74 Years Ago Today; The War hits home in Oregon
A Fu-Go (ふ号[兵器] fugō [heiki], lit. "Code Fu [Weapon]" ), or fire balloon (風船爆弾 fūsen bakudan, lit. "balloon bomb" ), was a weapon launched by Japan during World War II. A hydrogen balloon with a load varying from a 15 kg (33 lb) antipersonnel bomb to one 12-kilogram (26 lb) incendiary bomb and four 5 kg (11 lb) incendiary devices attached, it was designed as a cheap weapon intended to make use of the jet stream over the Pacific Ocean and drop bombs on American and Canadian cities, forests, and farmland.
The Japanese fire balloon was the first ever weapon possessing intercontinental range (the second being the Convair B-36 Peacemaker and the third being the R-7 ICBM). The Japanese balloon attacks on North America were at that time the longest ranged attacks ever conducted in the history of warfare, a record which was not broken until the 1982 Operation Black Buck raids during the Falkland Islands War.
The balloons were intended to instill fear and terror in the U.S., though the bombs were relatively ineffective as weapons of destruction due to extreme weather conditions.
<snip>
Offensive
A balloon launch organization of three battalions was formed. The first battalion included headquarters and three squadrons totaling 1,500 men in Ibaraki Prefecture with nine launch stations at Ōtsu. The second battalion of 700 men in three squadrons operated six launch stations at Ichinomiya, Chiba; and the third battalion of 600 men in two squadrons operated six launch stations at Nakoso in Fukushima Prefecture. The Ōtsu site included hydrogen gas generating facilities; but the 2nd and 3rd battalion launch sites used hydrogen manufactured elsewhere. The best time to launch was just after the passing of a high-pressure front, and wind conditions were most suitable for several hours prior to the onshore breezes at sunrise. Suitable launch conditions were expected on only about fifty days through the winter period of maximum jet stream velocity, and the combined launch capacity of all three battalions was about 200 balloons per day.
Initial tests took place in September 1944 and proved satisfactory; however, before preparations were complete, B-29s began their raids on the Japanese home islands. The attacks were somewhat ineffectual at first but still fueled the desire for revenge sparked by the Doolittle Raid.
The first balloon was released on November 3, 1944. Major Takada watched as the balloon flew upward and over the sea: "The figure of the balloon was visible only for several minutes following its release until it faded away as a spot in the blue sky like a daytime star." A few balloons carried radiosonde equipment rather than bombs. These balloons were tracked by direction finding stations in Ichinomiya, Chiba, in Iwanuma, Miyagi, in Misawa, Aomori, and on Sakhalin to estimate progress toward the United States.
The Japanese chose to launch the campaign in November; because the period of maximum jet stream velocity is November through March. This limited the chance of the incendiary bombs causing forest fires, as that time of year produces the maximum North American Pacific coastal precipitation, and forests were generally snow-covered or too damp to catch fire easily. On November 4, 1944 a United States Navy patrol craft discovered one of the first radiosonde balloons floating off San Pedro, Los Angeles. National and state agencies were placed on heightened alert status when balloons were found in Wyoming and Montana before the end of November.
The balloons continued to arrive in Alaska, Oregon, Kansas, Iowa, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta, the Yukon, Northwest Territories, Washington, Idaho, South Dakota, Nevada (including one that landed near Yerington that was discovered by cowboys who cut it up and used it as a hay tarp, another by a prospector near Elko who delivered it to local authorities on the back of a donkey, and another was shot down by U.S. Army Air Forces planes near Reno). In all, seven fire balloons were turned in to the Army in Nevada, Colorado, Texas, Northern Mexico, Michigan, and even the outskirts of Detroit. Fighters scrambled to intercept the balloons, but they had little success; the balloons flew very high and surprisingly fast, and fighters destroyed fewer than 20.
