Saturday, September 9, 2017

Continental U.S. Bombed!

WED 9 SEP 1942
Pacific
Artist's conception.
Small reconnaissance seaplane from Japanese submarine I-25 drops incendiary bombs on forest near Mount Emily, ten miles northeast of Brookings, Oregon, in an attempt to ignite forest fires. It is the first time a Japanese aircraft has bombed the continental United States during World War II. The bombing is reported by a forest ranger (see 29 September 1942).
Auto-corrected artist's conception of I-25.
Japanese submarine I-30 reaches Penang, Malaya, having successfully run the Allied blockade of Lorient, France (see 13 October 1942).

District patrol craft YP-346 is sunk by Japanese light cruiser Sendai and three destroyers off Guadalcanal.

Atlantic
Coast Guard weather ship Muskeget (WAG-48) is torpedoed and sunk by German submarine U-755 between Norfolk, Virginia, and Iceland.
"HISTORY" speaks (Although the gummint doesn't.):
On this day in 1942, a Japanese floatplane drops incendiary bombs on an Oregon state forest-the first and only air attack on the U.S. mainland in the war.

Launching from the Japanese sub I-25, Nobuo Fujita piloted his light aircraft over the state of Oregon and firebombed Mount Emily, alighting a state forest–and ensuring his place in the history books as the only man to ever bomb the continental United States. The president immediately called for a news blackout for the sake of morale. No long-term damage was done, and Fujita eventually went home to train navy pilots for the rest of the war.

No comments: