On 3 November 1944, the first of more than nine thousand bomb-bearing balloons, carrying incendiary and anti-personnel boms was released by Japan. They were intended to travel across the Pacific with the prevailing winds and drop on American cities, forests, and farmlands. It is estimated that nearly one thousand of the death-dealing balloons must have reached North America; they took the lives of six Americans and caused other damage. Had this weapon been further exploited by using germ or gas bombs, the results could have been disastrous.