American authorities concluded the greatest danger from these balloons would be wildfires in the Pacific coastal forests. The Fourth Air Force, Western Defense Command and Ninth Service Command organized the Firefly Project of 2,700 troops including 200 paratroopers of the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion with Stinson L-5 Sentinel and Douglas C-47 Skytrain aircraft. These men were stationed at critical points for use in fire-fighting missions. The 555th suffered one fatality and 22 injuries fighting fires.
Through Firefly, the military used the United States Forest Service as a proxy agency to combat FuGo. Due to limited war time fire suppression personnel, Firefly relied upon the 555th as well as conscientious objectors. The operation also unified fire suppression communications among federal and state agencies. The influx of military personnel, equipment, and tactics shaped how the United States Forest Service approached fire suppression in the post War period.
By early 1945, Americans were becoming aware that something strange was going on. Balloons had been sighted and explosions heard, from California to Alaska. Something that appeared to witnesses to be like a parachute descended over Thermopolis, Wyoming. A fragmentation bomb exploded, and shrapnel was found around the crater. A P-38 Lightning shot a balloon down near Santa Rosa, California; another was seen over Santa Monica; and bits of washi were found in the streets of Los Angeles.
In February and March 1945, P-40 fighter pilots from 133 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force Western Air Command operating out of RCAF Patricia Bay (Victoria, British Columbia), intercepted and destroyed two fire balloons, On February 21, Pilot Officer E. E. Maxwell While shot down a balloon, which landed on Sumas Mountain, in Washington State. On March 10, Pilot Officer J. Gordon Patten destroyed a balloon near Saltspring Island, British Columbia.
On March 10, 1945, one of the last paper balloons descended in the vicinity of the Manhattan Project's production facility at the Hanford Site. This balloon caused a short circuit in the power lines supplying electricity for the nuclear reactor cooling pumps, but backup safety devices restored power almost immediately.
Two paper balloons were recovered in a single day in Modoc National Forest, east of Mount Shasta. Near Medford, Oregon, a balloon bomb exploded in towering flames. The Navy found balloons in the ocean. Balloon envelopes and apparatus were found in Montana and Arizona, and inside Canada in Saskatchewan, in the Northwest Territories, and in the Yukon Territory. Eventually, an Army fighter managed to push one of the balloons around in the air and force it to ground intact, where it was examined and filmed. Japanese propaganda broadcasts announced great fires and an American public in panic, declaring casualties in the thousands.
Hayfork is a small community in northern California about 40 miles (64 km) west of Redding. On February 1, 1945 a Japanese bombing balloon was spotted by several local residents drifting over the Trinity National Forest area and slowly descending. No one knew what it was, but an alert forest ranger called the military authorities at the Presidio of San Francisco and reported it. Meanwhile, the balloon came to rest atop a 60-foot (18-meter) dead fir tree in the forest near a local road. In the next few hours several people gathered in the area to gaze up at the strange object.
Shortly after dark there was a tremendous blast. The balloon's gas bag disappeared in a fireball and the balloon's undercarriage came crashing to the ground. No one was hurt. Forest rangers kept the curious well back from the fallen debris until Army personnel arrived. Upon examination, it was found to be a Japanese bombing balloon with four incendiary bombs and one high explosive bomb still aboard and the bomb releasing mechanism still very much intact. It later proved to be one of the most intact bombing balloons yet to fall into American hands. As was usual in instances of this sort, the local people were told what it was and were asked to keep secret what they had seen.
