Post by yenilira on Dec 30, 2011 14:48:36 GMT 1
The town of Boise City, Oklahoma, has a population of approximately 1,250 people, just a shade lower than the roughly 1,450 who lived there during World War II.
And in the height of the war, Boise City experienced something few other mainland American towns experience:
at roughly 1 a.m. local time on July 5, 1943, whistles and, ultimately, explosions, woke up the town. Never mind the fact that Boise City, located in the middle of the country, is one of the least likely places to be hit by the Germans or the Japanese -- this was no Independence Day celebration: Boise City was under attack.
As TIME reported
, the townsfolk "acted the way most civilians would act who had never been bombed before. Most of them ran like hell, in no particular direction." This was a slight exaggeration: while most of Boise City's citizens panicked, some kept their heads. The man in charge of the light and power for the city, Frank Garrett, ran to the town's central power station and shut down all the lights, in case other bombers were en route and looking for ground targets. Others went to collect guns and ammunition. Soldiers -- visiting from an army base in Dalhart, Texas, about 45 miles away -- helped evacuate a local soda dispensary.
But no further bombs were coming. The attack was not the Luftwaffe nor the Japanese Air Force. It was a B-17 bomber -- an American plane -- lost on a training flight. The bomber took off from the same army base in Dalhart armed with a six pack of training bomb -- a nerfed one which had much less gun powder than the standard World War II-era warhead. The pilot circled around looking for his target and, upon seeing the lights below, let his payload go. Way off course, he mistook the lights emanating from Boise City's town centre as his target.
The bombs struck the town centre, damaging a garage, a church, and the pavement.
Thankfully, no one was killed.
YL.
And in the height of the war, Boise City experienced something few other mainland American towns experience:
at roughly 1 a.m. local time on July 5, 1943, whistles and, ultimately, explosions, woke up the town. Never mind the fact that Boise City, located in the middle of the country, is one of the least likely places to be hit by the Germans or the Japanese -- this was no Independence Day celebration: Boise City was under attack.
As TIME reported
, the townsfolk "acted the way most civilians would act who had never been bombed before. Most of them ran like hell, in no particular direction." This was a slight exaggeration: while most of Boise City's citizens panicked, some kept their heads. The man in charge of the light and power for the city, Frank Garrett, ran to the town's central power station and shut down all the lights, in case other bombers were en route and looking for ground targets. Others went to collect guns and ammunition. Soldiers -- visiting from an army base in Dalhart, Texas, about 45 miles away -- helped evacuate a local soda dispensary.
But no further bombs were coming. The attack was not the Luftwaffe nor the Japanese Air Force. It was a B-17 bomber -- an American plane -- lost on a training flight. The bomber took off from the same army base in Dalhart armed with a six pack of training bomb -- a nerfed one which had much less gun powder than the standard World War II-era warhead. The pilot circled around looking for his target and, upon seeing the lights below, let his payload go. Way off course, he mistook the lights emanating from Boise City's town centre as his target.
The bombs struck the town centre, damaging a garage, a church, and the pavement.
Thankfully, no one was killed.
YL.