Sorry for the error on the title.

@CatmanFS

2 жыл бұрын

No problem! Thanks for another great video!

@davea6314

2 жыл бұрын

The History Guy is NOT full of hot air about these balloons. (pun intended) 😁 I'll show myself out. Lol

@goodun2974

2 жыл бұрын

@@davea6314 , we should ask THG who it was that first floated the idea for this video. Was it done by someone sending up a social-media trial balloon? 🤔😁

@goodun2974

2 жыл бұрын

@@davea6314 , your comment came with strings attached! 🙂

@MultiPetercool

2 жыл бұрын

THG blows NPR and PBS away! Ken Burns is a piker!

I'd never once heard of this operation before either, hats off to you History Guy, as this definitely deserves to be remembered!

@sueneilson896

2 жыл бұрын

Pretty sure Mark Felton covered this on his excellent channel.

@spikespa5208

2 жыл бұрын

Consider myself a bit of a WWII reader. Haven't heard of this before. The more you learn, the more you find out there is to learn.

@athelwulfgalland

2 жыл бұрын

@@sueneilson896 Oh? I must have missed that video! I'll give it a search this evening. Thanks!

@andyc6766

Жыл бұрын

@@spikespa5208 Specifically I have always considered myself an amateur WWII air power buff, and this was my first time hearing of this! Kudos to THG (and all others who covered this)

Playing Battlefield 1942 on a rainy Bangkok evening I watch the clock carefully for 7 PM THG arrival. Very grateful for WW 2 history I'd never heard

@samjohnstone1356

2 жыл бұрын

🎶one night in Bangkok 🎶😄

@lonewulf44

2 жыл бұрын

I think it awesome that you're playing battlefield 1942 in the year 2021 .. such an awesome game, too bad it wasn't released just a few years later when mass multiplayer really took over. Still waiting for that awesome world war II game that combines vehicles ship submarines carriers aircraft tanks and the infantry element all in a single package again.

Considering the huge volume of World War 2 history I've read, it just amazes me that I never heard a word about this!

@thomasrussell5562

2 жыл бұрын

After reading/learning about the Japanese use of balloons in WWII,when I was young ,my father mentioned that we ( as in the Allies ) used balloons as well in England. For some reason I never researched this topic further and somehow forgot about it until viewing this video from The History Guy - not only does it teach me something it also brings back the memory of my Dad telling me about it….thanks for bringing back memories that deserve to be remembered…

The first aviation related law in the USA was signed by George Washington. It required general citizenry to assist balloonists if they ever crash or need assistance.

I had read about this operation with British weather balloons run by the British Navy with rope and piano wire along with an incendiary device. The prevailing westerly winds made this balloon sabotage operation possible. I was relatively successful in relationship to the manpower and resources deployed to carry it out. I like things like this from history. Please keep making these videos on this subject. One point to mention is barrage balloons were actually quite effective against German V-1 flying robot bombs for guarding London against bombardment. One thing the history guy might like to cover was the Japanese camps in Manchuria called Unit 731. Most of those Japanese officers who did these barbaric experiments were protected by General McArthur from war crimedue to their knowledge of biological warfare. The US War Department did NOT want the Soviet Union gaining the tremendous amount of knowledge on diseases and biological warfare gained by the Japanese. The Japanese had special ceramic bombs carrying fleas from rats that carried a variety of diseases killing an estimated 200,000 Chinese in some experiments. The Japanese had plans for dropping these ceramic bombs on San Francisco and other West Coast cities with airplanes launched from submarines but the rapid end of the war made this impactical as Japan lacked the resources to carry these attacks out. Many of those Japanese officers had exceptional abilities becoming leading university academics, research scientists and head of Japanese companies in the postwar era including in the steel and automobile industries.

@Mercmad

Жыл бұрын

According to Pavel Sudoplatov, the head of the NKVD under Stalin, the USSR were already making bio weapons in 1935.

Very cool how an accident, and related incidents, turned into an actual weapon.

The reason Germans didn't retaliate in kind is probably wind direction: wind direction over the Channel is almost always west or north-west.

@MTTT1234

2 жыл бұрын

I guess you mean it is coming from the West or Northwest.

