Barrage Balloons

[stona]

There was a recent mention of barrage balloons (what were they for? To hold up a wire) which got me flicking through Alfred Price's aptly titled "Britain's Air Defences 1939-45". It turns out that they didn't all just hold up a wire but that some had a rather complex system designed to deploy two parachutes whose drag would have disastrous consequences for the unfortunate,hopefully german,aircraft which had flown into the wire.

Here's a nice illustration to show how it was supposed to work.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Ooo, that is nasty. Does that mean that the balloon would then float off? yet another hazard for any aircraft flying above the first wave.

[stona]

Here is Dr Price's explanation,which I missed at first read.

Cheers

Steve

[PJP]

Variations on a barrage balloon

There was also a rocket device which when fired carried steel cable up into the path of the target with a similar planned result. These were deployed in batteries so a large flightpath area could be covered.

There was also a variation on both systems, were an explosive charge was attached which it was hoped, would be dragged into the aircraft with predictable results.

An additional benefit was that the attacking aircraft would be forced to fly above the balloons with a consequent reduction in bombing accuracy. That was the theory anyway.

There is little information on the effectiveness of either system although as in WW1, the balloons provided useful target practice for fighter aircraft.

There are also accounts of RAF fighters sent to shoot down balloons which had broken free.

Must have been really motivating for the poor souls operting the balloons.

Peter

[stona]

That sounds like this system.

It is not known to have destroyed any enemy aircraft. It only worked at low altitude so you'd think they would have known if they hit anything!

Slightly more successful was the "long aerial mine" system which supposedly destroyed one enemy aircraft and had another probable.

Both these and the wildly innaccurate time fused rockets were abandoned early in the war. They do look a bit Heath Robinson.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Hi Steve

What an amazing forum! I put a bit of "fun" in Captions & Quiz's and you come back with a really intresting explanation Well:no1b: Done

Peter

[stona]

Hi Peter,yes,it's incredible what hair brained schemes they came up with. The barrage balloon/parachute system is really quite sensible! Like most of us I assumed that the balloon simply held up a cable. The cable cutting Ju88s and He111s would still fall foul of the parachute "braking" system.

I might as well add the bit about the fused rockets. I once helped a colleague who owns a pyrotechnic company to load and wire up about fifty firework mortars for a display so I can imagine how long this system would have taken to re-load.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Hi Steve

Did you ever watch "Dads Army" -- Corp. Jones with his anti-aircraft rockets fired from lengths of cast iron pipe LOL

Peter

[Guest]

Make an interesting diorama to have the ground crew and station for one of these. Balloon would be too big but you could have a wire going up to nowhere to represent it.

[stona]

I was looking for propeller data and stumbled on a very interesting article from 1941 about the merits and demerits of the various materials used. Here's a link to the article.

1941 | 2165 | Flight Archive

There are a load of adverts in the middle that are as much fun as the article. For those that may not want to wade through the entire thing here is a quote relevant to balloon cable strikes.

"From the point of view of reliability

and wearing properties, solid duralumin

has the most enviable reputation.

Out of all the many thousands of dural

blades which have been used in De

Havilland variable-pitch airscrews,

not a single, shank or tip failure has

been reported in service, apart from

such obviously accidental damage as

that caused, by flying into balloon

cables. Even if a balloon cable does

hit a dural blade, the cable will

usually be cut and the damage to the

blade will only be such as can be

comparatively easily repaired by resmoothing

the surface ; and even in the

comparatively rare cases where a part

of the blade has actually been removed,

machines have successfully

reached their bases.

Under conditions of normal civil

operation, the life of a dural blade is

extremely long, and there are already

many De Havilland blades which have

well exceeded 4,000 hours."

Cheers

Steve