Operation Outward

[WX]

How many knew the Britain waged a balloon assault against Germany during The Second World War? I didn't.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Outward

The balloons had no guidance control and operated only on a timing fuse. Each balloon was about 2.4 metres in diameter and carried a simple timing and regulating mechanism. A double-walled can contained mineral oil in an inner chamber and a roll of hemp cord and piano wire in an outer chamber. At deployment, a slow-burning fuse was lit, calibrated to the estimated time to arrive over German-controlled territory. At launch the balloon rose and expanded in size until an internal cord tightened, releasing some gas and preventing further increase in altitude beyond 25,000 feet (7620 m); the balloon would begin a slow descent. After several hours, the fuse would burn through the cord holding the trailing wire. The payload consisted of about 200 metres of light hemp cord secured to the balloon at one end and tied to about 90 metres of steel wire at the other. This would unroll as the balloon sank to working altitude of about 300 metres. A stopper on the canister of mineral oil was also released, so that it would slowly drip out and lighten the load on the balloon, to assist in maintaining altitude.^[5]
The plan was that the wire tail would be dragged for many miles (kilometres) across the countryside, eventually encountering a high-voltage transmission line.

[skuthorp]

I read somewhere the Japanese either tried or planned a similar operation against the US west coast.

"Fire balloons or balloon bombs were hot air balloons with one 15 kilogram antipersonnel bomb and two incendiary devices attached. They were launched by Japan during World War II to wreak havoc on American cities, forests and farmlands. They were called the Fu-Go Weapon, supposedly a revenge bomb for the 1942 Doolittle Raids on Tokyo. Japanese bomb-carrying balloons were 32 feet in diameter and when fully inflated, held about 19,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. Launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu." http://www.japan-101.com/history/fir...loon_bombs.htm

[WX]

Theirs were more sophisticated. The Brit ones cost about seventy quid each to make and either carried a trailing wire to take out power lines or a range of explosives.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

The Brits formed experimental weapons units populated with brainy but non-military types that came up with outstanding solutions that could be had for small expenditures. One was asphalt-granite armor used to encase the bridge structures and decks on merchant ships. It swallowed up machingun bullets before any damage was done. They also invented the hedghog to attack submarines and a variant the spigot morter barge used to drench foreign held beaches with thousands of little bombs. The one that is best remembered was the panjandrum wheel which was a spectacular failure.
Winny had a scientific advisor who he trusted and when Winny got word there might be a new wonder weapon he demanded full speed ahead.

[S.V. Airlie]

There were some interesting ideas floating around. The Americans were thinking of strapping mini incendiary bombs on airplanes since so many houses in japan were made of wood.

[David W Pratt]

Ackshally they (meaning, us) had an idea to strap incediary bombs (tiny ones) to bats!

[Mad Scientist]

My personal favourite was the British attempt to encourage sea gulls to poop on U-Boat periscopes. They had a bunch of dummy periscopes in a corner of Liverpool Bay to see how interested the sea gulls were.

Sorry, no link, as I can't remember where I read this.

Tom

[hokiefan]

There were some interesting ideas floating around. The Americans were thinking of strapping mini incendiary bombs on airplanes since so many houses in japan were made of wood.

Actually we firebombed many Japanese cities to great effect for just this reason. Killed more people than the atomic bombs IIRC. I have issues with such attacks on civilians myself, but it was a total war and both sides did similar stuff. Geography was a great ally of the US.

Cheers,

Bobby

[S.V. Airlie]

Bobby, I'm sure they did, but using bats to do so is a twist.

[hokiefan]

Bobby, I'm sure they did, but using bats to do so is a twist.

Bombing with bats is certainly an interesting twist.

Cheers,

Bobby

[Peerie Maa]

I read somewhere the Japanese either tried or planned a similar operation against the US west coast.

"Fire balloons or balloon bombs were hot air balloons with one 15 kilogram antipersonnel bomb and two incendiary devices attached. They were launched by Japan during World War II to wreak havoc on American cities, forests and farmlands. They were called the Fu-Go Weapon, supposedly a revenge bomb for the 1942 Doolittle Raids on Tokyo. Japanese bomb-carrying balloons were 32 feet in diameter and when fully inflated, held about 19,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. Launch sites were located on the east coast of the main Japanese island of Honshu." http://www.japan-101.com/history/fir...loon_bombs.htm

This was the only time that the US mainland was attacked. Unfortunately the only victim was a child on a school pick nick in the woods.

[Peerie Maa]

My personal favourite was the British attempt to encourage sea gulls to poop on U-Boat periscopes. They had a bunch of dummy periscopes in a corner of Liverpool Bay to see how interested the sea gulls were.

Sorry, no link, as I can't remember where I read this.

Tom

There were several ideas suggested during the First War:

At the meeting of the Central Committee of the BIR on 10 May 1917, presided over by Lord Fisher, it was reported: ‘In consequence of a suggestion made by the Board of Invention and Research to test the possibilities of attracting seagulls to the periscopes of submarines by ejecting food therefrom and thereby training them to follow and locate enemy submarines, the Admiralty have approved an experiment being made in [submarine] B3 and have asked BIR to provide a suitable food box for the purpose’.
38

from http://www.ijnhonline.org/wp-content...cle_wilson.pdf
The paper recognises a major flaw, seagulls do not venture very far from land.

[purri]

^well that's the Admiralty "lords" and Winny for yer.

[purri]

^well that's the Admiralty "lords" and Winny for yer.

BTW anyone see the Python clip of "Sir" Arthur Grebe-Streebling?

[John Smith]

I always wondered why the merchant ships didn't hang steal plates of their sides maybe 10' from the ship so torpedoes would hit the plates, rather than the ship, and if that would have saved the ship from sinking.