Barrage Balloon Cable Collisions with Aircraft in WWII

Barrage Balloon Cables Collisions with Aircraft through 1939 to 1945

AIRCRAFT	UNARMED BALLOON CABLE	ARMED BALLOON CABLE
	Crashed Forced Proceeded Uncertain Landed	Crashed Forced Proceeded Uncertain Total Landed
Friendly	23 18 57 1	68 20 115 8 310
Hostile	12 8 5	13 1 13 2 54
Unknown	2	1 6 1 10
TOTAL	35 18 67 6	82 21 134 11 374

The recorded history of how many aircraft were brought down by barrage balloons in WWII is shown above. What is obvious from the chart

is that barrage balloons of the armed or unarmed cable design seemed to have been hit by more “Friendly” aircraft than “hostile”, the armed

cable design shown to be more effective than the unarmed cable design. One must bear in mind that while at first glance this might suggest

barrage balloons did more harm than good to the war effort in WWII, the number of friendly aircraft in the air over Britain per day was much

higher than the number of hostile aircraft over Britain per day.

So this shows that barrage balloons were effective at damaging or bringing aircraft down. During the war 310 friendly aircraft hit balloon

cables and 54 hostile ones hit cables with around 10 cable hits unable to be logged as friendly or hostile.

The balloons caused 91 friendly crashes with 38 friendly aircraft being forced to land. Despite hitting a cable, 172 friendly aircraft were not

damaged badly and were able to carry on flying. Around one third (91/310) of all friendly aircraft who hit a cable crashed.

The balloons caused 25 hostile crashes with 1 hostile aircraft being forced to land. Despite hitting a cable 21 hostile aircraft were not

damaged badly and were able to carry on flying. Around one half (25/54) of all hostile aircraft who hit a cable crashed. What this does not

show is the effectiveness of barrage balloons as a potential threat to enemy aircraft. Only once have I been able to talk to a former member

of the Luftwaffe and he told me that it was their greatest fear as they got nearer to the target.

It was so unknown, equally if a pilot saw a balloon barrage he could assume that around and below it lay something worth bombing. As a result

some aircraft would drop their bombs in such areas particularly if they knew they were never going to reach their primary target. If pursued by

British fighters, many German aircraft dropped their bombs, this lightened their load and gave them increased speed and fuel to try to outrun the

fighters. I am indebted to Den Burchmore and the Airship Heritage Trust for help with the above information.

The Balloon Command motto: VI ET ICTU “By force and impact”, says it all.

DEATAILS OF COLLISIONS – ENEMY AIRCRAFT AND BALLOON CABLES

DATE BARRAGE TYPE OF AIRCRAFT RESULT

4^th June, 1940 Le Havre Junker 87 ? Crashed

20^th June, 1940 Billingham Heinkel Crashed in

18^th July, 1940 Harwich Unknown Proceeded (Forced landing in France )

3^rd Sept., 1940 Bristol Unknown Uncertain (Pieces of wing found)

13^th Sept., 1940 Newport Heinkel III Crashed and burnt out.

16^th Sept., 1940 Coventry Ju.88 Crashed and burnt out.

16^th Oct., 1940 Harwich Heinkel III Crashed in flames

24^th Oct., 1940 Liverpool Unknown Crashed in Estuary

9^th Nov., 1940 London Unknown Proceeded

18^th Nov., 1940 Thames Unknown Uncertain (Spun round by collision, last seen losing height

19^th Nov., 1940 London Heinkel III Struck two cables and crashed

23^rd Nov., 1940 Southampton Unknown Uncertain

24^th Nov., 1940 Plymouth Dornier 17 Crashed and burnt out.

30^th Nov., 1940 Plymouth Unknown Uncertain

15^th Dec., 1940 Sheffield Unknown Uncertain

5th Jan., 1941 Sheffield Unknown Proceeded

8^th Jan., 1941 Coventry Unknown Proceeded

5^th Feb., 1941 Hull Unknown Proceeded

16^th Feb., 1940 Newcastle Heinkel III Crashed

22^nd Feb., 1941 Avonmouth Heinkel III Crashed

24^th Feb., 1941 Hull Unknown Proceeded

5^th March, 1941 Bristol Unknown Proceeded

11^th March, 1941 Crewe Unknown Uncertain – believed to have proceeded after striking two cables

11^th March, 1941 Bristol Heinkel III Crashed

12^th March, 1941 Runcorn Unknown Crashed

22^nd March, 1941 Hull Heinkel III Crashed

DATE BARRAGE TYPE OF AIRCRAFT RESULT

31^st March, 1941 Falmouth Unknown Crashed

31^st March, 1941 Birmingham Heinkel III Crashed

10^th April, 1941 Birmingham Heinkel III Crashed

23^rd April, 1941 Plymouth Unknown Proceeded

4^th May, 1941 Liverpool Heinkel III Crashed

8^th May, 1941 Barrow Unknown Crashed in sea

8^th May, 1941 Yeovil Unknown Uncertain

15^th May, 1941 Falmouth Unknown Crashed

20^th May, 1941 Harwich Unknown Proceeded

29^th May, 1941 Hull Unknown Proceeded

19^th June, 1941 Harwich Unknown Proceeded

12^th Sept., 1941 Harwich Unknown Proceeded

14^th Jan., 1942 Harwich Unknown Proceeded

15^th Jan., 1942 Billingham Dornier Crashed

DO 217

17^th April, 1942 Southampton Unknown Proceeded

1^st May, 1942 Tyne Unknown Proceeded

9^th May, 1942 Norwich Dornier Crashed

DO 217E

20^th May, 1942 Humber Unknown Proceeded

20^th May, 1942 Hull Unknown Crashed

28^th June, 1942 Weston-Super-Mare Unknown Proceeded

8^th July, 1942 Billingham Unknown Proceeded

26^th July 1942 Billingham Unknown Proceeded

27^th July, 1942 Derby Dornier Struck two cables

Proceeded.

31^st July, 1942 Birmingham Unknown Proceeded

31^st Oct., 1942 Canterbury Focke-Wulf Crashed

14^th May, 1943 Chelmsford Unknown Proceeded

30^th May, 1943 Falmouth Unknown Crashed in Sea

18^th July, 1943 Normandy Ju.88 Crashed

Collisions between friendly aircraft and Balloon Cables

Period No. of Impacts No. of Crashes

3^rd September 1939 – 25^th March 1941 91 38

26^th March 1941 - 29^th April 1941 13 3

1941 May 11 4

June 7 4

July 11 3

August 7 1

September 4 1

October 14 7

November 5 1

December 5 1

1942 January 3 1

February 4 2

March 4 1

April 3 1

May 2 1

June 2 -

July 3 1

August 9 2

September 5 -

October 6 3

November 6 3

December 1 -

1943 January 2 -

February 3 2

March 7 3

April 2 1

May - -

June 6 -

July - -

August 3 1

September 1 1

October 2 1

November - -

December 3 -

1944 January 3 1

February 4 -

March 4 1

April 9 1

May 10 2

June 3 1

278 93

Sources: – Up to April 1941 – FO/B.23517

May 1941 – June 1944 – C.S.4449, Parts I – III

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