Barrage Balloons

So far, we have discussed multiple ways British citizens stayed safe throughout the bombing campaigns of The Blitz.  We’ve learned about Morrison Shelters, Anderson Shelters, and how tube stations served as shelters from bombs.   Let’s change focus now and learn about some of the defensive measures taken to limit the number of bombs dropped over major British cities.

With constant Luftwaffe bombing campaigns, the British needed to devise a way to deter as many German planes away from major cities as possible.  Hence the creation of the Barrage Balloon.

A barrage balloon is defined as a bag filled with lighter than air gas, that is attached to a steel cable, which is anchored to the ground.  Their approximate measurements were a length of 64 feet, a height of 31 feet, a diameter of 25 feet and a total weight of 600 pounds.  The balloon could be lowered and raised to a given altitude by the use of a winch.  By raising hundreds of balloons over key targets and large cities, German bombers were forced to fly much higher in the sky, significantly decreasing their accuracy.  The British enjoyed three major benefits from the use of these barrage balloons (As discussed on worldwar-two.net).

1. Enhanced ground-based air defenses and the ability of fighters to acquire targets, since intruding aircrafts were limited in altitude and direction.
2.  Forced aircraft to higher altitudes, decreasing surprise attacks and bombing accuracy.
3. The cable presented a definite metal and material hazard to German pilots.

In response to the thousands of barrage balloons used in Britain, Germany created their own defense mechanism, to lower the chances of a balloons steel cable destroying planes at they collided with them.  Cable cutters were added to plane wings, where the cable would slide down a wing into a C shaped device.  This device would then trigger a small explosion, sending a blade through the cable, cutting it apart.

But the British responded by added a refinement to their balloons called a Double Parachute Link.  The following information is taken from rafmuseum.org.uk:

DPL (Double Parachute Link) was designed to increase the damage inflicted on an aircraft when it struck the cable. An explosive cable cutter and a heavy-duty parachute were attached to both ends of the cable. When an aircraft hit the cable, the shock of the impact triggered the explosive cutters and released a long section of cable. The cable was dragged along behind the aircraft, opening a parachute at each end: this slowed the aircraft down and made the pilot lose control.