A lack of equipment meant that this task could not be completed until the spring of 1942. Green ordered that every possible effort be made to send three barrage balloons battalions to the west coast to protect important locations including the Bremerton Navy Yard in Bremerton, Washington and the Boeing aircraft plant in Seattle, Washington. Following the attack, Chief of the Coast Artillery General Joseph A. fleet in Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, brought the barrage balloon program to the forefront. Library of Congress, LC-USE6-D-008677Īlthough the joint command was in the process of developing the barrage balloon units almost from nothing, the Japanese attack on the U.S. The first and only base set up in the United States for this purpose was located near Paris, Tennessee, and was named Camp Tyson.īarrage Balloon training in Camp Tyson, Tennessee. One of the first decisions needed from the joint command was where to set up a permanent training base for barrage balloon battalions. military designated barrage balloons to be in joint control of both the Air Corps and the Coastal Artillery Service, and both units began to coordinate their efforts. The coming of war in Europe in 1939 brought about renewed vigor for the development of barrage balloons, and on March 14, 1941, the General Staff of the U.S. Only minor developments occurred between 19, and the inter-service rivalry between the Air Corps and the Coastal Artillery Corps continued throughout the years. barrage balloons was slow and suffered greatly from both a lack of funding and a widespread lack of enthusiasm for the program. It was eventually decided that the Air Service would be placed in charge of developing barrage balloon technology, but the Coast Artillery Corps would actually operate the balloons. This decision, however, set off an inter-agency feud with the Coast Artillery Corps, which thought that barrage balloons would fit in better with the other anti-aircraft defense items already under their command. The Air Service was given permission to develop barrage balloons for the military. The Army Air Service argued that barrage balloons would be an inexpensive and effective means of protecting strategically important locations, such as the Panama Canal. In 1923, the United States Army decided to study which anti-aircraft defenses would be most effective to develop. military decided that it was important to investigate means of defending areas from aerial attack. An aircraft caught in a cable could be slowed down enough to stall or have a wing torn off.Īfter the First World War ended, the U.S. The balloons themselves could also destroy enemy aircraft, especially at night: the cables that anchored the balloons to the ground were very difficult to see and posed a risk to any aircraft that flew into them. If an enemy aircraft was determined to attack, the balloons forced them to fly at higher altitudes (to fly over the balloons) making them more susceptible to larger caliber anti-aircraft gunfire. Barrage balloons worked as both a passive and active means of aerial defense.įloating barrage balloons over a specific area prevented enemy aircraft from flying close enough to target the area from directly overhead with bombs or strafing fire. Britain invested in them as a means of defending London and other cities from German bombing raids, while France used them to protect strategically important areas, such as railroads and aqueducts, from aerial attacks. The development of barrage balloons began during World War I and was undertaken by many of the European nations in the war. military was not always interested in the barrage balloon for military operations, and the program took several decades to develop. military’s use of balloon technology.īarrage balloons protect dozens of ships on the Normandy beaches as they offload the men, material, and munitions needed to expand the beachhead. They provided critical protection to the ships and soldiers below them from attacks by enemy aircraft, and continue to provide us a glimpse into the U.S. They were, however, vital to the operation, and were brought ashore in the invasion’s first wave by the brave men of the 320th Barrage Balloon Battalion, the only unit comprised entirely of African American soldiers to storm the beach that day. These balloons, known as barrage balloons, may seem at first glance out of place in a major military invasion. Floating above most of the ships, stretching into the distance, are silver oval shaped balloons. The image features several LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) beached along the coast of France while dozens of military vehicles drive off them and thousands of pounds of supplies and equipment are unloaded in order to support the continuation of the invasion. One of the most iconic images of the D-Day invasion was taken shortly after the initial invasion itself.
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