@forbeshutton5487

2 жыл бұрын

They could have tried launching them from submarines in the Atlantic, but by then sitting on the surface, even at night was dangerous enough, with having "look at me" balloons overtop of the sub.

@51WCDodge

2 жыл бұрын

@@forbeshutton5487 They were to busy flying auto gyros from U boats Focke-Achgelis Fa 330.

@MichaelOnines

2 жыл бұрын

@@MTTT1234 Yes, a west wind comes from the west. That is the standard way meteorologists use wind directions.

@GeoffTV2

2 жыл бұрын

@@51WCDodge I saw one in a museum a few years ago. Up until then, I had no idea about those things.

I'm 60 year old man my grandfather has been gone for 35 years. When I listen to the history guy it takes me back to when I was 10 my grandfather was a great story teller. Makes me feel so good to know this lives on!!! Great story tellers deserve to be remembered I'll never forget!!!!!

@angelachouinard4581

2 жыл бұрын

Sadly, except for a few, storytelling is becoming a lost art. I'm just a tad older than you and my grandfather also was a great story teller. His favorite subject was history so I too love The History Guy.

@TheAnimeist

2 жыл бұрын

Democrats are great story tellers.

Surprisingly enough, this is the second, but ONLY the second time I've ever heard about these balloons. I would agree, considering how many videos, documentaries, etc. that exist about WWII, these balloons definitely manage to somehow float under the collective radar.

@CheshireTomcat68

2 жыл бұрын

Ba dum, tish.

@51WCDodge

2 жыл бұрын

Just prior to WW2 the German's used Zeppilins to try elint warfare aginst British Chain Home and Chain Home low radar stations. The story goes the Britsh operators were appaled by German Navigation and had to be stricly told , No!! You may not radio to them thier actual posiitions.

We are still using balloons. I was in Key West Florida three years ago and saw a large “Rocket” shaped balloon a few hundred feet in the air an hour or so before sunset. A local told me it was a radar picket to detect smugglers. Excellent history lesson as always Sir.

@samiam619

2 жыл бұрын

I saw them in use in Southern Arizona in the late 90’s for the same reason.

@seannewton8386

2 жыл бұрын

@@samiam619 Likely the Tethered Aerostat Radar System, in both cases.

@SkipPletcher

Жыл бұрын

www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/assets/documents/2021-Aug/TARS_508%20compliant.pdf

@MattH-wg7ou

Жыл бұрын

Saw them in Iraq and Syria this year. Tethered surveillance balloons that stay floating over Al Asad Air Base, Erbil, etc to protect the base from attack.

Thank you. The History Guy, “The Great Educator”

The cost of the program increased at an alarming rate over the years; officials blamed it on inflation.

@otpyrcralphpierre1742

2 жыл бұрын

I see what you did there....

@Hrodn

2 жыл бұрын

Groan.

@jed-henrywitkowski6470

2 жыл бұрын

Feels good to laugh irl.

@Zombeegun

2 жыл бұрын

Bwaaahhahahahah!!!

@goodun2974

2 жыл бұрын

Some bar-room genius, inspired by alcohol, came up with the idea. He was half in the bag at the time.😁

Military balloons were inspired by politics; throughout history, armies marched off to war on the directions of a bunch of old windbags!

@jed-henrywitkowski6470

2 жыл бұрын

Literally lol.

@goodun2974

2 жыл бұрын

@@jed-henrywitkowski6470 There was a TV miniseries about World War II titled "On the Winds of War" some years ago. The Johnny Carson show spoofed it as "On the Wings of Whoopee!"

@goodun2974

2 жыл бұрын

@OCD Stig , no.

My mom was a US 'Wren'. She joined the CAP at 15 and spent 2 summers in fire watch towers on the Olympic Peninsula, watching for Japanese planes and balloons.

This was very interesting. I am an amateur military historian and I have never heard of this before.

The prevailing westerly winds in Western Europe would have largely precluded a German retaliatory operation (at least until the V1/V2 campaign).

Thanks for the Inkspots reference. That song is one of the amazing tunes you'll hear in the video game FALLOUT 3.

Reminds me of the failures we had with the USAF's Radar carrying balloons in Operation Seek Skyhook in the late 70's to early 90's.

