Boise City Bombing
"From your website you mention:
..... that Boise City is the only city in the continental USA that
was bombed during WWII? Sounds like another mystery to unravel, huh?
I read this on your website a few weeks ago - and then today I
found this 1993 newspaper clipping printed on the 50th Anniversary
of the event. I had cut out the article because the Boise City courthouse
is where I got married.
It states: On July 5, 1943, an Army
Air Force training unit stationed at Dalhart, Texas - about 30 miles
south of this Oklahoma Panhandle town - set out for a lighted practice
field roughly 20 miles northeast of Dalhart. The unit's navigator made
a mistake and took the lights in the Boise City courthouse for the
target. The plane dropped six 100- pound practice bombs, loaded with
four pounds of dynamite and 90 pounds of sand, on Boise City.
It seems that none of the bombs hit
the courthouse but they all landed within 93 feet of it. Chamber of
Commerce officials have learned that several other such bombings occurred
although it is not clear if any of them involved a town. Boise City
was trying to locate the crew of the B-17 for the 50th Anniversary!
Anyway, thought I would pass this along to you. I continue to enjoy
your website! According to the article in the Daily Oklahoman
it was a U.S. B-17 crew from a training unit in Dalhart, TX. It stated
that the unit's navigator made a mistake and mistook the lights of
the Boise City courthouse for the target. One of the bombs did not
explode and has been kept by residents. They cleaned it up and painted
it. At the time of this article (summer 1993) they were rainsing money
to put up a monument on the courthouse square." -- Patti
| View or Add Comments (0 Comments)
| Receive
updates ( subscribers) |
Unsubscribe
