{"id":661,"date":"2012-05-03T21:32:13","date_gmt":"2012-05-04T03:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/?p=661"},"modified":"2014-03-06T14:32:28","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T21:32:28","slug":"japanese-incendiary-bomb-sightings-in-western-montana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/japanese-incendiary-bomb-sightings-in-western-montana\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese incendiary bomb sightings in western Montana"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>. You can read the full story of Montana’s Home Front During World War II here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Nov. 4, 1944 – A balloon bomb was recovered at sea 175 miles off of Los Angeles.
\n\u2022 Dec. 6, 1944 – A loud explosion was heard in Thermopolis, Wyoming and Japanese bomb fragments were recovered.
\n\u2022 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.
\n\u2022 Jan. 16, 1945 – Lame Deer. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 Feb. 2, 1945 – Lodge Grass. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 Feb. 12, 1945 – Eden. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 Feb. 12, 1945 – Red Lodge. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 Feb. 12, 1945 – Big Fork. Balloon seen drifting east.
\n\u2022 Feb. 12, 1945 – Riverdale. Three bombs fell southwest of Great Falls and started small grass fires.
\n\u2022 Feb 22, 1945 – Hays. A balloon with three incendiaries and a barometer was found.
\n\u2022 Feb. 25, 1945 – Hardin. Witnesses saw an explosion and smelled explosives. They found a 10-inch long bomb fin sticking out of the ice.
\n\u2022 March 2, 1945 – Boyd. A balloon was recovered, along with a battery, a sandbag, four arming wires, and one bomb.
\n\u2022 March 10, 1945 – Benchland. A balloon made of blue paper was spotted in flight and was recovered mostly intact.
\n\u2022 March 10, 1945 – Whitehall. Balloon with one sandbag and one incendiary found.
\n\u2022 March 13, 1945 – Butte. Balloon found by a farmer.
\n\u2022 March 13, 1945 – Benchland. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 March 13, 1945 – Malta. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 March 15, 1945 – Stanford. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 March 15, 1945 – Legg. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 March 18, 1945 – Silesia. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 March 19, 1945 – Hammond. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 March 20, 1945 – Eden. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 March 21, 1945 – Glenn. A 4.5 kg incendiary bomb exploded and started a small fire.
\n\u2022 March 22, 1945 – Sula. An incendiary bomb started a small fire.
\n\u2022 April 4, 1945 – Bozeman. A balloon was recovered at the Montana State College sheep experiment station.
\n\u2022 April 10, 1945 – Turner. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 May 3, 1945 – Philipsburg. Balloon with eight sandbags recovered. Five still contained sand.
\n\u2022 May 12, 1945 – Stockett. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 May 13, 1945 – Maiden Rock. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 May 16, 1945 – Kalispell. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 June 1, 1945 – Billings. Balloon recovered south of town. It was believed to have landed two months before.
\n\u2022 July 11, 1945 – Deer Lodge. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 July 11, 1945 – Dillon. Balloon recovered.
\n\u2022 July 27, 1945 – Butte. Balloon recovered. It had probably
\nlanded six months earlier.
\nBalloon bombs were also reported near Cascade, Flathead Lake, Bernice, Hammond, Divide, Harlowton, Coram, Laurel, Nyack, Loring, Dodson, Pryor, Boulder, Monida, Babb,
\nand Broadus, where an explosion was heard. The Japanese balloon bombs were made of
\nlayers of mulberry paper or rice paper, treated with paraffin.<\/p>\n

Read more about Japanese Fugo Balloon Bombs<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading Japanese incendiary bomb sightings in western Montana<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[118,109,8,119],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1352,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions\/1352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/garyglynn.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}