• January 29, 1933 – Amelia Earhart piloted a Ford Trimotor around the Helena Valley.
• July 15, 1933 – Going-to-the-Sun highway was dedicated.
• March 2, 1933 – Montana Senator Thomas Walsh died on his way to Washington D.C. to take an appointment as the U.S Attorney General.
• October 1933 – Construction began on Fort Peck Dam.
• 1934 – A four-and-a-half month long peaceful strike by the International Mine, Mill and Smelter workers revived union activity in the state.
• 1935 – The Montana Highway Patrol was formed.
• May 6, 1935 – President Roosevelt created the Works Progress Administration.
• October 1935 – A series of earthquakes killed four people and caused $4 million in damage to buildings, including Helena High School.
• December 15, 1935 – Bill Holt was named to replace Gov. Frank Cooney, who died in office.
• November 23, 1936 – Fort Peck Dam was the featured cover story of the first issue of LIFE magazine.
• Jan. 4, 1937 – Roy Ayers was sworn in as governor.
• June 12, 1937 – Two–and–one–half inches of rain and hail in one hour ruptured an irrigation canal and caused a major flood in downtown Billings. The Burlington railroad tracks washed out, and the Midland Empire fairgrounds suffered hail damage. The Billings Gazette called it “the greatest catastrophe in the city’s 54 year history.”
1938-1940
• January 10, 1938 – A Northwest Airlines flight crashed near Bozeman, killing 10.
• April 22, 1938 – The U.S. Government transferred Lewis and Clark Caverns to the state of Montana. The area would become the first state park in 1941.
• April 1938 – Kerr Dam near Polson became operational.
• June 19, 1938 – The Milwaukee Road “Olympian” derailed near Miles City, with 47 dead and 75 injured.
• Sept.22, 1938 – A major landslide at the Fort Peck Dam construction site killed 8 men.
• July 12, 1940 – Missoula smokejumpers Earl Cooley and Rufus Robinson made the first parachute jump on a fire.
• Sept. 11, 1940 – Fire destroyed the Northern Hotel and damaged 13 other Billings businesses.
• Sept. 16, 1940 – The National Guard was inducted into the Regular Army.
• Sept. 25, 1940 – Congress passed the first peacetime draft.
Montana’s Home Front During World War II, 2nd Edition
Look for it in a bookstore near you!
Published by Big Elk Books 2012
ebook versions available at Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble
This compelling account of Montana’s contribution to the war effort covers personal stories, local politics, industry, agriculture, education, sports, and social life during the upheaval of a world-wide conflict. Montana’s Home Front During World War II is the tale of ordinary citizens who came together to support their sons and daughters overseas, and the tens of thousands of residents who left the Treasure State to serve their country in the military and defense plants. Those who remained planted Victory Gardens, purchased record amounts of war bonds, and endured the hardships brought about by war-time shortages and rationing. This highly-readable account is the most comprehensive look at Montana during the early 1940s, and the tremendous sacrifices made by ordinary people to support their country in time of war. Originally published in 1994, this revised edition of the classic Montana’s Home Front During World War IIincludes many rare and previously unpublished photographs.
Features:
The training of the First Special Service Force “Devil’s Brigade” at Fort Harrison.
The construction of Malmstrom Air Force Base and the Great Falls based Lend-Lease operation to aid the Soviet Union.
The experience of hundreds of Italian and Japanese civilians who languished behind barbed wire at the Fort Missoula Detention Center.
The hellish fighting encountered in the jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines by the 163rd Infantry Regiment (Montana National Guard).
The terrors of night combat as the crew of the USS Helena battled Japanese ships in the treacherous waters near Guadalcanal.
Was Senator B.K. Wheeler duped into revealing America’s top-secret war plan, the Victory Program, just days before Pearl Harbor? Did the Soviets run a nationwide spy ring from an Air Force Base in Montana? The answers to these and many other questions are answered in Montana’s Home Front During World War II 2nd ed. Gary Glynn examines in detail the impact of the Second World War on Montana politics, industry, agriculture, education, sports, and crime.
Train with the Canadian-American commandos of the First Special Service Force “the Devil’s Brigade” as they become a superb fighting unit at Fort Harrison. Languish behind barbed wire at the Fort Missoula Detention Center with hundreds of Italian and Japanese civilians. Pick sugar beets alongside German prisoners of war and American college students from Sidney to Stevensville.