Another balloon project: Project Echo (during the 1960s) was a system of balloons that were coated with aluminum and that were used to reflect microwave signals. As a kid, I remember seeing them in the sky.

@ronfullerton3162

2 жыл бұрын

There was one large coated balloon launched into space which they "bounced" radio and tv signals off of it to a achieve the first live broadcasts between the USA and Europe. It was large enough and reflected light good enough that the newspapers printed the balloon's passage schedule. And we kids would go outside and watch it cross the sky in it's orbit. We were truly in awe!

@gus473

2 жыл бұрын

@@ronfullerton3162 And now we, our kids and grandkids watch for the space stations, Iridium and Starlink and any other satellites that cross our piece of the night sky..... 👍🏼😎✌🏼

@ronfullerton3162

2 жыл бұрын

@@gus473 I know. And it is still fun and a thrill to see those things. It is fun to get way out into sparse territories and spend an evening sky watching. Can see a good number of passing items today. And occasional flash of sunlight off a solar panel is a treat.

@djm61

2 жыл бұрын

The Echo balloons were made of a new space-age material called Mylar that was made by a company in Northfield, MN called G.T. Scheldahl. I was the first kid to have pieces of aluminized Mylar to play with as my dad worked for them and brought some bits of it home for us to show off to all the other kids in town as we had watch parties to see the orbital balloons pass over at night. Great memories!!

@ronfullerton3162

2 жыл бұрын

@@djm61 WOW! You had an extra special reason to remember the echo. That is really a neat story you have. I know as an Iowa farm boy it was just such a thing to read about it, and then read the Des Moines Register for the passage schedule so that we could run outside and watch it silently pass across the sky. I was just in awe every time I watched. Then the "thrill" wore out for the adults, and they no longer printed the time schedule in the paper.

Weather patterns would impede any German balloon campaign.

@RalphReagan

2 жыл бұрын

Maybe against the Soviets?

@eljanrimsa5843

2 жыл бұрын

@@RalphReagan I can imagine a circular balloon campain against your respective neighbour to the East.

Very interesting. Really an ingenious cost effective weapon.

@shawnr771

2 жыл бұрын

And one with very little risk to the crews.

Thank you History Guy. I look forward every morning to your content.

Today is Feb. 2, 2023...and what a timely video!

Very interesting tidbit of history

I really appreciate the History Guy. Thank you!

Fascinating - I've never even heard of this activity. Thank you for explaining it so clearly!

Always Great to Watch! Thanks!

Only the History Guy could make a balloon fascinating.

Well done again, History Guy!

Well done, History Guy!

I do really enjoy The History Guy, keep it up!

Thank you, I never knew about this until now. Very interesting.

Fascinating. Thank you.

The efficacy of balloons is blown out of all proportions.

Thanks for that informative episode. If I didn't see this video of yours, I never would've known!

Another gem of history. I have been to many of the locations from where these balloons were launched (including Landguard Fort) but this is the very first that I have heard of this operation, such is the secrecy culture that has endured here since WW2. So, thank you, History Guy, for your presentation.

Yet another piece of history I was unfamiliar with... I knew about the Japanese balloons trying to set light to the Forrests of the pacific northwest, but never that Britain had tried the same tactic. I wonder if that's where the idea came from. Thanks THG!

@MarkVrem

2 жыл бұрын

The Japanese used Balloons already in their war against China in the 1930s. To spread biological warfare sometimes.

"Adjusted for Inflation" had me chuckling - I mean, balloons & inflation go together!

I had no idea this even happened. That is something I say a lot on this channel. Thank you for that!🤗🐝❤️

Thanks again ... learning something everyday.

Plus - Very little human cost on the Allied side. Other than the accidental detonation of an incendiary, the story tells of a method of attack that had zero lives lost on the allied side. The unpredictable nature of the balloons flights meant that defending against them would have been extremely costly in terms of people and material required. A great little known story - Thanks again.

Thank you for sharing

I had heard about this operation on another channel, but you always add fun tidbits about the people involved!

You are NEVER too old to learn something. Thanks, History Guy.

It's amazing to see how we went from balloons to drones.

Excellent video! I had never heard of this operation!

Always something new to learn here , Bravo !

