Museum Matters

It was in November 1944, that the Japanese decided that their war against the United States was not going well. Their plan was to create hydrogen balloons from paper and twine that could fly using the easterly upper winds in the atmosphere to take them to the United States. It was to be an act of Terror. Aboard these balloons were several bombs, four incendiary bombs for starting fires and one was a fragmentary or anti-personnel device as reported by Wade Cowan who was a member of Company D of the Texas State Guard. He was only 14 at the time.

He told me his story of how a balloon landed here during World War II.(Escapes.com)(Wade Cowan interview ”The Day the Japanese Bombed Desdemona”) The Japanese had planned to set forests fires in the Western United States using the incendiary bombs. What they hadn’t planned on, is the U. S. is wet that time of year so none of the incendiary devices ignited anything. With the Japanese planners deciding to fly the bombs at 30,000 feet, they hoped the balloons would drop at a proper time to land in the United States. Of the 9000 balloons created, only about 300 reached North America. In Texas, we had a balloon that didn’t land in a forest, instead it landed in Desdemona.(escapes.com) The Texas State Guard that Wade was a member of, was a local unit for men too old or too young to join the military. Their job was to protect the homeland. In this instance, they were sent to Desdemona to stand guard on the balloon and unexploded bombs that landed there. The Guard was asked by the military to keep people from touching the devices and getting hurt. Guard members were waiting for a a crew from Killeen to disarm the bombs. (Interview with Wade Cowan’s son, James)

There were two other balloons that landed in this area. One landed near the Magnolia refinery in Comyn on March 23, 1945 just as school children were getting off the school bus. A 14 year old boy named Pug Guthery ran after the balloon as it landed about two miles away. The balloon had a big rising sun painted on top. The balloon material felt like leather and smelled like creosote. The kids took pieces of the balloon home. The next day the military arrived at the school and told the kids they wanted the pieces back. The balloon fortunately had already dropped its bombs.(escapes. com)

Another landed near Woodson in Throckmorton County and was seen by Ivan Miller. Miller contacted the local postmaster who alerted government officials. Local kids who had taken parts of that balloon home had to give them back to military officials at school the next day.(escapes.com)