the latter part of the war. Thousands were set to float across the Pacific to the North American continent to cause havoc and hinder the war effort.
The U.S. military kept reports of the random attacks secret, and those civilians who came in contact with them, kept the secrets, too.
Even here in North Bend.
The U.S. Navy, through the Technical Air Intelligence Center, developed a report in May, 1945, about the balloon bombs that were recovered. The report included a mention of the North Bend device, but also recorded details about fragments of one recovered in the Coquille-Riverton area on March 13, 1945.
The data on the North Bend device, and from a book published by Bert Webber titled “Retaliation: Japanese Attacks and Allied Countermeasures on the Pacific Coast in World War II” says it was “shot down by fighter plane at 12,000 feet altitude. Envelope, envelope destructor, and 19 shrouds recovered.”
The naval data also said the balloon was bluish white with bluish white seams.
Where it landed after being shot down remains a mystery. Of the thousands of balloons launched in Japan near the end of the war, only a relatively small number were found in the United States and Canada.
The military data records show the bomb that fell the farthest east was discovered on Feb. 23, the day after the North Bend incident. It apparently was discovered in Grand Rapids, Mich.
No one talked about it publicly. Newspapers carried no reports of them being found, until a balloon bomb exploded on May 5, 1945, killing five children and a woman out for a Sunday picnic in the woods near Bly in Klamath County. But that was all.
The headlines were filled with other war news from Europe and the big battle being fought on a small island called Iwo Jima.
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