My Great Grandad was a Sergeant in WW2, in charge of a barrage balloon crew - they had three balloons per troop all mounted on the back of trucks - some I think were attached to permanent moorings - so that they could be sent to wherever they deemed to be needed. I have only vague memories of him myself, I think I was about 5 when he died. however, he had a diary and my Grandad would sometimes read parts out when some of his descendants gathered. Though Great Gramps was from a remote Scottish farm he had to travel to Aberdeen when he was called up, he was shucked by the size of it, he was moved on to London to actually serve. They were a motley crew, mainly older guys of people like my GG Pa who had been injured prior, none frontline capable, which may have added to the chaos he described - the balloons broke free a lot, cables snapping, winding gear breaking free of the truck bed in high winds - this seems to have happened to him at least THREE times, the winding gear, diesel generator, electric motor and very large drum with 2000 ft of steel cable wound around it - 3 tons ish - the balloon would blunder along driven by the wind, smashing anything in its path - a Police station was virtually destroyed in Plumstead, a Borough in SE London, on the path of the bombers heading for the docks and close to the Royal Arsenal, still making weapons and possibly even explosives in late 41/early 42. I always saw the possibility of a comedy book/show in his stuff, but the older generation saw it as showing incapacity on his part, something he, having only 1 leg, had struggled against all his life. I think they were wrong, given he was never demoted, discharged or even reprimanded shows that it was much more common than was originally admitted. Thank you so much for this, it shows my GG Pa was not incapable and that truth is the first casualty, but here looking back, we can see that it is history that deserves to be remembered!!! PS I have watched your show for years now, you only had a few hundred subscribers, so far as I recall or can see, for at least the last 3 years I have watched them as soon as you release em, not missed one - oops, not strictly true, I busted my arm and was in hospital for 3 days ( I bought a bicycle to keep me healthy, had it 3 months, fell off it, on my own, no collision and I have all my limbs)

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire is a great song. I remember hearing it for the first time in the Fallout 3 trailer, and I've loved it since lol

@TheHistoryGuyChannel

2 жыл бұрын

Admittedly not quite as good when it is me singing it.

@xaenon

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheHistoryGuyChannel Trust me, partner. It could not POSSIBLY have been as bad as if *I'D* sung it.

Great work!

So interesting! I never knew this. Thanks for sharing, The History Guy.

History Guy, you are correct. I have not heard of this effort on the part of the British to slow the German War Machine. It shows how important every effort was during this time. Every concoction was weighed by cost and effect. The British and latter American ingenuity made use of every advantage of engineering, wit, and calculation to crush the enemy. We must include the minds and physical efforts of all the men and women of the free world, even those who did not know it at the time. Thanks again History Guy.

Really enjoy your channel and the way you tell the stories, thank you for the truth.

Thank you for informing me of my ignorance of these wonderful hidden tidbits of forgotten history!

That was fascinating! Thank you!

Great fleshing out of this under reported episode of WWII. A+ (titular errata and all!) 😀 🙏 🖖

Best way to start the work week: some history guy with a cup of coffee. Thanks for all your content, dude!

Good morning THG. Glad to see that you survived Halloween.

@narmale

2 жыл бұрын

xD funny thing is we had two crack-heads get in a firefight last night, one didnt make it... probably fighting over candy... -.-'

Wow. Awesome bit. Well done.

Never heard of this until now, thank you for this bit of fascinating history.

@gus473

2 жыл бұрын

Didn't realize there were balloons "protecting" the Soo Locks! ⛴️

Enlightened again , thank you

Great episode

Tremendous, thanks THG

very timely now 2023. i want one

Thanks Doc

Thank you for a lesson. I had never heard of this before today.

I go to Waxham near Norwich every year on holidays, I've never heard of this.

4:33 ...The fluttering bowties on right side of the film clip adds a nice touch!

Great topic!

