Strand Films created this black-and-white recruiting film for Great Britain’s Ministry of Information in 1942 as a tool for Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF — the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II) barrage balloon operators. Over a shot of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF — the female auxiliary of the Royal Air Force during World War II) marching out of a barrage balloon hangar, the refrain “I became a patriot to help to win the day” is heard at mark 00:19. Four girls — a London shop assistant, a Scottish housemaid (“I wanted to do something much more worthwhile than being a housemaid”), a secretary, and a Welsh barmaid join up as balloon operators. At mark 02:15, they arrive at camp and receive eleven weeks of instruction in repair work, knots, wire-splicing, and winch operating before maneuvering balloons, attached to trucks, into a vast echoing hangar.
The girls chatter about that evening’s dance where they are seen enjoying themselves in their new uniforms at mark 05:37. After training they go to a practice war site where, standing in the snow, they receive a pep talk at mark 06:06 about the rigors and satisfactions of their job. Finally they are posted to Balloon Site 568 in an industrial town. There, their singing in a camp hut is interrupted at mark 08:00 by an order to raise the balloons, which they do with enthusiasm.
A barrage balloon, sometimes called a “blimp”, is a large balloon tethered with metal cables, used to defend against aircraft attack by damaging the aircraft on collision with the cables, or at least making the attacker’s approach more difficult. Commonly the designs were kite balloons, having a shape and cable bridling which stabilise the balloon in windy conditions, allowing operation in higher winds than a spherical balloon. Some examples carried small explosive charges that would be pulled up against the aircraft to ensure its destruction. Barrage balloons are not practical against very high-flying aircraft, due to the weight of a very long cable.
In 1938 the British Balloon Command was established to protect cities and key targets such as industrial areas, ports and harbours. Balloons were intended to defend against dive bombers flying at heights up to 5,000 feet (1,500 m), forcing them to fly higher and into the range of concentrated anti-aircraft fire—anti-aircraft guns could not traverse fast enough to attack aircraft flying at low altitude and high speed. By the middle of 1940 there were 1,400 balloons, a third of them over the London area.
While dive-bombing was a devastatingly effective tactic against undefended targets, such as Guernica and Rotterdam, dive-bombers were very vulnerable to attack by fighter aircraft while performing a dive, and their use in this role by Germany against the UK with its effective Royal Air Force was rapidly discontinued. Balloons proved to be of little use against the German high-level bombers with which the dive-bombers were replaced, but continued to be manufactured nonetheless, until there were almost 3,000 in 1944. They proved to be mildly effective against the V-1 flying bomb, which usually flew at 2,000 feet (600 m) or lower but had wire-cutters on its wings to counter balloons. 231 V-1s are officially claimed to have been destroyed by balloons.
The British added two refinements to their balloons, “Double Parachute Link” (DPL) and “Double Parachute/Ripping” (DP/R). The former was triggered by the shock of an enemy bomber snagging the cable, causing that section of cable to be explosively released complete with parachutes at either end; the combined weight and drag bringing down the aircraft. The latter was intended to render the balloon safe if it broke free accidentally. The heavy mooring cable would separate at the balloon and fall to the ground under a parachute; at the same time a panel would be ripped away from the balloon causing it to deflate and fall independently to the ground.
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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com
