Talk:Barrage balloon

This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale.
It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:United States Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions. Template Usage Articles Requested! Become a Member Project Talk Alerts
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

United Kingdom Low‑importance

	This article is within the scope of WikiProject United Kingdom, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the United Kingdom on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Aviation: Aircraft

	This article is within the scope of the Aviation WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.
	This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status: Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met
	This article is supported by the aircraft project.

Military history: Aviation / Fortifications / Technology / Weaponry / British / European / North America / United States / World War I / World War II / Cold War Start‑class

	This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see a list of open tasks. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.
Start	This article has been rated as Start-class on the project's quality scale.
	This article has been checked against the following criteria for B-class status: Referencing and citation: criterion not met Coverage and accuracy: criterion not met Structure: criterion met Grammar and style: criterion met Supporting materials: criterion met
Associated task forces: /  Military aviation task force Fortifications task force Military science, technology, and theory task force Weaponry task force British military history task force European military history task force North American military history task force United States military history task force World War I task force World War II task force Cold War task force (c. 1945 – c. 1989)

Untitled

The article sorely underemphasizes the main point of barrage baloons, which is to provide deterrence against low-flying, high-precision, surprise attacks. Also, by confining the airspace, in which enemy aircraft can safely operate, the other defenses are made more effective. For more details, see

http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj89/hillson.html

Question

Why didn't attacking planes just shoot up the balloons before they got to them? It seems so obvious, there must be a good reason why this wouldn't work. The article should explain the reason. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 4.231.248.58 (talk) 02:49, 11 May 2010 (UTC)

Removal of nuclear test image

I've removed this image because the "barrage balloon" isn't actually a barrage balloon, but a US Navy ZSG-3 airship. See: http://www.nv.doe.gov/library/photos/photodetails.aspx?ID=459 and http://stinet.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0360874. Anyway, while it's a very striking image it's not exactly a typical or an informative one, even if it had been a barrage balloon. Something more iconic from the Blitz might be better. Airminded 08:20, 6 May 2007 (UTC)

Barrage balloons in the USA and Canada?

I'm rather intrigued and dubious about the quoted use of barrage balloons at Saulte Sainte Marie in 1942. Sault Sainte Marie is almost 1000km inland and would surely have been beyond the range of the Axis dive bombers that barrage balloons were intended to counter. As far as I'm aware North America suffered no air attacks in the Second World War apart from some Japanese balloons, let alone from short-range dive bombers. Why go to the trouble of putting up barrage balloons at a site far beyond enemy divebomber range? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.72.134.216 (talk) 23:52, 7 February 2008 (UTC)

Barrage balloon base station

The Canadian grubber, assembled in Scotland, purchased by the army in WW2 to rip up aerodrome runways and railway lines if an invasion took place. It was hauled by a powerful Foden Trucks tractor.

It has been suggested that this may be a 'base station' for a mobile barrage balloon or a balloon used to train parachutists in Scotland. Can anyone help with identifying its use? Rosser Gruffydd 08:25, 22 January 2010 (UTC)

The facts but...

This article does not follow the standard style for a WikiP Page. It should begin with the basic history of the balloon- where it was first made/invented, who invented it etc. Then it should List the key areas where it was used. Then it should talk about whether it is still used at all and if not, why not and where it was last used. We want to know what happened to the balloons after use, what they were made of, and where, if any, barrage balloons can still be seen- eg museums. More photos of them in use would be good.

IceDragon64 (talk) 00:47, 24 June 2013 (UTC)

I was also looking for data about the sizes of these balloons: length, cubic capacity of the lifting gas. martinev (talk) 19:13, 4 January 2015 (UTC)

BARRAGE BALLONS IN THE PACIFIC WAR ERA?

Amazing that there is no mention of these deterrents for Japanese aircraft carried to our very shores of the pacific coast line(via highly advanced Japanese Submarines). Major invasions also were not mentioned although I have seen actual pictures of barrage ballons along the shoreline of some pacific island beach head swarmed by LCT's and other ships. I am a HUGE Wikipedia fan as a historian of this unique time of American history and its involvement of that historic period with American and it's allies.

BARRAGE BALLONS IN THE PACIFIC WAR ERA?

Amazing that there is no mention of these deterrents for Japanese aircraft carried to our very shores of the pacific coast line(via highly advanced Japanese Submarines). Major invasions also were not mentioned although I have seen actual pictures of barrage ballons along the shoreline of some pacific island beach head swarmed by LCT's and other ships. I am a HUGE Wikipedia fan as a historian of this unique time of American history and its involvement of that historic period with American and it's allies. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 50.9.113.11 (talk) 12:50, 9 June 2014 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Barrage balloon. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110111203443/http://www.rafweb.org/Sqn900.htm to http://www.rafweb.org/Sqn900.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 04:57, 15 July 2017 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified one external link on Barrage balloon. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20070812023821/http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj89/sum89/hillson.html to http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj89/sum89/hillson.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 04:29, 22 January 2018 (UTC)

What were barrage balloons filled with, and how was the gas generated? (May 2020)

There's no description in the article on barrage balloons on what gas the balloons were filled with - I guess hydrogen. Also no description of how the gas was generated and the balloons were filled.