Glad u hit a mil congrats

I had heard of Operation Outward, but had heard only of the wires intended to short out power lines, not that they included incendiary bombs. The German illustration with notes was interesting and informative of how to build a simple and storable firebomb. The Netze mit Brandflaschen (net with fire bottles), Brandsatz (burning part--presumably fuel), Trennsatz (separating part), and Zündsatz (igniting part). All that's needed is an indication of what exactly the igniting part held. One of the reasons the Japanese Fu-go balloons failed was that they were launched at the wrong time of the year, arriving in the US in November 1944 to April 1945, at a time when the forests were mostly too wet. The fact that many of the balloons actually reached North America suggests that the Japanese were already aware of the jet stream.

This channel is great.

Nice one! I'd never heard of this, it was a very interesting tidbit, Thank you 😊

This reminds of the studies and experiments that were held in the U.S. to use bats during WWII. They thought releasing bats armed with bombs could be deployed to cause destruction in Japan. Fortunately for the bats, the U.S. government decided to focus its efforts toward the atomic bomb. During war, governments will try anything no matter how impractical to gain even a little bit of an advantage.

@nates9536

2 жыл бұрын

Hate to burst your bubble, but unfortunately for the bats, the first wave of bats all burned to death when one of the incendiaries detonated the night before the raid, and burned the entire hanger to the ground.

@martyshannon7542

2 жыл бұрын

This was tested at Dugway Proving Grounds Utah.

Never heard of this before, thanks! Very interesting!

Imagine my surprise when watching the latest History Guy video and he starts talking about Transmission lines, breakers, and tripping speeds. I work in the Generation and Transmission industry, these are things most people take for granted (until the power goes out). Also, the U.S. still uses balloons as observation platforms. We had one over RS, near the embassy in Afghanistan, when I was last there in 2018.

I had no idea about this. Thanks for your research and your video.

Very interesting moment in histpry. Thank you.

Excellent information. Did not know that a unit was created just for Balloon disruption.

History worth Finding! Thank you Peace

I'd never heard of this before and that's a shame. Thanks, History Guy!

Great as always! Very interesting story of wartime plannings. We now know that those kids who had the mischievous ideas for tricks in their youth had a place in wartime duties.

The most mad ideas have the most effect

Very timely that KZread recommends this to me, now. :)

"let us do everything we can to inconvenience them in the slightest" love it

Great Video Brother! My Grandfather worked at the Naval Shipyard in Charleston,SC during WW2. My dad told me stories about what projects he was involved in. One was installing submarine nets and cables to try and catch or keep German subs from sneaking into our harbors . haven't read much about how effective the nets or cables were. I can only imagine what other methods were used to stop the Germans from getting to our shores.

WOW, never heard about it!!!

@dogstar7

Жыл бұрын

You have probably heard a lot more about it recently.

Back in the 70s while serving with the 82nd I went to England to earn my British jump wings. We jumped out of balloons, they told us they were surplus barrage balloons from the war with a small plywood platform hung underneath. Really fun, better than jumping out of a Huey

"The History Guy"... Our History Guide

Congratulations on 1,010,000 subs!

Thanks!

Side note: possibly the most famous escaped balloon incident came in 1975 in London. Artist Storm Thorgerson, founder and owner of Hipgnosis, a graphic arts company which created numerous album covers, was shooting the photos for the forthcoming Pink Floyd album "Animals" at the decommissioned Battersea Power Station. The concept was for a giant pig-shaped balloon to be tethered over the station. However, as Thorgerson was snapping away the tether parted and the pig flew off into the London overcast. When the album was released the liner notes included pictures Thorgerson had taken as the pig flew away and reproductions of newspaper articles detailing the event. Winds that day were apparently easterly as the pig flew though the landing pattern for Heathrow, startling the crew of one inbound airliner.

Great story. Glad you have slowed your naration.

What a crazy cool story!!

Cheers mate. I live near Waxham and had never heard of this before

The History Guy:”It was a great example of looking at cost vs. benefit.” Me:”Today’s military c. o.s should see the channel.Especially,US military c. o.s.Especially,this show.”

interesting! I never knew about this, even though I grew up a few miles from Waxham, during the 1960s and 70’s, my Dad was in the Home Guard a couple of villages away and his parents lived in the family home nearby!

Yet another thing from WW2 I'd never heard of, Thanks THG!

Another interesting piece of history I'd never heard about. Another excellent program! Might I suggest looking in Operation Hula? It is an interesting Soviet - American cooperative effort at the end of the war against Japan.