by Wesley Harris, Claiborne Parish Library Historian
Bombs fell on a Claiborne Parish farm in the early days of World War II.
Less than four months after the Japanese besieged Pearl Harbor from the air, four bombs landed in the freshly tilled earth just 50 yards from A. J. Miller and his mule as they plowed a field on the Hamiter place near Seven Mile Hill on the road between Homer and Minden.
While the plow mule was scared out of its wits, if mules possess any wits, Miller brushed off the near miss. He had served in France during World War I and bombs and bullets did not faze him much.
The bombs left craters five or six feet deep and six or seven feet wide at ground level.
Authorities had warned citizens of possible aerial attacks by the Germans and Japanese. Such attacks would come from aircraft carriers as the enemy-held lands were too far for bombers to reach mainland America.
Just 300 miles from the Gulf Coast, firemen in Claiborne and surrounding parishes received training on responding to aerial bombings by the enemy. Local firemen attended a meeting in Gibsland just six weeks after Pearl Harbor to discuss how to deal with bombs.
Auxiliary police made rounds at night to enforce blackout regulations. Citizens were expected to keep their lights off at night or use thick curtains to hide them from enemy planes that could use them as aiming points.
Bombings occurred on the American mainland but not at the hands of the enemy.
The bombs fell from American planes.
Frenzied activity followed Pearl Harbor to prepare U.S. pilots, navigators, bombardiers, and other crewmen for the fight. Accidents happened. Lots of them, especially in the early days of training. The military lost thousands of men and women and hundreds of planes in crashes during training missions and ferry flights.
With several training bases in the state, Louisianans saw a number of planes fall from the sky during World War II. Bases at Barksdale in Bossier City, Selman Field in Monroe, and Alexandria, DeRidder, and Lake Charles Army Air Fields engaged in training and crashes occurred throughout the state. In 1944, two bombers out of Barksdale Field collided in mid-air north of Shreveport, killing twelve crew, the wreckage plummeting to the banks of the Red River. The crash was just one of dozens killing hundreds of men flying out of Louisiana bases.
While uncommon, accidental bombings occurred. Bombers used in crew training sometimes overshot their targets and dropped bombs outside the designated practice range. Human error and faulty equipment caused the mishaps.
In April 1944, a Houma, Louisiana golf course gained a 19th hole when a U. S. Navy blimp, likely training to bombard submarines in the Gulf, accidentally dropped a bomb.
Some accidents produced tragic results.
A ranch near Eldorado, Texas did not fare as well as Miller’s farm. A plane from the San Angelo Army Airfield accidentally dropped a bomb on a family ranch, causing 3,200 acres of grass and two miles of fencing to burn, killing 499 sheep. The ranch figured losses at $7,675, equivalent to $129,937 in 2023 dollars.
In 1936, James Marvin Cosson Sr. moved his family near the Eglin Army Airfield to have more land to farm and to provide for his wife, Annie Bell Cosson, and their four children. Eglin served as a major testing and training ground for bombing missions. It was at Eglin that Jimmy Dolittle and his men trained for their daring one-way mission of making the first attack on the Japanese homeland.
On the evening of August 11, 1944, as nine members of the Cosson family gathered at the house to socialize, live bombs accidentally fell on the homestead. Two bombs fell near the house, killing four and seriously injuring five Cosson family members. The accident occurred during a normal bombing test run and was attributed to the failure of a mechanical releasing device which caused the aircraft’s bombs to release after the plane passed the bombing test area.
The bombs showering Farmer Miller’s field on March 23, 1942, were dropped by a plane out of Barksdale Field in Bossier City. Authorities quickly responded to news of the accident, noting “several” instances of bombs falling outside the reservation recently and “precautionary measures had been taken to prevent further such occurrences.”
Barksdale offered two causes for the accidents: inexperienced personnel whose rushed training led to mistakes and minor deficiencies in equipment such as bomb bay doors malfunctioning.
Barksdale’s commander told the media the equipment problems had been fixed, and the training course had been modified.
I am sure Miller’s mule appreciated the corrections.
