December 18, Hawaiian Islands, Oahu. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info

When the first rays of the morning light fall on this key island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, hundreds, if not thousands, of balloons of various colors suddenly take off into the sky.

These colorful balloons are very large, and all of them have what looks like a basket from a distance, like a manned hot air balloon.

But it's not a hot air balloon, nor is it the most common airproof balloon in World War II, it's a hydrogen balloon with a bomb on it!

They were used to bomb the continental United States, and they were the spearhead of Operation Jet-1!

This weapon, known to the Japanese as the "Wind Boat Bomb", began to emerge in early 1943. However, shortly after the end of the Panama Campaign, Japan stopped using the "Wind Boat Bomb". Because the method of using "wind boat bombs" at that time was relatively stupid, in order to pursue the hit rate, it was necessary to release ships such as water aircraft carriers, and the cost of blowing up the United States once was not low, and there were also risks.

In addition, after the United States frantically strengthened its air defense on the west coast, fighting such balloon bombs became a project for training American fighter pilots.

However, after Japan stopped the floating bombing operation, it did not give up the project of "wind boat bomb". Instead, a series of improvements were made to allow it to take off from the Hawaiian Islands to bomb the continental United States.

At the same time, Japan is also stepping up its stockpiling of "wind boat bombs" - weapons that do not burn oil and do not require expensive raw materials, but are completely handmade and not produced very well.

In order to be able to use this kind of "sailboat bomb" in large quantities in the "Jet-1 operation", the Japanese spent several months pasting balloons, and now they have finally hoarded 300,000 sailboat bombs (more than 10,000 in total).

And these 300,000 wind boat bombs are a strategy for the Japanese to exhaust the enemy, and they are also a means of intimidating the United States.

Beginning on December 18, 10,000 sailboat bombs were released every day, and about three days later, they were floating off the west coast of the United States. Most of them, of course, will be shot down by the American P51 and P47 - this is an opportunity to practice marksmanship! But at the same time, it will also exhaust American pilots.

And after the continuous "target training", in the early morning of December 25, when the real Japanese bombers came, the Americans would definitely miss the best interception opportunity because of fatigue and negligence.

And after the Me264 bomber dropped a ceramic bacteriological bomb, a small number of ceramic germ bombs would be installed on the "wind boat" floating towards the United States -- not to kill many Americans, but to continue to create panic.

Speaking of which, some people may ask why they didn't use the sailboat bombs to drop ceramic bacteriological bombs -- in fact, the Japanese used this brain, but according to the information provided by the German agents, these sailboat bombs were not accurate, and the landing points were scattered, and most of them fell in sparsely populated areas. The number of windboat bombs that Unit 731 can provide is very limited, only a few thousand have been manufactured so far, and if only 1% of the ceramic bacteriological bombs fall in densely populated areas, I am afraid that not many Americans will be recruited.

Moreover, the "Jet-1 operation" began in December 1943, and only the Southern California region of the United States was relatively warm because of its low dimension and the influence of the Pacific Ocean Warm Current, which was suitable for the use of ceramic bacteriological bombs.

In Northern California and more North America, Oregon and Washington, it's all a land of ice and snow. The mosquitoes and fleas that contributed to the rise and fall of the Japanese Empire were likely to freeze to death. As for the states further east, the population is even smaller......

……

"Lieutenant General, the Pacific Fleet Command has just called, and their destroyers and B-24 aircraft have detected a large number of balloon bombs approaching the west coast."

At noon on the 21st, the commander of the Fourth Air Force of the US Army Air Corps, which is responsible for the air defense of the US West Coast, James Murphy. Harold. While Lieutenant General Doolittle was having lunch, he received a report from the staff officer.

"Balloon bomb again?"

Doolittle put down his knife and fork and sat across from Claire. Plum. Brigadier General Chennault glanced at each other.

"How many?" Chennault asked.

At this time, Chennault had "bad official luck" and did not become the commander of the 14th Air Force, but only the chief of staff of the 4th Air Force. However, he himself is very satisfied with the current situation, because the US 4th Air Force is the strongest in the US Army Air Corps, with more than 5,000 commonly used aircraft!

And apart from less than 1,000 B-17s, B-24s, B-25s (nearly 300 B-25s were converted into night fighters, codenamed PB-25K) and B-26s, the remaining 4,000 aircraft are the latest P47s, P51s, P38s and P61s (night fighters, not many). Almost defended the West Coast of the United States as if it were an impregnable wall!

