John Adkins, a World War Two air raid warden in an Oklahoma county bordering southeast Colorado, wired the adjutant general’s office in Oklahoma City on July 5, 1943: “Boise City bombed 1 a.m. Baptist Church, garage hit.”
Student fliers aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress mistook the lights of the Cimarron County courthouse square for a practice range 30 miles away.
"The explosions caused minor terror among the sleeping populace, who ran into the streets in their night clothes," the United Press reported.
The B-17's payload of training of bombs each contained only four pounds of powder. The rest was sand.
The bombs nonetheless ripped craters in the streets and sidewalks of Boise City, which then had a population of about 1,100, according to the news agency.
Thankfully, no one was hurt but plenty of windows were shattered.
A worker at the local electric plant had to the good sense to black out the community.
"Five bombs were dropped around the courthouse while the sixth one was dropped further southeast," burrowing harmlessly into a sand pile along railroad tracks - without detonating, according to the Cimarron Heritage Center.
A railroad worker named Jerry Shannon unearthed the dented dud, took it home and stored it in his barn for many years.
Today, it is on public display at the heritage center.
The Army Air Force blamed the navigator for the snafu and reprimanded the crew, then based at Dalhart, Texas.
The bomber crew went onto glory though, leading the first daylight bombing of Berlin - and the navigator even earned the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Cimarron County, Oklahoma, is located about 20 miles south of Baca County, Colorado - and as far as is known, the Battle of Boise City was the first and only such aerial snafu during World War Two.
[Photos: Oklahoma Historical Society]
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