The Tiny Oklahoma Town That Survived A WWII Bombing

On July 5, 1943, pilots at Dalhart Army Air Base in Texas were preparing four B-17 bombers for a practice run. The nighttime training mission was to begin shortly after dark. The navigator was supposed to lead the flight group from Dalhart base to drop bombs in a range near Conlen, Texas. The target was a small square area, lit by four lights at each corner. It was going to be a simple mission, but somehow, something went terribly wrong... Boise City, Oklahoma, was mistakenly bombed instead.

The six bombs dropped were by pilots in the B-17 Flying Fortress Bombers who mistakenly took lights around the town's square to be their target in Texas.

Boise City is the only town in the United States that was bombed from airplanes during World War II. The explosions weren’t extremely loud, but they were loud enough to wake most, if not all, of the 1,200 people in Boise City.

The wayward navigator of the B-17 was fired and the rest of the crew was given a chance between court-martial or the battlefront. They chose the front lines.

Today, visitors to Boise City can visit the Boise City Bomb Memorial to view a replica of one of the six bombs mistakenly dropped on the city during testing. It is located just in front of the Red Chamber Caboose in town.

This accidental bombing made Boise City famous. Total damages by the bomb were less than $25, but the event sure made for an interesting story during World War II.