From: dgd@kcbbs.gen.nz (David Dix)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: WW2 BARRAGE
Date: 18 Dec 92 21:32:50 GMT
Organization: Kappa Crucis Unix BBS, Auckland, New Zealand


From dgd@kcbbs.gen.nz (David Dix)


In article <BzD4rK.Iwn@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>, jeff stump/lml2 <jeffs@austlcm.sps.mot.com> writes:
> 
> From jeff stump/lml2 <jeffs@austlcm.sps.mot.com>
> 
>   Hello all. I have a question concerning barrage balloon's used during WW2.
> I don't think I quite understand how they worked. Did they have multiple
> purposes ? Were they effective ? 
>   I have always wondered this ?
> 

The British barrage balloons used in 1940 at the time of the battle
of Britain were _very_ effective for their designed purpose.

>From 'Battle of Britain' by Alfred Price (Daily Express/Arms and Armour press)
published 1990.

"The ungainly hydrogen filled gasbags were 62ft long and 25ft in diameter,
and had a maximum effective altitude of about 5000ft. They were dotted
randomly over the target to be defended and were intended as a deterrent
against low-flying aircraft and to prevent dive bombers pressing their
attacks to low altitude. If an aircraft struck the cable, explosive cutters
severed the wire at the top and the bottom, allowing the bomber to carry the
cable away. Attached to either end of the cable was an 8ft diameter canvas
drogue; when fully open, the drogues exerted a combined drag of 7 tons at
200mph - sufficient to stop an aircraft in its tracks and send it spinning
out of control. The main balloon defended areas in south-east England were
at London, Chatam and Dover, Harwich, Portsmouth, Gosport and Southhamptom."

"Shooting down barrage balloons became a popular pastime for Messerschmitt
pilots with time on their hands"

There are several nice illustrations in this book showing the sequence of
events when a plane came into contact with a balloon cable as well as
pics of balloons at London and Gosport.

A variation on the same concept was the Parachute and Cable rocket launched
system also designed to counter low-altitude attacks on airfields.
Launchers were set out at about 60ft intervals along the perimeter of an
airfield. As an enemy aircraft approached the rockets were fired vertically
in salvoes of nine or more. At the top of its 600ft trajectory the rocket
released a 480ft long steel cable that descended by parachute. If an aircraft
struck the cable then a parachute was released at the bottom of the cable.
The unfortunate machine was left towing the contraption was would most
likely go out of control.

A photo is shown in "Battle of Britian" of Hauptmann Joachim Roth's Dornier
Do17 lying burned out in a field not far from Kenley airfield, after being
caught by the Cable and Parachute barrage. The Do17 dragged the cable for
several miles and had to be finished off by Hurricanes of No 111 Squadron.
All 5 crewmen were wounded and taken prisoner.
Roth was commander of BG 76's 9th Staffel and led the low altitude attack
on Kenley on 18 August 1940.

Several other photos I have seen show barrage ballons above battleships
at anchor (HMS Warspite), although these balloons do not seem to have the
explosive cutter mechanisms. Perhaps they were intended to 'slice' an
attacking dive bomber or simply act as a deterrent.
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