Esprit de Corps

Balloon corps provided an aerial adjunct to conventional armed forces. Among the earliest
European applications was the 1794 battle of Fleurus during the French Revolution and the
Austrian attack on Venice in 1849. Balloon corps were used by the British in African campaigns.
They were also employed in South America, notably during the War of the Triple Alliance in
1866.

Picture inserted
An observation balloon-known as an “Italian,” “sausage,” or “drachen” balloon- is prepared for
launch.

Comrades in Arms: The Balloon Corps

The US Balloon Corps was founded in 1861. Both the Union and Confederate armies used
balloons for surveillance. During WWI there were 102 Army Signal Corps balloon companies.
The main training station was at Fort Omaha, Nebraska although training was moved to San
Antonio, Texas.

Two primary types of balloons were used: the Italian or “Sausage” balloon, and the spherical. By
1919, most balloon corps were deactivated.

Two Soldiers Stories

Private Walter W. Lucklum, from Platte, South Dakota, served during World War I with the 60th
Balloon Corps at Fort Crook, Nebraska. Leroy M. Berry was a balloon observer and later a pilot.
Both trained at Fort Omaha and flew in observation balloons.

The Cold War’s “Project Moby Dick”

In the days before reconnaissance satellites, balloons were seen as a way to take photos of the
Soviet Union. In light of this, the United States launched the Moby Dick program in 1956. It had
the highest level of secrecy, second only to the hydrogen bomb program.

These high-altitude balloons carried photographic equipment, and were designed to be

launched in Western Europe and come down near U.S. bases in Japan. Just 10 percent of the
payloads were recovered, and the program ended abruptly after the Soviet protests about
violation of their space.

Picture inserted
Caption: Project Moby Dick used “skyhook” balloons, developed by the U.S. military. These are
two other examples of Co|d War era skyhooks. Courtesy Office of Naval Research
FUGO ENVELOPE
New war-time use of traditional materials

Fugo balloon bombs combined clever engineering, inexpensive labor and materials, and early
knowledge of the jet stream to create a simple weapon capable of maneuvering its way across
the Pacific to the United States.

The 33-ft. diameter, spherical envelope of the Fugo was itself a masterpiece of ”make-do"
manufacturing. The Japanese government relied on traditional technologies and school-girl
laborers to make the balloon envelopes.

The envelopes typically consisted of some 600 pieces of laminated tissue paper made from the
bark of the kozo bush, a Japanese shrub of the mulberry family often used in papermaking. The
pieces were glued together by school girls using paste from a type of Japanese potato. A
lacquer coating completed a gas-tight, water-proof enclosure.

Surprise Attack By Jet-Propelled Balloons

During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese military launched 9, 000 to 10,000 balloon bombs from
three launch stations on Honshu. Their intended target was the US Pacific Northwest.

Traveling on the jet stream at altitudes above 30,000 ft, Fugos flew as far east as Michigan and
as far south as northern Mexico. As many as 1,000 are known to have reached the US.

Fugo (Japanese Balloon Bomb)

Intercontinental Aerial Attack on US Mainland
9,300 Balloons Launched

Nov. 1944 - April 1945

6,000 miles

Children’s War Effort

Thousands of Japanese school girls were enlisted to undertake the delicate work of pasting and
stitching the balloon envelopes. Traditional mulberry papers and potato starch paste were used
to make the envelopes.

Picture inserted
School children were the largest group of available workers. They made over 15,000 Fugo
envelopes without being aware of the end purpose of their product.

US Airship Endeavors
The United States Armed Forces experimented with four rigid airships in the 1920s and 1930s.
The ​USS​ ​Shenandoah​ ZR1 (a direct replica of the German LZ49); the ​USS Los Angeles​ ZR3;
and the ​USS Akron​ and ​Macon​ ZRS 4 and 5 respectively. All were lost in weather-related
incidents. These airships were used in training, airmail delivery, and fleet maneuvers.

Pictures inserted- 2
1 (Top Right):
Blimps use no internal structure. Rather, the gas pressure defines the shape. The term “blimp”
comes from the British “Series B Limp” airship.
2 (Left Bottom):
Rigid airships, like the ZR1 pictured, had a support skeleton of aluminum to which the gas cells
were attached.

Britain Braces for Bombing

The first Zeppelin raid on Britain took place on January 19, 1915. German airships were also
used at Verdun, with four having been brought down by ground-fire. This counter-attack brought
an end to their use over the Western Front, but Zeppelins continued to bomb England. Germany
discontinued bombing by Zeppelin in June 1917.

Pictures inserted- 3 (2 Captions)

1 (Top Right):
The unseen airship was the terror weapon of its time. The invention of the incendiary machine
gun bullet spelled the end for many a hydrogen-filled Zeppelin.
2 (Bottom Right):
An assortment of incendiary bombs carried on Zeppelins.

Inter-continental Balloon Bombs Claim American Lives

On November 3, 1944, Japan released ​fusen bakudan​, or balloon bombs, into the Pacific jet
stream. They each carried four incendiaries and one thirty-pound high-exp|osive bomb. Japan’s
latest weapon, the balloon bombs were intended to cause damage and spread panic in the
continental United States. The balloons were widely considered a military failure. Japan halted
the operation in April 1945

In May 1945, a Sunday school picnic approached the debris of a balloon in Oregon. Reverend
Archie Mitchell was about to yell a warning when it exploded. Sherman Shoemaker, Edward
Engen, Jay Gifford, Joan Patzke and Dick Patzke, all between 11 to 14 years old, were killed,
along with Rev. Mitchell’s wife Elsie, who had been five months pregnant. They were the only
Americans to be killed by enemy action during World War II in the continental United States.