From
The Seattle Times June 1, 1945
Saw
Wife and Five Children Killed by Jap Balloon Bomb
LAKEVIEW, Ore. --- (UP) --- A minister, still dazed by the shock of seeing his
wife and five church children killed by a Japanese balloon-borne bomb a month
ago [May 5], had War Department approval Friday to tell of the tragic picnic in
southern Oregon.
The six deaths are the
only known fatalities on the United States mainland from enemy attack. Full details
were released after a month of secrecy as national officials expanded their warning
program against Japanese balloons in western states.
The
Rev. Archie Mitchell, minister of the Christian Alliance church in Bly, Ore.,
was the only survivor from the church picnic. He and Mrs. Mitchell took five children
in their car and picked out a shaded spot for lunch about 16 miles into the mountains.
While
Mitchell drove the car around by a road, the others hiked through the woods.
"As I got out of my car to bring the lunch, the others were not far away
and called to me they had found something that looked like a balloon," Mitchell
related. "I had heard of Japanese balloons so I shouted a warning not to
touch it.
"But just then there was
a big explosion. I ran up there -- and they were all dead."
The clergyman
was so dazed from the blast and the shock of seeing everyone killed that he hardly
realized two forest service employees had heard the explosion and joined him.
They covered the bodies, verified that it was a big balloon which had carried
the bomb to the isolated spot, and took Mitchell to Bly, the nearest town.
In
addition to Mrs. Mitchell, the others killed were Sherman Shoemaker, 12, Jay Gifford,
12, Eddie Engen, 13, Joan Patzke, 11, and Dick Patzke, 13.
The
forest men said it appeared that the victims had clustered around the balloon
and someone curiously tugged it enough to detonate one of the bombs carried underneath.
The blast plowed up the ground and virtually destroyed the balloon.
The
only publicity [first] permitted on the incident was that an unidentified object
had exploded, killing six people. Then it was revealed a week ago that the Japanese
were releasing free balloons into the wind currents, carrying them across the
Pacific, and the public was warned against touching them.
Undersecretary
of War Patterson made the first mention of a balloon bomb causing six deaths and
the office of censorship permitted the location and details to be given in this
one case only.
Patterson said it was the only known casualty or damage from
the paper balloons and added that any further damage must be kept under strict
censorship to prevent the Japanese from learning how effective or ineffective
they may become.
Balloons have been found
over most of the western mainland. They are of gray, white, or greenish-blue paper,
about 33 feet in diameter, and carry a few ball bombs suspended beneath the balloon.
It was one of these bombs which had failed to explode when the balloon landed
about 30 miles north of the California - Oregon border, more than 200 miles from
the ocean in the Fremont National Forest.
Patterson
said it had lain undiscovered for some time in the woods and warned there would
be others found as snow melts and vacationers go into the mountains and back country.
The Rev. and Mrs. Mitchell lived in Ellensburg, Wash., before taking the Lake
county pastorate in Bly.
Forest
Service Head Gives More Details on Jap Balloons
WASHINGTON --- (UP) --- Conscientious objectors and veteran army paratroopers
are standing ready side by side to quell any forest fires started by Japanese
balloon bombs, it was learned Wednesday.
Meanwhile,
it became clear that Japan's "fantastic effort" to bomb the United States
from a distance of over 5,000 miles away was made largely to bolster sagging morale
among Japanese workers.
Lyle F. Watts,
chief of the agricultural department's forest service, said in a radio interview
(Blue) Tuesday night the balloons were launched at war plants in Japan.
"They
take a couple of balloons to a war factory, make a lot of speeches, stir up the
workers to a frenzy, then launch the balloons for their trip to the United States,"
he declared.
Watts said the forest service
was "less worried about this Japanese balloon attack than we are with matches
and smokes in the hands of good Americans hiking and camping in the woods."
Revealing hitherto undisclosed details of how the balloon bombs are rigged to
fly the Pacific and drop their bombs on the U. S., Watts said they made the trip
in the stratosphere by means of an ingenious arrangement of weights and barometric
pressure switches.
He said they crossed
the Pacific in three and one-half to five days, traveling at a speed of up to
125 miles an hour in a layer of air constantly moving from west to east at an
altitude of between 25,000 and 35,000 feet.
He
described them as hydrogen-filled bags made of five layers of silk paper 35 feet
in diameter (the army-navy announcement said 33 feet) carrying [thirty-six ballast]
sandbags and [five] incendiary bombs.
Each
balloon, he explained, rises to 35,000 feet and then gradually loses altitude
[due to leaking gas].
"When it
drops to 25,000 feet, a barometric pressure switch automatically drops a sandbag,"
he explained. "Still traveling east, the balloon goes up again to 35,000
feet. This process of up and down is repeated until the balloon reaches the American
coast. And if the Japs have figured right, the last sandbag has been dropped.
"A
second automatic switch then takes over. In place of the sandbags, this one controls
incendiary bombs. When the balloon drops to 27,000 feet an incendiary bomb is
released. The balloon goes back up, then down again and another incendiary is
released and so on as it travels across the United States."
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