A Second World War balloon bomb has been discovered in the Monashee Mountains.
The RCMP were notified Thursday that Tolko Industries staff had found an unexploded Japanese balloon bomb imbedded in the ground off Thunder Mountain Forest Road east of Lumby.
“Our officers attended and photographed the suspected bomb,” sad Gord Molendyk, RCMP spokesperson.
“The military disposal unit from Esquimalt have been notified and will be coming up today (Friday) to deal with this unexploded bomb.”
A couple of pieces that have come off the bomb have been collected by officers.
“They hope to donate the large aluminum rings and a possibly a fin of the bomb to the Lumby Museum so a piece of Second World War history can be preserved,” said Molendyk.
During the Second World War the Japanese government attached bombs to balloons and they were released with easterly wintertime jet stream winds above 30,000 feet to float 5,000 miles across the north Pacific Ocean.
“The idea was to have these devices explode over the forested regions of the Pacific Northwest and initiate large forest fires that would hopefully divert U.S. manpower from war fighting in the Pacific theatre to combat fires at home,” said Molendyk.