<snip>
Single lethal attack
Killed near Bly, Oregon
1. Elsie Mitchell, age 26, pregnant
2. Edward Engen, age 13
3. Jay Gifford, age 13
4. Joan Patzke, age 13
5. Dick Patzke, age 14
6. Sherman Shoemaker, age 11
On May 5, 1945, a pregnant woman and five children were killed when they discovered a balloon bomb that had landed in the forest of Gearhart Mountain in Southern Oregon. Archie Mitchell was the pastor of the Bly Christian and Missionary Alliance Church. He and his pregnant wife Elsie drove up to Gearhart Mountain with five of their Sunday school students (aged 11–14) to have a picnic. They had to stop at this spot near Bly, Oregon, due to construction and a road closing. Elsie and the children got out of the car at Bly, while Archie drove on to find a parking spot. As Elsie and the children looked for a good picnic spot, they saw a strange balloon lying on the ground. There were two explosions; the boys were killed immediately, and Elsie died as Archie used his hands to extinguish the fire on her clothing. Joan Patzke survived the initial blast, but died later. A bomb disposal expert guessed that the bomb had been kicked. These are the only known deaths caused by the balloon bombs in the continental U.S. and are the only known deaths in the contiguous U.S. as the result of enemy action during World War II.
Military personnel arrived on the scene within hours, and saw that the balloon still had snow underneath it, while the surrounding area did not. They concluded that the balloon bomb had drifted to the ground several weeks earlier, and had lain there undisturbed until found by the group.
Elsie Mitchell is buried in the Ocean View Cemetery in Port Angeles, Washington. A memorial, the Mitchell Monument, is located at the point of the explosion, 110 kilometers (68 miles) northeast of Klamath Falls in the Mitchell Recreation Area. It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 2001. Several Japanese civilians have visited the monument to offer their apologies for the deaths that took place here, and several cherry trees have been planted around the monument as a symbol of peace.
</snip>
= new reply since forum marked as read
A group of 104 rocket scientists (aerospace engineers) at Fort Bliss, Texas
Operation Paperclip was a secret program of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA) largely carried out by Special Agents of Army CIC, in which more than 1,600 German scientists, engineers, and technicians, such as Wernher von Braun and his V-2 rocket team, were taken from Germany to America for U.S. government employment, primarily between 1945 and 1959. Many were former members, and some were former leaders, of the Nazi Party.
The primary purpose for Operation Paperclip was U.S. military advantage in the Soviet–American Cold War, and the Space Race. The Soviet Union was more aggressive in forcibly recruiting more than 2,200 German specialists—a total of more than 6,000 people including family members—with Operation Osoaviakhim during one night on October 22, 1946.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) established the first secret recruitment program, called Operation Overcast, on July 20, 1945, initially "to assist in shortening the Japanese war and to aid our postwar military research". The term "Overcast" was the name first given by the German scientists' family members for the housing camp where they were held in Bavaria. In late summer 1945, the JCS established the JIOA, a subcommittee of the Joint Intelligence Community, to directly oversee Operation Overcast and later Operation Paperclip. The JIOA representatives included the army's director of intelligence, the chief of naval intelligence, the assistant chief of Air Staff-2 (air force intelligence), and a representative from the State Department. In November 1945, Operation Overcast was renamed Operation Paperclip by Ordnance Corps (United States Army) officers, who would attach a paperclip to the folders of those rocket experts whom they wished to employ in America.
In a secret directive circulated on September 3, 1946, President Truman officially approved Operation Paperclip and expanded it to include one thousand German scientists under "temporary, limited military custody".
...yada yada yada. 
I'm an historian - I love and live history. Should've been a Hx teacher (or a radio personality - friends have told me I could be both, and not boring about it ).
at the then Onion Mountain Lookout in what is now Six Rivers National Forest but was then part of Klamath National Forest. Onion Mountain is just inland from Redwood National Park east of the lower Klamath River.
I learned of the Mitchell attack and deaths when working on the then Weyerhaeuser Klamath Falls timberlands 30 some odd years ago and stumbled upon the monument (which is way out in the boonies).
https://oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/balloon_bombs/#.XM8UBXdFyUk
Balloon Bombs
The Mitchell Monument marks the spot near Bly, Oregon, where six people were killed by a Japanese balloon bomb during World War II. Designated by the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, this is the only place on the continental United States where Americans were killed by enemy action during World War II.
