The History of Barrage Balloons

We’ve gotten requests to talk about the balloon bombs that Japan used to target North America during World War II. But these were not the only balloons in use during the war, or the first balloons used for military purposes.

Research:

• Barnett, Glenn. “Another Way to Bomb Germany.” Warfare History Network. June 2021. https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/another-way-to-bomb-germany/
• Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. "airship". Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Feb. 2023, https://www.britannica.com/technology/airship. Accessed 15 February 2023.
• Czekanski, Tom. “Museum Acquires Item Related to the First African American Unit in Normandy.” National World War II Museum. 2/1/2020. https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/museum-acquires-item-related-first-african-american-unit-normandy
• Drapeau, Raoul E. “Operation Outward: Britain’s World War II offensive balloons.” IEEE Power and Energy Magazine. September/October 2011. https://site.ieee.org/ny-monitor/files/2011/09/OPERATION-OUTWARD.pdf
• Juillerat, Lee. “Balloon Bombs.” Oregon Encyclopedia. https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/balloon_bombs/#.Y-6VRHbMJPa
• Knight, Judson. "Balloon Reconnaissance, History." Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence and Security, edited by K. Lee Lerner and Brenda Wilmoth Lerner, vol. 1, Gale, 2004, pp. 91-94. Gale In Context: U.S. History, link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3403300069/GPS?u=mlin_n_melpub&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=3191fc84. Accessed 15 Feb. 2023.
• Lienhard, John H. “No. 2192: Franklin and Balloons.” Engines Of Our Ingenuity. https://www.uh.edu/engines/epi2192.htm
• Maskel, Rebecca. “Why Was the Discovery of the Jet Stream Mostly Ignored?” Smithsonian. 4/2018. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/as-next-may-unbelievablebuttrue-180968355/
• Mikesh, Robert C. “Japan's World War II Balloon Bomb Attacks on North America.” Smithsonian Annals of Flight. No. 9. 1973. https://repository.si.edu/bitstream/handle/10088/18679/SAoF-0009-Lo_res.pdf
• National Archives. “Barrage Balloons - the nation's defender.” https://www.findmypast.com/1939register/barrage-balloons
• “The First Air Raid Happened When Austria Dropped Bombs on Venice from Pilotless Hot-Air Balloons (1849).” 9/7/2021. https://www.openculture.com/2021/09/the-first-air-raid-in-history.html
• Paone, Thomas. “Protecting the Beaches with Balloons: D-Day and the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion.” National Air and Space Museum. 6/4/2019. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/protecting-beaches-balloons-d-day-and-320th-barrage-balloon-battalion
• Paone, Thomas. “The Most Fashionable Balloon of the Civil War.” Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. 11/5/2013. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/most-fashionable-balloon-civil-war
• Rogers, J. David. “How Geologists Unraveled the Mystery of Japanese Vengeance Balloon Bombs in World War II.” https://web.mst.edu/~rogersda/forensic_geology/Japenese%20vengenance%20bombs%20new.htm
• Royal Air Forces Association. “Barrage Balloons in the Second World War.” 10/13/2020. https://rafa.org.uk/blog/2020/10/13/barrage-balloons-in-the-second-world-war/
• Royal Meteorological Society. “Jetstreams.” 8/22/2013. https://www.rmets.org/metmatters/jetstreams
• Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. “Presidential Writings Reveal Early Interest in Ballooning.” 2/15/2016. https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/presidential-writings-reveal-early-interest-ballooning
• Uenuma, Francine. “In 1945, a Japanese Balloon Bomb Killed Six Americans, Five of Them Children, in Oregon.” Smithsonian. 5/22/2019. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1945-japanese-balloon-bomb-killed-six-americansfive-them-children-oregon-180972259/
• Ziegler, Charles A. “Weapons Development in Context: The Case of the World War I Balloon Bomber.” Technology and Culture , Oct., 1994, Vol. 35, No. 4 (Oct., 1994). http://www.jstor.com/stable/3106505.

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