Exhibited: The Lightbox, Woking, Out of the Shadows, 2020, cat 65

Exhibited: WW2 – War Pictures by British Artists, Morley College London, 28 October -23 November 2016, cat 135. 

Literature: WW2 – War Pictures by British Artists, Edited by Sacha Llewellyn & Paul Liss, July 2016, cat 135, page 178. 

Barrage balloons flew above Britain during World War II, becoming an iconic feature of the British skyline

A number of the types of aircraft used by Nazi Germany during its Blitzkrieg campaigns relied on diving to release bombs accurately. Ju-87 Stuka dive bombers even had special sirens fitted to their wings to increase the noise produced when diving to strike fear into those on the ground. To counter this low-flying threat, Balloons were raised with heavy cables designed to destroy low flying aircraft, forcing them up into the effective range of Anti-Aircraft Defences.

Balloons were raised with heavy cables designed to destroy low flying aircraft

Mainly crewed by the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, these balloons were grouped into Squadrons like fighter aircraft. Described by one WAAF as three times the size of a cricket pitch’, the balloons were simple to manufacture and operate, and were often anchored to trucks via a winch that could be used to control the balloon’s height. They were designed to hang in the sky, their anchoring cables and hydrogen filling designed to deter any low flying or attacks on the balloons themselves.

Black and white photo of a W.A.A.F. operators in a hangar. They are all standing still in uniform, with their hands behind their back and in a row as they are reporting for inspection at the end of a day of training. Behind them, the ballons have been tucked away and can be seen floating in the hangar.

Balloons safely tucked away in the hangar for the night. W.A.A.F. balloon operators report for inspection before going off duty after a strenuous day of training on the balloon site. England. Image: Wikicommons

Although ineffective in stopping high level bombers like the He111 and the Do17, the Balloons did force the Stuka into higher flight patterns during the Battle of Britain, making it easier for the RAF and anti aircraft crews to shoot them down. An attempt by the Luftwaffe to break through defences at low level over Dover in 1940 was thwarted by balloons, and one source has Balloons responsible for “102 aircraft crashes in the cables, resulting in 66 crashed or forced landings.

During the war Finney served in the Ambulance Crews of the Air Raid Precautions Service, later named Civil Defence, for a period of four years until ‎in 1945 he got pleurisy. Barrage balloons were deployed around London towards the end of the First World War, but they were developed as an effective anti-aircraft defence during the inter-war period. They were operated from winches either from static sites – concrete platforms – or from lorries. 

The convenience of the latter method was that they could be moved around to protect areas that unexpectedly came under attack, but it also allowed them to be positioned where the attacking force -the Luftwaffe – would not expect them. The appearance of the balloons themselves had a deterrent effect in making attacking aircraft fly higher to avoid them and they therefore made it more difficult to bomb accurately. This was particularly the case in relation to dive- bombing attacks, which depended upon the bomber descending in a steep dive to low altitude before releasing its bombs. 

Although their principal purpose was to deter or impede an attack, if an aeroplane struck a balloon cable an ingenious destructive weapon was brought into operation. The tethering cable was designed to part in two places, above and below the wing of the ensnared aeroplane. The substantial steel wire itself might do some harm to the wing structure, but the upper end of the cable was fitted with a small parachute and the lower end with an explosive charge. As the aircraft flew on, its slip-stream inflated the parachute which streamed out behind drawing the charge up against the wing of the aeroplane. When it made contact, the explosives were detonated causing catastrophic damage and bringing the aeroplane down.

We are grateful to Nicholas Finney and Andrew Cormack for assistance