BALLOON BARRAGE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20071, 18 October 1939, Page 14

BALLOON BARRAGE

DEFENCE OF LONDON it i- EFFECTIVE OR NOT? ;; OPINION DIVIDED e Opinion is still sharply divided on n the subject of the balloon barrage. 3 writes the aeronautical correspondent of The Times, London. Some old pilots hold that the balloons will be - more trouble than they are worth. They believe that they will have to be so thick over the ground if they are to be effective that splinters of anti-aircraft shells will puncture them regularly, that others will be shot down by fighter aircraft escorting the bombers, that some will break away and leave their cables to fall among the chimney pots. People who take •■this view would urge that more guns and more fighters are calculated to make the surest defence. The critics might have a stronger case if they argued that a balloon barrage high enough to be really effective against the raider would be an equal menace to our own night fighters.;; Hopes have been expressed that the balloons may be flown up to a height of 20,000 ft. The latest fighters will probably patrol at 25,000 to 30,000 ft., and at the end of their patrols will need to be sure of their own positions over the darkened countryside and of the precise location of the balloon cables which they must evade in order to reach their aerodromes. Many of the fighter aerodromes are close to the areas which balloons will protect, and the picking of a pathway home may well present some difficulties. A Contrast in Risks The subject of close association between fighter and balloon units is certainly intricate, and its solution may involve a fairly elaborate system of recognition lights or wireless signals. Neither this nor the danger that some of the balloons will become casualties need affect the general value of the balloon barrage idea. The i balloons which are set on fire by the incendiary bullets of hostile aircraft will have burned themselves out long before they reach the ground. Those hit by shell splinters wiil lose height slowly unless great rents are torn in their envelopes, and the winch crew on the ground may be able to haul them in before they get low enough to foul the houses. The cables of those that break away may do some damage ; to roof tops, but probably not more i than might be done by the anti-, aircraft shells themselves. ,

The risks are negligible in comparison with the dangers against which the balloons are intended to protect the inhabitants of big towns. Low flying was. feared in the war because the authorities thought that bombers might not only drop bombs but machine-gun people in the streets of London. It is feared to-day because low bombing means greater accuracy in attacks on small vital objectives. It is feared also because it might paralyse the defence by making it impossible for the anti-aircraft guns to follow a target which passed them at so high a relative speed and by making it difficult for the fighters to distinguish the bombers against the dun background of the countryside or to attack them in the most effective ways. Will Be Worth While If the balloon barrage can only defeat the low raid it will be worth while. It promises to serve a more positive end by limiting the depth of the field in which the fighters must look for the enemy. Fighter defence in Great Britain is peculiarly liable to the difficulties of cloud layers. In the 25,000 ft. of height which the fighters must look after in ordinary circumstances, there may be three or four layers of cloud, and the bombers approaching an objective may take covei first in one layer and-then in another. If they can be kept above the clouds the area of search is lessened and the fighters’ chances of making contact with them are improved. Even if it was possible to lay anti-aircraft guns on unseen targets above the clouds, the main hope of inflicting casualties on the raiders lies with the fighters If they can find the enemy bomber: they expect to take regular toll of them, so that the intensity and ire quency of the raids should be reduced within a comparatively short period. The balloon barrage was not conceived with the idea of inflicting dircc injury on hostile aircraft. There wa: no case during the war of an enemj aeroplane being brought down by the balloon aprons which were used to defend London in 1918, nor were there many casualties among the wires of the balloons which the Germans used from 191 G onwards to protect munitions factories and chemical works igainst air attack.