Navy Training Film on Japanese Balloons Used to Attack the U.S.

One of the balloons in flight. The balloon carries incendiary bombs.

One of the balloons has landed and not destroyed itself so it can be taken by the military and carefully studied.

A map showing where they think the balloons are being released from.

A close-up of the balloon part itself.

The ballast of the balloon along with the incendiary bombs and one anti-personnel bomb.

A valve to release pressure.

Specific parts of the bottom part are being shown.

Then he gets into even more details about the bottom part.

The balloon's barometers.

Then it's explained how the balloon maintains a relatively steady altitude.

They show diagrams of how the thing works.

The military didn't want the Japanese to know if their balloons were succeeding. A few things not covered in the film. Around 90% of the balloons launched never made it to the U.S. Those that got near were subject to being show down by American planes. There was a plan in Japan to use the balloons to deliver biological weapons.

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