Tag Archives: Montana’s Home Front During World War II

Montana During World War II

Montana Men who Participated in the Battle of Midway

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To commemmorate the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Midway, I thought I would post the names of a few of the Montanans who participated in one of the most important sea battles of all time. In May 1942, Allied airplanes defeated the Japanese fleet in the Battle of the Coral Sea, although the carrier USS Lexington was lost with several sailors from the Treasure State aboard. At the same time, Japanese troops overran the fortified island of Corregidor in Manila Bay, the last American stronghold in the Philippines. Defenders of the island were killed or captured, and at home, the casualty lists of Montanans killed or missing in the Pacific became a regular feature in local newspapers.

Warm weather in June 1942 weather brought a sense of optimism to the Treasure state. Although no one really knew it at the time, a turning point was reached in the Pacific War during the Battle of Midway (June 4 through June 7). The news that four Japanese aircraft carriers and a cruiser had been sunk in the Battle of Midway, balanced by the loss of one American destroyer and the aricraft carrier USS Yorktown, came as a welcome ray of hope after the military reverses of the previous winter and spring.

Charles M. Mason, the son of  Missoula’s mayor, and Wayne  Daigle, also of Missoula,  were rescued from the USS Yorktown when it sank.

Capt. James Murphy of Roundup (B-17 pilot) was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Silver Star with four clusters for his actions at Midway, Bismarck Sea, and New Guinea.

Ens. James Shelton of Denton was killed attacking  the Japanese fleet at Midway.  He was a member of Scout  Squadron Six, based on the  USS Enterprise. His squadron  of Dauntless bombers attacked  and sank the Japanese carrier Kaga. He was  posthumously awarded the Navy  Cross for his actions, and a  destroyer escort, the USS  Shelton, was named after him. The USS Shelton was commissioned in May 1944 and was sunk on November 20, 1944.

Montana During World War II

Japanese incendiary bomb sightings in western Montana

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News reports this week indicate thatAl Qaeda is now urging its followers to set the forests of western Montana on fire with incendiary bombs, so I thought I would post some information on the last terrorists who tried this tactic. Below is the list I compiled on the Japanese incendiary balloons that landed or were sighted in Montana during World War II. The tactic wasn’t successful for the Japanese, and I don’t expect that Bin Laden’s acolytes will have any more luck, and they just might encounter a rather unpleasant welcome from the residents of western Montana if they try it. Fortunately, their leader is at the bottom of the Indian Ocean and the organization is in shambles. Below is the list of Japanese balloon bombs known to have landed in Montana. More information on the balloon bombs can be found here. You can read the full story of Montana’s Home Front During World War II here.

• Nov. 4, 1944 – A balloon bomb was recovered at sea 175 miles off of Los Angeles.
• Dec. 6, 1944 – A loud explosion was heard in Thermopolis, Wyoming and Japanese bomb fragments were recovered.
• Dec. 11, 1944 – Kalispell. A cream-colored Japanese balloon with blue stripes was found at Truman Creek. Two Japanese men living in Kalispell and Whitefish translated the writing and learned that it was manufactured on Oct. 31, 1944.
• Jan. 16, 1945 – Lame Deer. Balloon recovered.
• Feb. 2, 1945 – Lodge Grass. Balloon recovered.
• Feb. 12, 1945 – Eden. Balloon recovered.
• Feb. 12, 1945 – Red Lodge. Balloon recovered.
• Feb. 12, 1945 – Big Fork. Balloon seen drifting east.
• Feb. 12, 1945 – Riverdale. Three bombs fell southwest of Great Falls and started small grass fires.
• Feb 22, 1945 – Hays. A balloon with three incendiaries and a barometer was found.
• Feb. 25, 1945 – Hardin. Witnesses saw an explosion and smelled explosives. They found a 10-inch long bomb fin sticking out of the ice.
• March 2, 1945 – Boyd. A balloon was recovered, along with a battery, a sandbag, four arming wires, and one bomb.
• March 10, 1945 – Benchland. A balloon made of blue paper was spotted in flight and was recovered mostly intact.
• March 10, 1945 – Whitehall. Balloon with one sandbag and one incendiary found.
• March 13, 1945 – Butte. Balloon found by a farmer.
• March 13, 1945 – Benchland. Balloon recovered.
• March 13, 1945 – Malta. Balloon recovered.
• March 15, 1945 – Stanford. Balloon recovered.
• March 15, 1945 – Legg. Balloon recovered.
• March 18, 1945 – Silesia. Balloon recovered.
• March 19, 1945 – Hammond. Balloon recovered.
• March 20, 1945 – Eden. Balloon recovered.
• March 21, 1945 – Glenn. A 4.5 kg incendiary bomb exploded and started a small fire.
• March 22, 1945 – Sula. An incendiary bomb started a small fire.
• April 4, 1945 – Bozeman. A balloon was recovered at the Montana State College sheep experiment station.
• April 10, 1945 – Turner. Balloon recovered.
• May 3, 1945 – Philipsburg. Balloon with eight sandbags recovered. Five still contained sand.
• May 12, 1945 – Stockett. Balloon recovered.
• May 13, 1945 – Maiden Rock. Balloon recovered.
• May 16, 1945 – Kalispell. Balloon recovered.
• June 1, 1945 – Billings. Balloon recovered south of town. It was believed to have landed two months before.
• July 11, 1945 – Deer Lodge. Balloon recovered.
• July 11, 1945 – Dillon. Balloon recovered.
• July 27, 1945 – Butte. Balloon recovered. It had probably
landed six months earlier.
Balloon bombs were also reported near Cascade, Flathead Lake, Bernice, Hammond, Divide, Harlowton, Coram, Laurel, Nyack, Loring, Dodson, Pryor, Boulder, Monida, Babb,
and Broadus, where an explosion was heard. The Japanese balloon bombs were made of
layers of mulberry paper or rice paper, treated with paraffin.

