North Queensferry Barrage Balloons – 14

Preparations for D-Day

 
In late 1943 and early 1944, volunteers were sought to operate barrage balloons in the southern counties of England to create a barrage curtain round the war-supply assembly points that would eventually service the Normandy landings on D-Day. Bob volunteered and was transferred to Kent.

Barrage balloons over the hills of Surrey 1944

These barrages also acted as a defence against low-flying V-1 doodle-bug flying bombs which were launched daily in the summer of 1944.

Barrage balloons were also deployed on the Normandy beaches during the invasion of Europe.

By September 1944, the Germans had lost the battle to hold on to Normandy; France was well-nigh liberated and the push towards the east continued.

On 8th September 1944 Battersea Power Station was blown up by the arrival of the first of Hitler’s latest unmanned war device – the V2 ballistic missile. This immediately outmoded the barrage balloon resulting in the redeployment of many personnel to other branches of the RAF – in Bob’s case RAF Transport Command.

In 1945, when the R.A.F. balloon command was disbanded, there were over 3,000 balloons in service with over 33,000 men and women serving.