BALLOON BREAKS AWAY

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Volume 81, Issue 44, 15 November 1937, Page 6

BALLOON BREAKS AWAY

Floats Across the Channel and Over France HEAVY CABLE . HANGS LOPSE (Received 15 8.25 a.m.) LONDON,. Nov. 13. An anti-aircraft- barrage balloon witb 12,000 feet of cable attached to it broke adrift from tbe Manston Air Eorce station, Kent, Tbe dangling cable narrowly missed wrecking two bombers in mid-air and two cars on a road. Tbe balloon is at present drifting in a soutk-easterly direction. Shipping and aircraft bave been warned by wireless. An aeroplane in vain went up to locate the balloon, which, escaping •capture, beaded towards France, trailing tbe 12,000-foot cable, wbicb missed a Ramsgate gardener by inches^ tore down an adjaeent aerial and ploughed a deep furrow on tbe seasbore. Tbe balloon then crossed the Channei, tbo cable striking a bigb-tension line at ' Audruicq and causing a sbort-circuit, depriving tbe entire department of Pas de Calais 'of electrie ligbt for 20 minutes and setting fire to tbe Post Office. Tbe fire was quickly extinguisbed. Tbe balloon then drifted towards Belgium. It bas still not been recovered. ' A Paris message says there was a coincidence in that a Erenck runaway balloon came down at Signeville, 18 miles from Chaumont, in tbe ' Haufc Marae Department, after snapping a bigh-tension wire witb two miles of trailing cable and plunging tbe district in darknesls. Workmen disentangled tbe balloon -wire and secured it. Later: A .Paris message says that a balloon which came down at Signevilk, is believed to be the British runaway balloon which brok® "'adrift from Manston. • - ' \