"More than 1,000." The staff officer replied in a very relaxed tone.

The so-called "destroyer reconnaissance line" is to exclude about 100 destroyers and escort destroyers equipped with radars, and pull out a dotted line in the Pacific Ocean off the west coast of the United States to form an outpost air defense/anti-submarine warning network in order to increase the reaction time of the US Army Air Force and Navy Air Force.

Also for the same purpose, there are reconnaissance aircraft in the air modified with B-24 for 24-hour patrol flights.

Although it is impossible to achieve 100% detection, it is impossible for Japan's large fleet of aircraft and a large number of bomb balloons to evade the radars of these aircraft and destroyers - from this point of view, if the Japanese listen to Hersman's idea and use the Me264 to sneak attack San Diego, even if the "Silver Reaper" is launched from 200 kilometers away, the 100% success rate is still very guaranteed!

"Let the P51 go," Lieutenant General Doolittle began to order, "500 sorties should be enough...... In addition, the coastal air defense team was informed and asked to prepare anti-aircraft guns. In any case, not a single Japanese bomb could be allowed to fall on a populated area. ”

"Understood, Lieutenant General." Chennault stood up and gave a military salute, and immediately went to the combat command center with a relaxed mood to take command.

It's nothing more than 1,000 or more balloons...... Let's shoot it!

But for the next few days, Doolittle and Chennault felt that something was not quite right—nearly 10,000 balloons with bombs were floating slowly from the Pacific Ocean every day!

Although these balloons are just targets for hitting, there are as many as 10,000, and no one can guarantee that 100% of them will be shot down.

And not all of these balloons flew during the day, and many of them flew in the middle of the night, so that the P51, P47 and P38 were useless and could only be intercepted with PB-25K (night fighters) and P61. But the total number of these two aircraft is less than 400, and the effectiveness of night battles is not as good as during the day.

By December 24, more than 5,000 ship-blown bombs had landed in densely populated areas.

……

"Mr. President, the Japanese have too many bomb balloons......"

William. Leahy and the commander of the Army Air Corps, Admiral Arnold, and the Chief of Naval Operations, Ernesto Brown. King and Army Chief of Staff Marshall were both summoned to the White House early on Christmas morning to discuss countermeasures.

"Yes, at least 10,000 a day!" Admiral Arnold said helplessly, "And half of them fly to the United States at night, and we don't have enough night planes." ”

Now the P-61 has just been put into production and is still in the trial stage, which will take some time to ramp up production. As for the PB-25K, a cameo night aircraft, the combat effectiveness is very limited.

"Ten thousand ...... a day," Roosevelt said, taking a puff on a Camel cigarette, "is this just the beginning?" ”

At least 20 percent of the 10,000 balloons landed in densely populated areas – a "denser" that certainly can't be compared to central Tokyo, but it still caused some casualties.

Since December 22, dozens of deaths and injuries have been reported every day, and by Christmas Eve on the 24th, the death toll has exceeded 100.

Almost every day, more than 50 American citizens die under such deadly balloons!

In addition, all large and medium-sized cities on the West Coast of the United States, including Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, have been bombarded with anti-aircraft artillery every night since the 22nd.

"10,000 balloons a day, that's 3.65 million ...... a year," Marshall immediately did an arithmetic problem.

"They can produce so much," Admiral Arnold said at once, "I've seen those balloons, they're all papier-mâché, and 10 women can paste one a day." If 1 million Japanese are pasting balloons, we will be in big trouble. ”

100,000 a day!

Balloons can definitely be pasted, but those bomb balloons have a complex set of mechanical controls on them, and many bombs and hydrogen, which Japan cannot produce 100,000 copies a day, in fact, it can't even make 10,000 copies...... Japan is not the United States, after all.

"Looks like we're going to have to think about seizing the Hawaiian Islands," the U.S. president asked, looking at the generals in front of him and in a mild tone, "Is it possible at the moment?" ”

Roosevelt was not stupid, he certainly would not bury the fleet and hundreds of thousands of landing troops that he had managed to accumulate for the tragic death of dozens of citizens every day.

"Unlikely."

"Mr. President, the conditions are not ripe at the moment."

"We should stick to the existing strategy and continue to deplete Japan's ......"

The generals replied in much the same way, not supporting an immediate attack on the Hawaiian Islands.

And just as Roosevelt was about to do good, his adjutant, Colonel Caton, suddenly brought a surprising news.

"Mr. President, the Pacific Fleet reports that they have spotted Japanese bombers approaching the west coast."