Balloon Bomb incident in Woodson, Texas; March 23, 1945.?

Question

Near the end of WW2 one of the numerous "balloon bombs" released by the Japanese fell in the school yard in Woodson, Texas. Where would I go, or who could I contact to get copies of the original reports and any photographs that may have been taken?

Actually one of them DID fall in Woodson, Texas and yet another in a pasture outside of Desdemona, Texas.

Answer 1

The idea was to set fire to the Pacific Northwest with balloon bombs. They have been found in many states, including Texas. The only know casualties were in Oregon.

One was reported drifting over Woodson, TX and landing in a school yard. Thre were no injuries. (last two references below)

Answer 2

Unfortunately, I don't know where Woodson, TX is, but I am fairly sure there were no incidents in Texas. The current that the Balloon Bombs were let into did not go that far south. The ones that did hit are to have been noted in areas like Oregon, Washington, North Pacific states mainly. However there were some that got as far east as Chicago. The only one to have been "reported" I guess happened in Oregon. This incident was the only one to take civilian lives on the US mainland during WWII. The name of the city escapes me though.

Answer 3

There were a lot of sightings of the balloons but the only one I know of that was fatal was in Bly, Oregon on May 5, 1945.

Most of the balloons were shot down, failed, or never made it to the U.S.

The whole concept of the balloon bomb (at least the way in which the Japanese executed it) makes you question how smart the Japanese really were back then. :P Their propaganda networks were reporting such widespread hysteria and chaos in the U.S. and tens of thousands of casualties from the balloon bombs... in reality, civilians in the U.S. really didn't know about what was going on since so few of the bombs actually made it to the U.S. and caused harm. People who did see them didn't have any clue what they were.

Out of about 10,000 balloons launched, only about 200-300 made it to U.S. soil and only 1 produced casualties.

* Edit -- I highly doubt anything regarding these balloons remains classified today as magnetic_azimuth suggests. If you really want to make sure you have all the information, you can put a FOIA request in to the Department of Defense asking for any files, findings, or information they have relating to the attempted attacks.

Answer 4

hey,
of the balloons that made it, almost all of them were so classified as to never have made the papers even to this date,

unless you go there and dig in the police/news paper record; you might not find what you seek

I have or had a folded paper made by a japanese woman who made those bombs in her school day. she made hundreds of air bombs she was one of hundreds of students.......worth following up on

i'm guessing you will deal with old records buried if you want to find any of this

Answer 5

http://www.texasalmanac.com/history/highlights/bombing