Talk:E77 balloon bomb

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A fact from E77 balloon bomb appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 15 December 2008, and was viewed approximately 9,025 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that the design of the U.S. anti-crop E77 balloon bomb was based on the design of the World War II Japanese fire balloon?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/December.

Wikipedia

What does this mean? Reference confusion...[edit]

The text in the article's background section reads:

The inspiration for the E77 balloon bomb came from the Japanese use of balloon bombs.^[1]^[2] Two works that have been called the only authoritative works on the Japanese balloon munition failed to connect the E77 to those weapons despite it being clear that the inspiration came directly from the Japanese munitions.^[2]

What I don't get is that the same reference (#2, Whitby) is used to say there was no connection found between the E77 and Japanese balloon munitions, but that there was a connection ("The inspiration for the E77 balloon bomb came from the Japanese use of balloon bombs"). I don't have the cited reference handy, but at best, this is confusing and poorly-written.

Basically he is saying these two books failed to mention the connection, but there was one. Fix it as you see fit. --IvoShandor (talk) 00:41, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Further: U.S. Army documents confirm the E77 was inspired and based on the fire balloon, these books do not mention that. --IvoShandor (talk) 00:54, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I will try to clarify this later tonight, and repair the confusing and poorly written syntax. Thanks for your comments. --IvoShandor (talk) 01:25, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

What you wrote seems ok, I can't find my other source, the Army doc, right now, I will try to dig it up. It may have been released after these books were published, but I would note Deadly Cultures was published four years after the book that says no direct connection was made. Cultures states that the E77 was "based upon" the Japanese design. --IvoShandor (talk) 01:31, 16 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]

References

^ Cite error: The named reference wheelis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b Whitby, Simon M. Biological Warfare Against Crops, (Google Books), Macmillan, 2002, pp. 157–67, (ISBN 0333920856).

[wheelis-1] Cite error: The named reference wheelis was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[whitby-2] Whitby, Simon M. Biological Warfare Against Crops, (Google Books), Macmillan, 2002, pp. 157–67, (ISBN 0333920856).

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