Japanese balloon bombs were launched against the United States in their thousands. Early in 1945, this one was brought down intact by the skilful flying of an American Air Force pilot. Luckily, the automatic explosion device had failed.
These balloon bombs were the cheap weapons but was relatively ineffective as weapon. But used on the north america in world war 2 for the few times only.
A couple of them actually made it to Oregon where one of them killed a few Children, a Mother and I think a Priest--when they were out on a Picnic outing sometime in the Summer or Fall of 45. These Balloon bombs relied on the then unkn to us--the Jet Stream--of which the Japanese apparently knew about and relied on.
@worldwar ... Japan launched some 9,300 of these ballons, just "a few times". @History-buff1944 ... Actually some 300 or so of these balloons made it to the US mainland, and you're correct in saying that one killed some children in Oregon. I have posted a fuller account of these balloons under the heading "Japanese bombing of mainland USA"
There were far more incidents with balloon bombs than the map shows, at least 297 are known with certainty during the war, and about 100+ more were discovered during the post-war years.
The dots on that map are about the size of St. Louis County, so there could be multiple drops under one dot. Just a thought.
A few dots, but only a few... Most locations in the continental United States. This map is from https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/18679/SAoF-0009-Lo_res.pdf
