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From: Andrew.J.Greenshields@cyber.widener.edu
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Reply to Barrage Balloons
Message-ID: <1991Mar19.042631.6003@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 19 Mar 91 04:26:31 GMT
Article-I.D.: cbnews.1991Mar19.042631.6003
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From: Andrew.J.Greenshields@cyber.widener.edu
  Barrage balloons were large hydrogen filled, tethered blimps.  What made
them so deadly were the steel tether cables.  The idea was that the cables
would snag an attacking aircrafts wing and either rip the wing off or
cause the aircraft to go into a spin.

  The RAF also used a similar idea to protect airfields.  The steel cable in
this case was fired into the air using a rocket.  When the rocket was spent,
the cable would be released and start to float back to earth using a parachute.
When the cable was snagged by an aircraft, the ground end of the cable would
be released with a parachute on the end of that too.  The aircraft would be
literally yanked out of the sky.  Of course, with the rockets, you would have
to fire them directly into the path of the attacking planes.

  When these were first used during the Battle of Britain, several people
thought that the parachutes were German paratroopers and that the invasion
had actually begun.

Andrew J. Greenshields
dxandy@cyber.widener.edu