Fight alongside the men of the 163rd Infantry Regiment (Montana National Guard) in the hellish jungles of New Guinea and the Philippines, at Sanananda, Aitape, Wakde, Jolo and Zamboanga. Experience the terrors of night combat as the crew of the USS Helena battle Japanese ships near Cape Esperance and Guadalcanal. Cheer as the 5th Marines raise the USS Missoula’s flag over Iwo Jima.
Far from the famous World War II battlefields of European theater and the Pacific, many ordinary Montanans made tremendous sacrifices to support the war effort. Tens of thousands of residents left the Treasure State to serve their country or work in defense plants. Those who remained purchased record numbers of war bonds, planted Victory Gardens, and endured the hardships brought about by war-time shortages and rationing. Available in print and ebook formats.
This article originally appeared in 2001 as part of the Missoulian Newspaper’s “Greatest Generation” Series
Montana’s Home Front During World War II
Incendiary Japanese balloon bombs never caused their intended devastation to western state’s forests
One of the secret weapons of World War II first came to light after two men stumbled across a strange object in the woods of western Montana. On Dec. 11, 1944, two loggers were cutting timber at Truman Creek, southwest of Kalispell, when they found the wreckage of a huge, cream-colored paper balloon, painted with a green rising sun and Japanese characters.
An alert newspaperman in Libby heard of their discovery and printed the news. Within days, Time and Newsweek picked up on the story of this latest Japanese invasion threat, and the secret was out.
The FBI arrived to investigate the balloon found near Kalispell, and admitted that similar balloons had recently been found in California, Hawaii, and Wyoming. The balloons, which carried small incendiary bombs, were designed to start devastating forest fires throughout the West. They represented a desperate attempt by Japan to damage the U.S. economy, and divert military personnel from the battle front into firefighting. In order to keep the Japanese from learning the success or failure of their secret campaign, a news blackout was quickly imposed. Most Americans remained unaware of the extent of the Japanese balloon bomb campaign until the end of the war.
U.S. authorities reinflated this Japanese balloon to test its capabilities.
The first “Fugo” balloons were launched from the Japanese mainland in November 1944. The balloons were constructed of rice paper coated with paraffin, or tightly laminated mulberry tissue paper, glued together with potato paste. Many of the balloons were made by Japanese schoolgirls. When fully inflated, the balloons were more than 30 feet in diameter, 70 feet high, and had a capacity of 18,000cubic feet of hydrogen. They were capable of carrying 800 pounds of cargo, which normally consisted of 31 small sandbags (for ballast)plus four small incendiary bombs and one larger high-explosive bomb. Ballast and bombs hung from an aluminum wheel below the balloon. In the case of the Kalispell balloon, the bombs had already been dropped when it was found.
The Japanese depended on what was then a little-known meteorological phenomenon known as the jet stream to carry the balloons eastward over the Pacific. The balloons were designed to fly at 30,000 feet, and were equipped with a barometer and a simple mechanical device to drop the ballast and bombs. Every time the balloon dipped a few thousand feet, a sandbag was released, and the balloon again ascended. When all of the sandbags were expended, the balloons began to drop their bombs.
The mechanism of a recovered Japanese balloon.
Although more than 9,000 balloons were launched, less than 400 are known to have reached the West Coast. Carried by the high-altitude jet stream, the balloons were found from Alaska and Western Canada to as far south as Mexico, and as far east as Michigan. Although the balloons were very ineffective in starting forest fires (perhaps because the vast majority were launched in the winter or early spring) they were not harmless. On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman and five children were killed by a balloon bomb while they were on a church picnic near Bly, Ore. Other than this incident, the balloons caused only a few small fires and a minor power outage at the Hanford facility in Washington State, where ironically, plutonium for the first atomic bomb was being prepared.
At least 35 balloons are known to have landed in Montana without inflicting any damage. Many of the bombs had unreliable triggers, and were duds. In western Montana, balloon bombs were discovered near Flathead Lake, Deer Lodge, Divide, Coram, Nyack, Sula, Glen, Dillon, Philipsburg, Boulder, Monida, and Babb. (A complete list can be found here.) Military aircraft from the Aleutians to Southern California pursued the balloons, and one enterprising Montana sheriff downed one with a shot from his hunting rifle.
After the war the New York Times declared that “First prize for worthless war weapons goes to Japan, for her ‘unique origination’ of bomb-carrying balloons to spread fire and terror across North America.” Nevertheless, the balloons caused the only American casualties by enemy attack in the continental United States during the war, and may still be a threat today: A Japanese meteorologist has estimated that as many as 300 balloon bombs may still be scattered throughout remote areas of the West.
