On this Day: Austria Rains Balloon Bombs on Venice

The Venetians caught the spirit of rebellion and independence like so many others in 1848 and attempted to break away from Austrian rule. They revolted and declared a republic. The Austrians retaliated by blockading Venice, causing starvation, disease and hunger. “Although Austrian Field Marshall von Radetsky beleaguered the city by land and sea, his siege artillery couldn’t get close enough to bear fire on the whole city because of its formidable coastal defenses and shallow Lagoons,” the Web site for the 2005 documentary “On a Wind and a Prayer” states.

A young Austrian Artillery Lieutenant named Franz von Uchatius hatched the idea of sending balloons carrying explosives to Venice. The first attempt failed because the wind was not in Austria’s favor.

In a second attempt, the balloons, packed with 28-lbs of explosives and simple rope fuses, were released from a sturdy warship in the bay and fueled by hot air. The documentary Web site claims that the balloons, “five point seven meters in diameter and made of paper, used charcoal and greasy cotton as a continuous combustion source.”

Austria launched about 200 of the balloons armed with half-hour time fuses into Venice, according to Monash University.

But an eyewitness said the balloon attack was not exactly successful for the Austrians, according to Time magazine: “the balloons appeared to rise to about 4,500 ft. Then they exploded in midair or fell into the water, or, blown by a sudden southeast wind, sped over the city and dropped on the besiegers. Venetians, abandoning their homes, crowded into the streets and squares to enjoy the strange spectacle. … When a cloud of smoke appeared in the air to make an explosion, all clapped and shouted. Applause was greatest when the balloons blew over the Austrian forces and exploded, and in such cases the Venetians added cries of ‘Bravo!’ and ‘Good appetite!’”

The documentary, however, claims that the balloons did have a substantial psychological effect. Whether out of balloon-related fear or simple starvation, Venice would concede to Austrian authority soon after the balloon raid on Aug. 24, 1848.

Austria’s innovative tactic was history’s first air raid.

A number of revolutions swept through Europe in 1848 in the name of representative and constitutional government, led by France on February 22. Soon Poles, Danes, Germans, Italians, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Croats, and Romanians all sought to break away from their ruling empires. In Italy, Venice declared a republic and Milan revolted against the Austrians. But, “Despite a few lasting gains, the Revolutions of 1848 resulted in severe defeats for liberal nationalists seeking democratic reform,” GermanHeritage.com notes.

In a little-known 1944 campaign, Japan released 9,000 bomb-laden balloons that floated across the Pacific and were intended to cause forest fires and panic in the Western United States.

“Each balloon was armed with one 15 kilogram antipersonnel bomb and two incendiary devices,” and they “looked like giant jellyfish,” a book on the Fu-Go campaign says.

Japan said it was retaliation for the 1942 U.S. “Doolittle raid,” in which American pilots bombed Tokyo from aircraft carriers in the Pacific.

As the “Fu-Go”—Japanese for “fire bombs”—landed, the U.S. government tried to hide the information from the American public, hoping the Japanese would abandon the campaign as ineffective. The press largely cooperated with the government’s secrecy efforts.

On May 5, 1945, a woman and five children died after discovering a bomb that had drifted by balloon from Japan to Gearhart Mountain, Oregon.

“Had this balloon weapon been further exploited by using germ or gas bombs, the results could have been disastrous,” according to Bookmice.net’s excerpt of a book on the subject.

Even today, most Americans are unaware of the Fu-Go bombing, and an Air Force Web site says, “dangers of the balloon bomb still may exist” because “hundreds were never found.”