When the balloon went up over the Black Country
THIS picture dates from the Second World War and it highlights an often overlooked aspect of the war effort.
While the “Few” of Fighter Command and the brave men of Bomber Command, who faced such terrible losses, are rightly honoured today, there was much more to RAF’S role in defending our homeland from enemy attack.
Part of that defence were the barrage balloons that once hung over our towns and cities to deter enemy aircraft.
This photograph shows the barrage balloon unit that operated in Dartmouth Park, West Bromwich. As is clear, many of them were women of the WAAF.
West Bromwich suffered several attacks by the Luftwaffe, the worst being in one week in November 1940 that saw more than 100 people killed in the town.
The many factories and forges in West Bromwich and the surrounding district made it a prime target. The anti-aircraft guns defending the area were augmented by many barrage balloon units, both static and mobile.
Barrage balloons were first developed during the First World War to defend against enemy bombers. The balloons were attached to steel cables and it was these that would bring down any plane that flew into them, not the balloons themselves. The British developed barrage nets, which hung between balloons, and these were set at the operational height of the German bombers threatening London.
The distictive shape of the balloons made them more stable in high winds, – spherical balloons would be buffetted about.
With war threatening again, RAF Balloon Command was established in November 1938 to protect British cities and industrial centres. The Black Country came under No. 31 Balloon Group, headquartered in Birmingham.
There is some debate as to the effectiveness of barrage balloons in the Second World War and while they did undoubtedly bring down some planes their usefulness may have been more in boosting the morale of the general public sheltering beneath them than in destroying enemy aircraft.
Anti-aircraft guns found it difficult to track planes at low altitude, so the purpose of the balloons was to force the enemy to fly higher and into the range of the guns. Early in the war, their main target was the German dive bombers that attacked from around 5,000ft and had proved devastatingly effective as the Nazi Blitzkrieg swept across Europe.
However, the deadliness of the skilled RAF fighter pilots against the vulberable dive bombers quickly forced the Germans to abandon their use against British targets. Instead, the Luftwaffe deployed more high-level bombers but they flew above the effective range of the barrage balloons. It was impractical to fly barage balloons higher as the length and the weight of steel cable required was prohibitive and would have required balloons of enormous size,
Nonetheless, thousands of barrage balloons were manufactured and by 1944 there were around 3,000 deployed across the country, with the majority around London. Later, they offered some protection against the V1 flying bombs targeting the south-east.
Once the Allies invaded Europe, the threat of Luftwaffe attacks receded and Balloon Command was disbanded in February 1945.