SILVER SENTINELS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 2 December 1940, Page 3

SILVER SENTINELS

BRITAIN’S BALLOON BARRAGE. CHIEF OBJECT ATTAINED. Riding proudly overhead in their coats of silver, the barrage balloons have become a familiar war-time sight over London, and an ever-increasing number of British cities, towns and villages, says “The Times.” A menace to those who seek to destroy, they are trusty, silent sentinels by night, watching over the sleeping millions below, and the same dependable friends to the busy throngs by day. Though inclined to be capricious and a little uncertain in temper when the fancy (or, to be more accurate, the wind) takes them, they never tire in their well-doing. Winter and summer, cold or hot, rain or shine, they remain patiently on the alert. When the enemy seeks to cheat us of our food by sinking our convoys, they keep him at bay; when he would dive low over our war factories and our homes, they hold him at a distance. Their primary duty is not to bring down raiders, though they have done so. They are designed to keep attacking aircraft at a height at which our guns and our fighters can get at them, and from which no enemy, however skilled, can bomb with accuracy. In this they have succeeded handsomely. A German pilot who would dive through the barrage is reckless indeed; he stands in grave peril of colliding with a cable which will tear the wings from his aircraft, sending it crashing to destruction.

Nobody has ever pretended that a balloon barrage is a defence against indiscriminate bombing such as is the fate of London, but its presence does undoubtedly prevent raiders from selecting the targets they would like to hit. But for its balloons, London would have suffered far more grievously from the thousands of bombs which have been rained on it during the last few months. That the Germans regard a balloon defence as a serious obstacle in their air activities is proved by the number of ocasions on which fighters have been sent over on special errands to destroy them. They have been shot down, but as fast as one has been lost another has soared up to replace it. The importance attached to this form of defence is shown by the fact that almost every week sees an extension of the scheme. Soon every vulnerable area will have this comforting safeguard.