On December 27, 1935, the U.S. Air Force attacked a most fiery enemy ever: a Hawaiian volcano.
Technically, it wasn’t the air force in 1935, but the U.S. Army Air Corps. Nor had Congress declared war on the volcano, or passed an Authorization of Military Force Against Volcanoes. Nevertheless, when Mauna Loa erupted on November 21, 1935, and an army of lava advanced on the city of Hilo at a rate of one mile per day, the military was called in.
The idea was actually the brainchild of Thomas Jagger [3], founder of the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Jagger believed that high explosive would collapse the lava tubes and stanch the molten flow. His first plan was to plant tons of TNT carried to the volcano on mules, except there wasn’t enough time.
So, ten bombers were dispatched, each carrying two 600-pound bombs, with each bomb containing 300 pounds of explosive. Though enemy defenses could be described as light, accuracy still left something to be desired, with some bombs landing hundreds of feet from the target.
