Show AERIAL FENCES TO BALK AIR ATTACKS british plan balloon aprons to guard london washington D C balloons teth ered in the air more than 30 feet above london and trailing wires to form aerial fences which will partially enclose the city such will be the fantastic picture if great britain carries out one of her pro posed plans for defense against in bading airplanes to fly high enough to surmount these barriers reach ing almost into the stratosphere planes would have to carry oxygen apparatus and but few bombs in planning to protect london by a group of balloons british military authorities are not enter ing a wholly new field says the national geographic society to ward the close of the world war air raids on london were made less effective by balloon aprons sausage shaped kite balloons protected by airplanes were sus feet apart at about 10 feet above the city and were anchored to the ground by long cables from horizontal cables link ing each trio of ballons ballans hung long weighted streamers of piano wire forming aprons of vertical strands somewhat like those which herald a railroad railroads s approach to a tunnel the wires strong enough to dam age wooden propellers or wings of attacking planes forced flyers to climb above them or to descend perilously low to pass beneath them perhaps their greatest value was the psychological effect they had on pilots kite balloons aid navy great britain Brit also found kite bal loons an aid to her navy observers in a balloon towed along several thousand feet above a destroyer could spot a periscope or the wake of a submarine long before it was visible from the bridge through a telephone wire in the cable connect mg ing balloon to ship the balloonist could direct the ship ships s attack on the underwater menace some balloons floating like toy ones above battleships were et ef deterrents of submarine at tacks though innocuous in them selves small dummies carrying crews of dummy men they created the illusion of large observation bal loons flying at a great height hundreds of captive balloons were used for observation purposes on both sides all along the western front since their contents were highly inflammable airplanes attacked them with sky rockets in stead of bullets unmanned top shaped balloons about eight feet high and made of paper were sent up by the british these released over german lines and to a distance of fifty miles behind them bundles of propaganda leaflets printed in german meant to undermine enemy morale balloons were first put to a military use in france at the battle of fleurus in belgium on june 28 26 1794 captain J M coutelle the world s first military balloon ob server floated in his balloon L Entre the venturesome above the cannon flashes and clouds of smoke of the opposing french and austrian armies by signaling with flags to the french artillery coutelle demoralized the austrians Aust nans and was an important factor in the french victory during the siege of pans paris in 1870 1871 balloons played a stra begic part used to in civil war about a decade earlier balloons had proved effective in the amen amerl can civil war union forces had several in which observers hovered over the countryside looking down with all seeing eyes on confederate forts and camp fires news of confederate e evacuations bridge build ing operations or other supposedly secret military maneuvers were im mediately telegraphed to union headquarters over a wire to the ground this was the first time that war dispatches had been tele graphed from the air realizing the advantage of an observation balloon but too poor to buy one the confederate army collected the silk dresses of rich mond women and out of them made a patchwork balloon like joseph s coat of many colors striped plaid and flower sprigged southern belles made their flees in vain for their ball gowns sewed together and oiled and var dished made only one ascent be fore the balloon was captured by the federals A scrap of this bal loon brown and shredded with age is preserved in the aeronautical ex hibit of the smithsonian museum in washington D C |