Between November 1944 and April 1945, Japan launched more than nine thousand balloon bombs—experimental weapons intended to kill and cause fires. The balloons, each carrying an anti-personnel bomb and two incendary bombs, took about seventy hours to cross the Pacific Ocean. Three hundred sixty-one of the balloons have been found in twenty-six states, Canada and Mexico.
The balloon bombs were 70 feet tall with a 33-foot diameter paper canopy connected to the main device by shroud lines. Balloons inflated with hydrogen followed the jet stream at an altitude of 30,000 feet. The high-explosive anti-personnel and incendiary devices were rigged to self-destruct and leave no evidence. The Japanese hoped the bombs would start forest fires and create panic, according to documents found after the war.
The first bomb was spotted southwest of San Pedro, California, on November 4, 1944. On January 4, 1945, two men working near Medford, Oregon, heard a blast, saw flames, and found a twelve-inch-deep hole in the ground where the bomb had exploded. The U.S. Office of Censorship asked the news media not to publish reports for fear it might cause panic.
________________________________________________________________________________
There was also an attack by airplane and bomb that occurred earlier in WWII near Brookings, OR.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobuo_Fujita
Nobuo Fujita
Nobuo Fujita (藤田信雄 (1911 – 30 September 1997) was a Japanese naval aviator and Warrant Flying Officer of the Imperial Japanese Navy who flew a floatplane from the long-range submarine aircraft carrier I-25 and conducted the Lookout Air Raids in southern Oregon, making him the only Axis pilot during World War II to aerial bomb the contiguous United States.[1][2][3] Using incendiary bombs, his mission was to start massive forest fires in the Pacific Northwest near the city of Brookings, Oregon with the objective of drawing the U.S. military's resources away from the Pacific Theater. The strategy was also later used in the Japanese fire balloon campaign.
cut
Fujita continued as an Imperial Japanese Navy pilot, mainly in reconnaissance duties, until 1944, when he was transferred to the training of kamikaze pilots. After the war he opened a hardware store in Ibaraki Prefecture, and later worked at a company making wire.[4]
Fujita was invited to Brookings in 1962, after the Japanese government was assured he would not be tried as a war criminal. He gave the City of Brookings his family's 400-year-old katana in friendship. Ashamed of his actions during the war, Fujita had intended to use the sword to commit seppuku if he were given a hostile reception.[4] However, the town treated him with respect and affection, although his visit still raised some controversy.[7]
Impressed by his welcome in the United States, during his visit, he promised to invite Brookings students to Japan. After his visit to Brookings, Fujita worked hard to keep his promise that he made in Brookings. Even though it was tough time in Japan he successfully made money by running his own business which he gave to his son. Unfortunately the business did not go well after this, making Fujita broke. Fujita did not give up on keeping his promise, he worked at a factory and kept saving money to invite students from Brookings to Japan. He saved most of his earnings, only leaving him with small amount of money for him to buy two or three books every month. After years of hard work, Fujita invited three female students from Brookings to Japan in 1985. During the visit of the Brookings-Harbor High School students to Japan, Fujita received a dedicatory letter from an aide of President Ronald Reagan "with admiration for your kindness and generosity."
Fujita returned to Brookings in 1990, 1992, and 1995. In 1992, he planted a tree at the bomb site as a gesture of peace. In 1995, he moved the samurai sword from the Brookings City Hall into the new library's display case. This library is the biggest library in Oregon and Fujita helped to gather money in order to make this library.
He was made an honorary citizen of Brookings several days before his death at a hospital in Tsuchiura, Japan, on September 30, 1997, at the age of 85.[8] In October 1998, his daughter, Yoriko Asakura, buried some of Fujita's ashes at the bomb site.
“If we knew each other. If we understood each other as a friend. This foolish war would never have happened. I sincerely hope that a day would come where everyone could overcome their differences through talking and not fighting”. Quote from diary of Fujita Nobuo