Read more about Japanese Fugo Balloon Bombs

Fort Missoula, Montana During World War II

Leak of the Victory Program. Patriotism, Treason or Subterfuge?

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The mystery of the Montana Senator who revealed America’s top-secret war plan just days before Pearl Harbor.

The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor threw an unprepared United States into the global conflict of World War II. Compounding the tragedy was the fact that America’s top-secret war plan had been compromised just three days before. On December 4, 1941, Americans awoke to read of “F.D.R.’s WAR PLANS!” on the front pages of the Chicago Daily Tribune and the Washington Times-Herald. The article revealed the existence of the Victory Program, America’s blueprint to defeat Nazi Germany and Japan, described by a presidential historian as, “one of the most remarkable documents of American history.”

The newspaper article revealed a policy where the United States would concentrate on defeating Germany before Japan, with a planned invasion of Europe in 1943. The Victory Program called for building an army of ten million men and doubling America’s industrial production in just two years in order to manufacture the estimated 68,000 aircraft and 4,000 ships that would be needed to win the war. It also contained a detailed target list for destroying the German economy from the air. The leak of the Victory Program set off an uproar in Washington. German diplomats cabled the details to Berlin while the F.B.I. scrambled to apprehend the culprit who had leaked the top-secret plan. The Assistant Secretary of War declared, “There’s blood on the fingers of the man who leaked this information.”

The man who revealed the plan to reporter Chesly Manly was U.S. Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana, who had been given the document the day before by an unidentified captain in the Army Air Corps. The Senator read the document with dismay, appalled by the plan commissioned by President Roosevelt. A prominent isolationist, Wheeler was convinced that the President had been lying to Congress regarding his preparations for war, and he decided that the American people deserved to know of Roosevelt’s deceit, (although Wheeler successfully concealed his own role in the leak for more than 20 years).

The attack on Pearl Harbor, followed by Hitler’s declaration of war on December 11, ended Wheeler’s opposition to the war, but many questions remain about how the top-secret plan became public knowledge at a critical juncture of American history.

  • What motivated the mysterious Army Air Corps captain who risked his career and liberty to provide the top-secret plan to Senator Wheeler?
  • Why did a former British spymaster claim (more than 30 years later) that he had duped Wheeler into releasing a “sanitized” version of the plan?
  • Why did the F.B.I. abandon their investigation after it seemed to lead them to the highest levels of the U.S. military?
  • Why would Col. Albert Wedemeyer, chief planner of the Victory Program and the D-Day invasion, state that “I have always been convinced… that President Roosevelt authorized it. I can’t conceive of anyone else… having the nerve to release that document.”

Gary Glynn will lead a discussion of the unsolved mystery of how the Victory Program, America’s biggest secret, became a front page story at a critical moment in American history. Historical Museum at Fort Missoula, Tuesday, May 15 2012 at 7:00 p.m.