JAPANESE BOMB EXPLODES OVER DUNDEE IN OMAHA – 1945Towards the closing days of WWII the Japanese experimented with balloons as military offensive weapons. One of those reached Omaha and exploded over the Dundee neighborhood at 50th and Underwood. This was not the only balloon to reach Nebraska or the country in general, but the U.S. military tried to keep the attacks secret so as not to cause undo fear in the country. They most likely were launched as a fear tactic, more so than doing much damage.
The balloons were filled with hydrogen and carried bombs ranging from 11 to 33 lbs.
The bomb that exploded in Omaha on April 18, 1945, was one of more than 9,000 balloons launched during a six-month period at the end of the war, and one of the nearly 300 that were found or observed in the United States.
When it exploded over Omaha, a few people knew a bomb had gone off. Some saw a flash of light and others heard noises they thought were fireworks. But by the next morning, nearly everyone in the neighborhood knew something had happened. There is a plaque commemorating the incident that notes: "the incendiary device flared brightly in the night but caused no damage."
Even though residents were aware of a bomb and explosion, there were a few reports of explosions published in various media outlets. The U.S. Office of Censorship—a wartime agency set up to censor communications coming in or out of the U.S.—sent messages to all media outlets asking them not to publish news of the balloon bombs. The Dundee explosion, as well as several others, was not reported until after the war had ended.
Shortly after the Omaha explosion there was one in Oregon as a woman and five children discovered an unexploded device in the woods. They were all killed.
The explosion did not ignite any forests in the northwest, yet some of the media ignored the restrictions and printed a story.
