Attack of the Fire Balloons

摘要

In November 1944, Japanese soldiers in a top-secret oceanside location loosed a set of balloons into the westerly winds. These globes, about 33 feet in diameter, contained a crude but ingenious device for releasing ballast that their inventors hoped would keep them airborne for three to four days-long enough to reach the United States. There, an onboard timer would activate, causing the balloons to drop their payload: incendiary bombs. Of the roughly 10,000 balloons-or "Fu-go"-launched, about 10 percent made it across the ocean. But the timer couldn't control where the bombs dropped, so most felt in unpopulated areas. The strategy never amounted to much. Still, these balloons were the first successful intercontinental weapons.