The country has been captivated by the mysterious Chinese weather balloon – or spy balloon, depending on who you ask – floating over the United States, and many are wondering why the military doesn’t just shoot it down.
There are, of course, people to consider, but back in 1945, the USS New York thought to do just that to a suspected Japanese balloon weapon.
The crew of the New York spotted the silver balloon-looking sphere, and the captain ordered it to be shot down; after all, you could never be too sure, and these are open waters we’re talking about.
Plus, the Japanese had been terrorizing the United States with these bombs throughout that very year. Japan had used balloon bombs at times throughout the war, unleashing about 9,300 of these incendiary hydrogen weapons – known as Fu-Go bombs – between November 1944 and April 1945. These bombs were intended to start forest fires in the Pacific Northwest, and while they didn’t have the intended overall effect, one of these balloons did in fact kill six people in Oregon in May 1945.
Unfortunately for the New York, none of the battleship’s guns were able to score a direct hit on this mysterious sphere in the sky, and there’s a very good reason for that. After shooting at this mysterious sphere for a while, a navigator on the ship finally realized what they were attacking: the planet Venus.
Given the background on the Japanese incendiary balloons, one could certainly forgive the crew for being cautious. Plus, Venus can often appear incredibly bright in the sky, thanks to being blanketed by highly reflective clouds.
Despite its failed attempt to take down an entire planet, the New York enjoyed a long and storied career, which included being used as part of the 1946 Bikini atomic tests after the war, surviving multiple blasts before being decommissioned on August 29, 1946. The ship was finally put to rest in 1948, sunk as a target ship off Pearl Harbor.
