Barrage balloon

US Marine Corps barrage balloon, Parris Island, May

1942

A barrage balloon is a large kite balloon

used to defend against aircraft attack by
raising aloft cables which pose a collision
risk, making the attacker's approach more
difficult. The design of the kite balloon,
having a shape and cable bridling which
stabilise the balloon and reduce drag,
meant that it could be operated in higher
wind conditions than a spherical balloon.
Some examples carried small explosive
charges that would be pulled up against
the aircraft to ensure its destruction.
Barrage balloons are not practical against
very high-flying aircraft, due to the weight
of the long cable required.

First World War

France, Germany, Italy and the United
Kingdom used barrage balloons in the
First World War. Sometimes, especially
around London, several balloons were
used to lift a length of "barrage net", in
which a steel cable was strung between
the balloons and many more cables hung
from it. These nets could be raised to an
altitude comparable to the operational
ceiling (14,764 ft/ 4,500 m) of the
bombers of that time period. By 1918 the
barrage defences around London
stretched for 50 miles (80 km), and
captured German pilots expressed great
fear of them.[1]
Second World War

Landing ships putting cargo ashore on one of the

invasion beaches during the Battle of Normandy. Note
the barrage balloons.

Balloons could be launched from specialised vehicles.

In 1938 the British Balloon Command was
established to protect cities and key
targets such as industrial areas, ports and
harbours. Balloons were intended to
defend against dive bombers flying at
heights up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m), forcing
them to fly higher and into the range of
concentrated anti-aircraft fire—anti-aircraft
guns could not traverse fast enough to
attack aircraft flying at low altitude and
high speed. By the middle of 1940 there
were 1,400 balloons, a third of them over
the London area.

While dive-bombing was a devastatingly

effective tactic against undefended
targets, such as Guernica and Rotterdam,
dive-bombers were very vulnerable to
attack by fighter aircraft while performing
a dive, and their use in this role by
Germany against the UK with its effective
Royal Air Force was rapidly discontinued.
Balloons proved to be of little use against
the German high-level bombers with which
the dive-bombers were replaced, but
continued to be manufactured
nonetheless, until there were almost 3,000
in 1944. They proved to be mildly effective
against the V-1 flying bomb, which usually
flew at 2,000 feet (600 m) or lower but had
wire-cutters on its wings to counter
balloons. 231 V-1s are officially claimed to
have been destroyed by balloons.[2]

The British added two refinements to their

balloons, "Double Parachute Link" (DPL)
and "Double Parachute/Ripping" (DP/R).
The former was triggered by the shock of
an enemy bomber snagging the cable,
causing that section of cable to be
explosively released complete with
parachutes at either end; the combined
weight and drag bringing down the
aircraft. The latter was intended to render
the balloon safe if it broke free
accidentally. The heavy mooring cable
would separate at the balloon and fall to
the ground under a parachute; at the same
time a panel would be ripped away from
the balloon causing it to deflate and fall
independently to the ground.[3]

In January 1945, during Royal Navy Fleet

Air Arm raids on the Palembang oil
refineries, the British aircrews were
surprised by massive use of barrage
balloons in the Japanese defences. These
were spherical and smaller than the British
type. One Grumman Avenger was
destroyed, and crew killed, from striking a
balloon cable.[4]

Power line disruption

In 1942 Canadian and American forces
began joint operations to protect the
sensitive locks and shipping channel at
Sault Ste. Marie along their common
border among the Great Lakes against
possible air attack.[5] During severe storms
in August and October 1942 some barrage
balloons broke loose, and the trailing
cables short-circuited power lines, causing
serious disruption to mining and
manufacturing. In particular, the metals
production vital to the war effort was
disrupted. Canadian military historical
records indicate that the "October incident,
the most serious, caused an estimated
loss of 400 tons of steel and 10 tons of
ferro-alloys."

Following these incidents, new procedures

were put in place, which included stowing
the balloons during the winter months,
with regular deployment exercises and a
standby team on alert to deploy the
balloons in case of attack.

Post-war nuclear weapon

tests
After the war, some surplus barrage
balloons were used as tethered shot
balloons for nuclear weapon tests
throughout most of the period when
nuclear weapons were tested in the
atmosphere. The weapon or shot was
carried to the required altitude slung
underneath the barrage balloon, allowing
test shots in controlled conditions at much
higher altitudes than test towers. Several
of the tests in the Operation Plumbbob
series were lifted to altitude using barrage
balloons.

See also
Aerostat
Tethered balloon
Observation balloon

References
1. Ege, L. "Balloons and Airships", Blandford
(1973).
2. "Barrage Balloons for Low-Level Air
Defense" . Air & Space Power Journal.
Summer 1989. Archived from the original
on 2007-08-12. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
3. [1] RAF Museum online exhibition "Air
Diagrams"
4. Iredale, W. The Kamikaze Hunters 2015
pp189-208 ISBN 9780230768192
5. "Protecting Steel Lifeline / Barrage
balloon goes aloft at Sault Ste. Marie, Mich.,
to protect Soo canal against possible air
raids..." [photo caption], The Lima News
[Lima, OH], 9 Apr. 1942, p. 3.
External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related
to Barrage balloons.

Barrage Balloon Reunion Club

Popular Science, August 1943, British
Barrage Balloon Secrets
BBC's WW2 People's War: Barrage
Balloons
RAF Barrage Balloon Squadrons
Barrage Balloon in the WWII

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